422 13th St Xmas House Tour: Living Room

Judging by the number of views...the cloffice post wasn't what you're interested in. Sorry. It still had to be documented. ;)

On to the living room!!!

This room is a beast to get 'right.' I loved spending our nights together on our couch watching movies with nothing but Christmas lights on. I am having the HARDEST time taking it down. I don't want to say goodbye to it all for ten long months.

I will say...I think I'm ready to undecorate a little earlier than usual this year because I hit the ground running on November 1st...an entire month earlier than I typically decorate because we host Thanksgiving (we didn't this year). I don't regret it at all! Josh kept saying, "It's too early. This isn't right. I'm still working." But I got to 'perfect' everything and then enjoy it all SO MUCH MORE this way. I HATE the idea of hosting Thanksgiving in a Christmas Wonderland, but that just might be what happens next year.

There are a LOT of pictures coming your way...so if you want to know how I did something or have questions on where I found/bought anything, just comment or message me because I can't go into detail describing it all. ;)

This picture was snapped post-Christmas so the pretties under the tree are a little jumbled and doesn't look quite as perfect as it did pre-Christmas.

Did I already post my recipe for garlands? Here it is again:
1. Garland
2. Lights
3. Magnolia leaves (or whatever 'sprig' is your fave!)
4. Beads (they add so much sparkle)
5. Hymnals (texture & depth)
6. Berries (color!)
7. Banner (optional)

There's a shot of my pretty wrapping! Some years I've put my nativity under the tree, but thought that would just be 'asking for it' this year. I'm proud to report that sweet little MaverickWes did not break a SINGLE THING! ALL. THE. PRAISE. HANDS. 

I Instagram way too many pictures of our tree. I know ok.

These stockings were one of my favorite additions this year. Now that we're a 'real' family...you know with a kid and everything...I decided we were going to start doing stockings the way a 'real' family should. And filling them for my boys was so fun! And then going to Target on our Christmas Day to pick out goodies for my stocking because Josh forgot... was also so fun! ;)

Haha there's my lone empty stocking. Josh really did feel bad, but I was on a high from rolling out my new rug so the empty stocking didn't really matter. However...I will say, a shopping spree to Target to choose my own stocking stuffers was so fun, it's darn near close to becoming a tradition of its own.

I slept on the floor by our tree one night when we had too many house guests...and it was as magical as it was awful. I'm fairly certain I didn't sleep a single second all night. #worthit

Last Christmas I did an in depth post on how I go about 'building' our tree (and yes, it was written and posted in February). I'll leave out the details on this post, but link the old one here. I used the same approach again this year.

Already experiencing withdrawals and it's not even put away yet.

This shelf is so much easier to decorate now that it's WHITE! I just used a good mixture of vintage with new things to get the look I wanted on each of our shelves. I do my best not to overcrowd them because there's so much going on in this room. 

...because Christmas is always prettier at night.

...and because this is just a cute picture of our happy buddy.

Made this tree a week before Christmas and it might be one of the best I've ever made. You read that right...made! With the help of my sister-in-law, her glue gun, and the time we have while our babies nap...we made three of these in one easy afternoon. Then I just decorated it with odds and ends I 'borrowed' from other places in the house. I should probably post a tutorial on that sometime soon too to save you all from ever buying another tiny tree from a store again.

Another shot of the mini-villages I made this year. This is the one I kept for myself, but the rest did look really cute sitting around our house in the meantime. ;) This is a pretty old box I rescued from my mother-in-law's 'trash' pile and I think it fits in our house perfectly!

This is such a naughty wreath. It's always falling down and shedding approximately one million pieces of glitter and crystals each time it falls. I'm not even sure how it still looks this good because it happens at least once (or twice!) a year. Anyway, after falling down once I decided it should go somewhere other than directly above my Willow Tree nativity. Hung on the window above the tv (with TWO Command Hooks) is where it spent the majority of the holiday season.

Another one of my favorite things! These big jars filled with vintage ornaments, wrapped in garland and lights...mmmmmmmm. Yes. Already missing these too.

I realized I don't have a picture of our TV/shelf wall as a whole...and that's because it's nearly impossible to get good picture with all the windows in our house. Too sunny during the day and too many things reflecting at night. But if you've been reading around here for any period of time (or follow along on Insta) you know what it looks like. So here are the pretty 'up close' pics of each shelf.

I keep plenty of pictures in frames throughout the year (haha, that's an understatement) so swapping them out with each of our (seven!) Christmas cards is pretty easy to do. 

While I wander back and forth working on these shelves I have a couple main goals:
1. Spread out the black frames
2. Spread out the shiny ornaments
3. Spread out the mason jars
4. Add berries wherever things seem too 'bare'
5. Symmetry without looking too 'matchy matchy'

Josh made the mistake of telling me his favorite thing about my decorating was the 'old stuff'...at that time we didn't have very much 'old stuff' at all. In fact, he said this ^^^ box was his favorite part out of everything in our whole house and it was the only one I had...

...I have since, fixed that problem. ;) And maybe taken the box collecting to an extreme. But aren't they cute?!

Growing my old book collection, one $ book at a time.

I love the memories we recall about each Christmas card when they're displayed this way. This was the year we bought our acreage and nearly killed ourselves painting and cleaning and drywalling during the holiday season. ;)

See what I mean about the old books?! I had nothing else to put on this shelf, so I just started stacking books and it worked!

After I wrote all of that about the shelves, I ended up snapping a picture anyway. They're starting to look a little bare as a snatch things to pack away, but you get the idea.

Probably more pictures than you cared to scroll through, but this room is the HEART of our home...it's not huge or furnished with expensive things. But it's where we play and cuddle and read and Netflix and sing and nap and fall asleep watching Christmas movies and I love it so much.

MmB