CHRISTMAS AROUND OUR HOME: LIVING ROOM

December 15, 2017
The time to deck the halls is upon us, and I couldn’t be more excited to share our festive living room with all of you, in fact, this is the first post highlighting the interior of our home.  I moved in a little over ten months ago after our wedding, and the decorating of our home has taken a while as we both figured out what our couple’s style is.  FYI our guest bedroom is still a disaster zone and will be for the foreseeable future.  Yikes!  
 Over my Thanksgiving break, I transformed our traditional-farmhouse-modern-inspired living room into the winter wonderland dream you see today.  Jeff and I our enjoying our first Christmas together as a married couple and we are hosting the whole family this year, so I wanted to make sure that our home looked extra festive.  This year I was inspired to decorate with forest green, black and white, with a few pops of red.  I have always felt that green was the underutilized color of the holiday, and it goes no nicely with the warm tones of our house. 
 So grab a warm holiday drink (winter dreams tea lattes from Coffee Bean are my favorite) and let’s take a peek into our living room all decked out for the Christmas season.
Our living room is fairly small, so my main focus in decorating for the season was to keep it from feeling overcrowded and still leave plenty of room for the pups to run around. 
For our couch, I swapped out our neutral-toned pillows for a mixture of velvet forest green pillows, and two Christmas pillows from the Hearth and Hand collection.  Our couch is actually a love seat, so the three pillows were a perfect fit. 
I am still looking for something to hang above the couch.  In the pictures, you really notice how plain these white walls are—perhaps a wreath would work.  Any thoughts?
 The armchair is usually where the pups sit at night, on their favorite blanket of course, so this area needs to remain simple so as not to crowd out the pups—or offer them temptations to chew….  
To the right of the couch is my little reading corner.  For Christmas, it is decorated with a few festive items including a bird-wood figurine that my Grandparents made over 25 years ago as Christmas presents for their family and friends.  It is a treasured item.  Adjacent to this is my bear nativity which is so cute, and a felt basket (from the dollar spot at Target) filled with the Christmas cards we have received.  I think next year we will have to find a better way to display and enjoy over the whole season the cards we receive. 
To the left of our couch is a little coffee table.  It is usually stacked with papers I’m grading and a glass of iced tea.  I love the little glass Christmas tree filled with peppermint Hershey kisses.  We all can use a kiss at Christmas time! 
The outside of our condo isn’t decorated.  I find it hard to be inspired for that area due to the HOA rules and regulations, so instead, I have our Christmas wreath hanging in the inside so that we can enjoy it, and it breaks up our otherwise all-white wall.
Next to the front door is our kitchen, which is rather large for a condo.  Then we have a gallery wall and antique console.  Our gallery wall was inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Garvin & Co, who did something similar above her console.  Normally you will find a pup or two sleeping under the console on their little faux fur rug next to our basket of blankets.  I always have blankets on hand since I’m usually always freezing while my husband is always warm. 
Our Christmas tree is my favorite part of the living room.  First thing I do when I come home from work is turn on the lights to enjoy the soft glow of the tree lights.  Our tree is filled with ornaments which have special meaning to me.  My parents have been purchasing ornaments for me every year since I was born.  I usually picked out a dog ornament. 
 Jeff and I have now started a tradition to buy each other an ornament as a stocking gift for each other.  This is our first year doing this, but I am so excited to be starting our own Anderson family traditions so that before long we will have a tree full of our own years’ memories.  To complete the look, I have a simple white tree skirt under the tree and ball ornament.  This year I also added the “Mr. and Mrs.” ornament since it is our first Christmas together as a married couple.  I also DIY’ed my own Hearth and Hand inspired ball ornaments, and they match the tree skirt!
 The corner of our living room is a little wonky.  Originally in this corner was a fireplace, but the previous condo owners removed it to put in a sound system for their TV.  Oh, how I wish it was still a fireplace, but in the meantime, until we can convert it back to a fireplace I have done my best to hide it as one.  We have hung our stockings but still need to add the pups’ stockings as to the collection.  After all, in our household, Santa Paws comes to visit.  On our “mantel” I have a lovely garland that matches our wreath flanked by our two little mice friends. 
 Do you remember the poem The Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore?  These little mice friends remind me of the opening line, “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse ….”  They add a cute little addition to our Christmas decor.  Plus, the pups are always curious who the little creatures are looking down at their basket of toys.
The halls are decked, the Christmas music has been playing and it’s officially the most wonderful time of the year!  I hope you enjoyed the walk around our living room.  It is small but cozy and is my favorite room of our little home.  
At night I usually unwind from the day by lighting a candle, enjoying some tea, watching a Christmas movie and cuddling with the pups and my sweetie on the couch.  Merry Christmas Friends!  Wishing you all a wonderful and blessed holiday season. 
Product Source List:
Couch, Ikea
Armchair, Ikea
Floor Lamp, Target
Shelving Unit, Ikea
Wreath. Target
Tree Skirt, Target
White Christmas Stocking, Target
Green Christmas Stocking, Target
Garland, Target
Merry Christmas Pillow, Target
Wreath Pillow, Target
Forest Green Pillows, Ikea
Coffee Table Basket, Crate & Barrel
Faux Fur Throw, Target
Sitting Mouse Figure, Micheal’s
Standing Mouse Figure, Micheal’s
White Poinsettias, Ikea
Planter, Target
Picture Frame, Target
Wicker Basket, Target
Gold Metal Basket, Target
Pink Botanical Print, Minted
Blue Botanical Print, Rifle Paper
Always You Print, Etsy

Leslee

Hi, I’m Leslee the voice behind Chic Ideology, a west coast lifestyle blog inspired by creativity and beauty I find in the city around me.

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