I love decorating for the Holidays. It is even more fun as the boys get older and seeing their excitement and getting into the holiday spirit. The decor makes everything feel cozy and makes me want to entertain family and friends over this festive season.
Over on my IG page @amyepeters I’m hosting a hefty giveaway with Kent Building Supplies. I’m really excited to partner with them for this holiday post and giveaway – be sure to check it out!
This month we’ve been busy with a little bathroom reno (I’ll be blogging all of that too!) so my focus has been there but I couldn’t resist starting early by adding a few Holiday touches throughout our home.
Each year I love collecting and adding a few new pieces to my holiday decor. When I pull out the boxes it is always fun to reminisce about the memories of our past christmases as a family. Last winter we completed our family room so it was a great opportunity to add another tree to our home since we spend so much time down here as a family. We added this beautiful 7 foot flocked tree. Kent has a wonderful variety of beautiful, quality faux trees and various sizes.
Since we like to put up our tree early, we go with a quality faux tree since a real tree won’t last that long. This one is a great price point and lovely quality. It is prelit, flocked and also comes with pine cones. Personally I do NOT enjoy adding lights to a tree, so a pre-lit tree certainly makes life easier. A good quality faux tree is worth splurging!
I like to keep the tree bare for a couple weeks. The tree really looks incredible with just lights. I really love the simplicity of the flocked tree on its own. Then early December we will decorate the tree as a family. We still like to keep it fairly simple so the boys don’t grab ornaments and toss them… Boys. *Que endless empty threats of “Santa’s Watching”. We like shatterproof ornaments such as these ones.
To make it nice and cozy I added a jute rug I previously owned and a blanket as a tree skirt around the base of our tree.
Over the next week or so I will finish decorating but I always love adding little touches of Christmas throughout each room in our house. This is where I like to add real greenery since we have a faux tree. I also love placing mini pine trees in pots in every room.
DIY Garland:
I created this gorgeous garland and LOVE how it turned out. It is so lush and full. It was incredible simple to do, so much so that I won’t go into a lot of detail but I will share what I did to create the garland for my mantle.
I won’t lie, I kind of winged it. I didn’t even measure. I started with an 8 foot faux garland that was only $4.99. Then I added then I added real greenery so it is a little fuller and so the color is more natural. It doesn’t hurt that it smells SO good. I got bundles of real pine + fur branches at Kent, but you could totally forage some from your property. I don’t have any pine I’m willing to cut so I crabbed 2 bundles of pine and 2 fur to complete this mantle. I used command hooks, to secure the garland to the mantle. Using the faux garland as a base is a simple hack. It is the anchor and a great starting point, then I placed the larger branches throughout while mixing pine and fur throughout, you can even use the wire within the faux garland to wrap around the real greens to help them stay in place. To secure them I also used these reusable decorating ties. When I was almost done, I stepped back a few feet to look where the garland seemed thin, then I placed shorter pieces to fill it in.
It can get a little messy so to help keep it from drying out too quickly I soaked my greenery in water for 24 hours and I will spray my greenery with my misting bottle I use for my plants. I caution you not to over spray them because you don’t want any water damage caused by too much or old water. A friend suggested putting plastic wrap down to help prevent any potential water damage cause by spraying the greens. In a few weeks I will swap out the real branches for a few fresh ones to get us through to Christmas. While I was in store at Kent today picking up some supplies for my bathroom I saw they had fresh magnolia leaves so I’m thinking I will add some throughout my mantle.
I’m so happy with how the garland turned out and it wasn’t expensive to do! I will add some candlesticks and our stockings come December. I really enjoy getting a jump start on our decorating in November!
For a little extra twinkle throughout your holiday decor, you can add these cute lights on shelves, mantles, picture ledge and dressers just to add a warm glow and a touch of magic.
These bottle brush trees are always a favorite. Anything mini is adorable but they come in all sorts of sizes and look great just about anywhere. These have been around for decades and yet continue to be so popular. I mean, who doesn’t love them?! I’ve always wanted to create a little display of them inside mason jars. I grabbed a 21 pack for $14.99.
Get the look: Lemax Santa Truck Get the look: Bottle Brush Trees
Get the look: pompom garland Get the look: small blue spruce
Large blue spruce
I’ve always envied gorgeous holiday front stoops. We haven’t gotten to this point yet – we had some pretty serious plumbing problems over the weekend but I plan to use planters from the Kent Greenhouse and bundles of greens, large pine cones, and birch logs, berries and ornaments. I’ll just stick everything in the planters and tweak everything as I go. They also have some lovely pre-made Holiday planters in store.
These gorgeous prelit 4′ Porch Tree with a whiskey barrel base are such amazing quality. The mini trees are actually outdoor porch trees which run on batteries. Since I haven’t gotten around to our outdoor decor I have found a nice home for it in my living room. These would be really cute in a child’s bedroom too.
If you’d like to shop this post please click the links throughout the post or some links below. Please note some items are only available in your local Kent Stores. I hope you enjoyed my little DIY garland tutorial and how I minimally decorate for the holidays during the month of November.
xo Amy
SHOP THE POST:
Angie says
Hello;
Lovely tips in here !!
We use live pine and greens; never thought of misting them!!! Definitely gonna give it a go and see how amazing my house smells throughout the season not Judy the first week
I would love to know where you got those gorgeous circle Pom Pom throw pillows!? They would looks pretty perfect in my salon!
Amy says
Hi Angie,
Thank you so much!! the pom pillows are from Anthro. I’ve linked them in another blog post. They are so lovely!! I’m hoping to get a few more:)
Lauren says
Love all of it, Amy! Maybe I missed it, but do you have a source for the light colored sofa/sectional? We are looking for a similar style. Thanks!!!
Amy says
Hi Lauren, thank you!! It is called the Erin Sectional from Structube 🙂
Lauren says
aw thank you! i wish they shipped to US!
Abdeee.org says
geajhm
Maria says
I love the simple neutral decor!! It is elegant and timeless.
Thanks for sharing!
Artvincho says
These dried orange garland s are so easy to make, they smell delicious and I love the vibrant colour! I also love that you can compost them at the end of the season!
Denalle says
What is the brand and color name of the stone you used on your fireplace? it’s beautiful !
Amy says
HI,Thank you!! The paint colour is Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore. The brick was originally another colour and we had the whole thing painted:)
ปั้มไลค์ says
Like!! Great article post.Really thank you! Really Cool.
Kristen says
Hi! What color did you paint your living room and what color does it pull? It’s lovely!
Thanks, Kristen
Amy says
Hi Kristen, we painted our entire house Chantilly lace by Benjamin Moore
Kellie says
Hi Amy! Can you share where you found the round tray on your coffee table?
Thanks!
Amy says
Hi Kellie, it is from structube – it was sold in a set but I don’t think they have it anymore 🙁 Rug and weave has very similar ones I think!
Sarah says
Love these ideas, especially the garland and bottle brush trees! I kind of went all out this year with holiday decorations and even had to get a carpet cleaning to clean up all the glitter residue, holly berries, and other messes from the decor. Next year, I’m taking a note from your blog and decorating minimally!