Holiday Home Tour: Christmas at the Cottage

Holiday Home Tour: Christmas at the Cottage

Hello and welcome to the cottage! If you’re new here, I’m Shannon. I’m here today helping to finish up day 5, the last day of the fabulously festive tour of homes coordinated by Jen from Migonis Home!

I’m the little guy on the tour, me and my wee cottage. And you know what? I am totally jacked about that!!

If you have a fab-grand house, that is awesome and I’m so totally happy for you! I’m here representing the little house dwellers out there. I’m the girl in the not new, but not old enough to be chic, regular, everyday-girl house. I’m the cheap & easy girl who walks a fine line between getting the best look I can, while keeping my toes dipped in the pool of reality.

So if you only have so much time (or house) to decorate and a limited budget, it’s nice to meet you! Me too.

Here we go…

Our home feels like Christmas magic to us.. and I hope you enjoy it!

I will absolutely admit to starting my decorating early.

I wanted to enjoy the process, put on Christmas music and have fun while doing it.. instead of feeling like there was a doomsday clock ticking! Best choice ever. I’ll do it again next year too. It’s so much more relaxed and was much more enjoyable. 

My parents are coming up from California for Christmas this year and I wanted to go really “classic Christmas”, so I went red.

(Sorry to my regulars, aqua will be played by red this year but hopes to be back on stage soon. If you need an aqua fix, click here.)

This is our living room on the main floor. We don’t have room for a full sized Christmas tree so I used a table top tree instead. It casts a pretty glow when lit at night and gives off a great Christmas feel!

I did all the regular things in here for Winter, like adding extra throws, which are just fluffed and arranged for pictures. We use them. In fact I will only buy super-soft throws. I saw the cutest metallic dusted cable knit throw the other day, but it was really scratchy! Who wants a scratchy blanket? I don’t care how cute it was. Nope. Not this girl.

And yes, we sit on the sofa and in the big chair, we just pile all the pillows on the ottoman so we can. lol. I am admittedly a pillow whore. It’s my weakness. I have no willpower against a cute pillow.

Or dessert.

Regardless of theme or color story.. I always have scads of candy canes out at Christmas. I love how they look and the holiday feelings they evoke, but I don’t eat them.. so it’s safe for me to have the abundance of sugar laying about! I even use the same canes from year to year. I have to buy fresh ones anyhow though, because Austin loves them and I make sure he knows where the “good” ones are. 

There was a complete craft fail over the anchor decor for my Christmas mantel this year. Ugh. So ugly.

So I asked myself…

Self: What would you do if you didn’t blog?

Me: I’d just do something simple and call it good! 

So I did. And it was fine. And I was not irritated or frustrated… and I even liked it.

Granted… there is an empty hole in the wood bin… lol,  but I think I’ll wrap and place all my gifts in that and on the hearth this year, so no big. Just looks empty for pictures! And I’m in a home tour. But you know what? It just didn’t happen yet. And again… I’m okay with that. Because the alternative is feeling bad, and I don’t want to feel bad. And I especially don’t want to feel bad at Christmas.

So I decided not to.

You should try this trick, it’s great!!

Our main entryway is divided by our farm table, and the sofa table.

Hard to tell, but there is a walkway. Swear.

This can be a busy area, so I kept it pretty low-key on the sofa table. 

I flocked a few trees, used some books and my red candle lanterns.

It feels Wintery and cozy.

My mom and I shopped for just the right shade of blue books when she was here and we decorated together for The 4th of July. (It’s one of our favorite holidays, we host every year!) I think she’ll recognize them. We found some wonderful books that day, in the far back of a musty old antique store, and read inscriptions on the inside covers of many. Even running across one with my grandmothers name in it!  

This is where it comes in handy to have another table, not 5 feet away!

We don’t have a formal dining room, and when we moved to this home I refused to give up either of my dining sets. So the farm table resides in front of the fireplace and our other is in the kitchen proper. Some might not care for the layout, but we make it work for us. We are able to seat 12 comfortably and many more if the weather is nice and we use the sun porch and the lower decks! 

This is my own holiday version of a glass menagerie…

I love, love, love the peppermints, the feathers, the snow.. and the treasure filled vessels.

Nothing you probably haven’t seen before, but looks become classics for a reason. 

The white bottle brush tree is holding our Santa key. I got this when Austin was just little. We had a house without a chimney at the time and this was the special key we left hanging on the front door on Christmas Eve so Santa could get it.

This is one of my very favorite things this year. I always get it out, but having it in the apothecary jar showcases it so much better.. and elevates it closer to how special it feels in my heart. 

Thank you so much for stopping by!

If you’d like to see the rest of the house come by again tomorrow and I’ll share the kitchen and sun room, I didn’t want to photo overload you! Any… more.

I’ll also be doing a break-down “where I got & how much it cost” post. Everyone always seems to like it when I spill all my secrets and let you know just how cheap (my mom says I should say “frugal”) I am.

Wishing you lots of Merry Christmas magic all your own!!

There are 27 other wonderful homes on the tour.. with doors open wide, ready to invite you inside! You’ll find a variety of styles and ideas sure to delight and inspire you and your guests this holiday season.

There is so much to see, I hope you’ll visit and tell them all Hello.

The Happy Housie | Everyday Enchanting | Maison de Pax | Life on Virginia Street | Unskinny Boppy | Setting for Four

rooms FOR rent | Town and Country Living | On Sutton Place | Design, Dining and Diapers | At Home with The Barkers | Cottage in the Oaks

House by Hoff | Jenna Sue Design | Love Grows Wild | Craftberry Bush | All Things G&D | DIY on the Cheap

Rain on a Tin Roof | Making Home Base | The Wood Grain Cottage | Capturing Joy | Making Lemonade

Migonis Home (*the event host) | Just a Girl and Her Blog | Fox Hollow Cottage | City Farmhouse | Ciburbanity

.

Again… thanks so much for touring our home at Christmas

To see part two, and more of our cottage home, click on the photo below.

.

Subscribe for free today to receive all my latest DIY tutorials, decorating ideas, upcoming projects & more, sent right to your in-box!

Join us on our adventures... and let's make our houses "homes" together!

Your email address will never be shared or sold. I promise!