How do you like to decorate your home for Christmas? I switched things up a little this year with my decor. Since most of our home is open concept, I wanted to have a cohesive Christmas theme going throughout my house. You might have seen a lot of the theme already if you follow me on Instagram, but here is everything put together in one post for some decor inspiration. Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this post to let me know what you think!

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This year I’m celebrating the holidays while pregnant so I started decorating for Christmas very early! Like right after Halloween early… We go out of town for Thanksgiving, so I can’t decorate that weekend, and since I’m more efficient working during nap time, I thought I’d pace myself by starting in the beginning of November and just put stuff up little by little. Am I a crazy Christmas obsessed person? Maybe, but I don’t care because I love the cheerfulness all the decorations bring. I also love all the excitement the decorations bring to my LO (minus the bowl full of broken ornaments of course :)!

I got most of this set up before Thanksgiving, and had every intention of decking the rest of our halls after Thanksgiving, but after taking into consideration how far along I was, and how I wouldn’t want to put a whole bunch of stuff away after the new year, I decided that less would be more this year, and just stuck with what I had already put out. This meant no extra trees, no garland on the railings, etc. A little less cheery than I like, but a lot less for me to do, which is perfect right now because I already feel like I have an endless to do list to take care of before baby #2’s arrival!

RED AND WHITE GINGHAM

Red and White Gingham is my new Christmas theme for the next several years. While I love the neutral white and champagne metallic Christmas looks that are all over the internet, I love the cheerfulness of red decor for Christmas, and want to take the opportunity the season brings to put out as much red as possible.

I love a classic gingham pattern, and looked in several different stores to see what kind of Christmas gingham decor was available. I didn’t really want the country look of all the red and black, and black and white gingham combos that I saw in store, so I knew that I’d probably have to DIY some of the decor to achieve the look that I wanted.

When I came across this RED AND WHITE GINGHAM FABRIC last year browsing on fabric.com (my favorite place to buy fabric), I got inspired and knew that I had to incorporate this pattern into my Christmas decor and here is what I did!

STOCKINGS

Stockings are an easy way to  bring a custom, and personalized look to your Christmas decor. I didn’t want the stockings to be all gingham, so I found a classic, RED VELVET FABRIC to make the stockings out of and used the RED AND WHITE GINGHAM as the liner in the boot so it would pop out of the top of the stocking as an accent.  

Find my EASY STOCKING TUTORIAL HERE.

TABLE RUNNER

Our dining room is open to our living room, so I feel these two rooms need to stay tied together with decor. To do that I incorporated another easy sewing project that anyone can do: a table runner!  This is also an easy way to  customize a look for your home. Find my EASY TABLE RUNNER TUTORIAL here!

I found a few new picks for my dining table’s centerpiece this year, and I really like how it turned out! The picks are a mix from Hobby Lobby and Charlene’s.

If you want to try this simple project, you can find my TABLE RUNNER TUTORIAL HERE.

I didn’t set my dining table because I don’t have a full set of Christmas dishes yet. I actually just started a collection last year! To tell you the truth, there never was a Christmas dish pattern that I really loved until I discovered the Lastra Christmas line by Vietri! These dishes are very simple, but beautiful, and Vietri also makes the Lastra Dishes in all white (and all red) so they’re great to mix and match with as well! I don’t have the white Lastra dishes (if only I had discovered all of these when I was engaged!), but over time, I’d like to maybe transition to them!

SHOP LASTRA DISHES BY VIETRI HERE:

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THE TREE

I had to make sure that our main tree was tied into the theme too, but what way was I going to accomplish this? I knew I could always sew a tree skirt for the tree, but when I found this WIRED GINGHAM RIBBON, I thought that would be a better option because I was ready to change up my old ribbon, and one less sewing project to save me some time sounded really good to me. It was also so cheery, I just loved it!

CLICK HERE for my tutorial for the EASY WAY TO ADD RIBBON TO YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE. 

RIBBON ACCENTS

The GINGHAM RIBBON turned out to be a great idea because it’s an easy way to add a little bit of my theme to other decor throughout my home as well. I did purchase extra ribbon in advance because I anticipated wanting to use it for different things (like adding some to my wreaths and on my railing with garland). I would advise you to do the same thing as well if you find a ribbon that you love because you never know when it will become unavailable!

I replaced the ribbon on my wreaths for the front door with the GINGHAM RIBBON, and also added it to the boxwood wreath on my mantle as well.

NO ONE HAS TIME FOR ALL THAT DIY | HOW DOES SHE DO IT?

“I love these ideas, but I just don’t have time to DIY,” is something that I get a lot from people that read my blog. I also get a lot of, “I could never do that…” as well. I beg to differ, and encourage you to have some faith in your abilities and try something new today!

As long as you have access to a basic sewing machine, you can sew. Aside from a general lesson on how to use a sewing machine when I was a kid, I am pretty much self taught when it comes to sewing. Most of the TUTORIALS I post are very basic, and if you can follow a basic cooking recipe, you can do these projects too! Also, between Pinterest and YouTube, you can teach yourself how to do anything these days!

Don’t sell yourself short. If you can envision something you want to make, you can do it! And the more you try something the better you’ll get.

Think you don’t have the time? Try setting up a place to sew in front of the TV, so you can multi task while watching your favorite programs. Or track the amount of time you spend on your phone, and start setting limits for yourself. You can make time to accomplish everything on your to do list if you can take a good look at how you spend your time and prioritize.

I definitely did not sew all of this at once. After finding my fabric and deciding a theme, I just did little by little here and there throughout the year. Planning ahead and starting projects early so you don’t feel rushed last minute definitely is the way to go! I work, take care of my family, enjoy cooking, gardening, and exercising, and still find the time for my DIY (although I still have a long list of projects on my to do list)! It’s all a balancing act, but somehow I still manage to get stuff done.

I did set up a little bit more Christmas decor in our main hang out room, but it is such a disaster zone most of the time with kids toys I did not include that decor in this post. 😉

SHOP MY CHRISTMAS ACCENTS DECOR HERE:

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YOU CAN ALSO FIND MY GIFT GUIDES HERE.

LITTLE  BY LITTLE

Our tree is about ten years old, so I think next year I’m going to have to throw a new tree into the mix along with some other ideas that I have to add to my new theme. Just like when it comes to decorating my house, I like to update and add things little by little. One day it will all come together! Stay tuned!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!