Winter Living Room Tour

Well I've un-decked the halls for what I call "phase one" of transitioning from Christmas into winter. I find it too depressing to remove all traces of Christmas at one time, and since many decorations can work well for winter decor, I leave a few things out through Valentine's Day. Once again I missed an opportunity to participate in the blog open house tours, but I thought I'd invite you in on this blustery, snowy KY morning. 

Welcome!

This spot on the couch is my favorite way to wake up and start my morning right in front of the fireplace while watching deer out my front window. This morning it's the cardinals who are entertaining me while the snow gently falls.

 We love our home but it doesn't photograph well due to lighting. The snow gave me a bit more light than usual so I started snapping.

In contrast to our previous home with all whites and feminine shabby decor, this house is much more masculine and rich with lots of dark, original woodwork. And even though it is quite larger than our last cottage, it is extremely warm and cozy.

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 I adore this bookshelf which belonged to my great, great Grandfather. It's had a recent makeover with chalk paint and no one can believe it's almost 100 years old. Standing beside is my favorite Santa who I think of as "Old Man Winter" after Christmas to give me a bit more time to enjoy him.

My adopted garden deer statue, old tarnished trophies and chalkboard vignette is out all year but it works especially well for winter.

The deer urn is one of my favorite yard sale finds. 

My mantel is decorated with an assortment of antique frames and mirrors as a permanent display, so I just change it up through the seasons for interest by adding little things. My bronze horse, a wintry German Santa and a vintage postcard of children playing in the snow are my early January touches. 

I haven't done many posts on this house yet. We just had our one year anniversary of living here and all the decor just started coming together in late fall, so this may be the first tour for some of my readers, and some may be surprised that I chose such bold wall color. Our living room color was chosen after researching period accurate colors for mid-1920's homes. So different from the neutral grays and greiges that are popular right now. I originally tried out several trendy colors but they did nothing for the house. I actually had to hand mix a few colors to get the color to look exactly like the historic color I wanted and it was the right choice for this house, it truly came alive with a historic feel once the walls were painted and I love how my shabby peices pop.

This old buffet is my favorite statement piece. Actually it's my favorite piece. I can't believe I've never posted about it before, but I digress. This year I displayed my German Belsnickles for Christmas along with vintage tinsel and shiny Brite ornaments in the garland but I replaced them with the large snowballs for winter and decided to keep the Santas out a bit longer.

Icicle ornaments, silver Mercury beads, woodsy greenery, rusty bells and rustic antlers evoke a winter feeling.

Love these sweet vintage deer wishing us all a Happy New Year!

One of my favorite gifts this year is this hand carved gnome door that my father-in-law made. Intended for outside but for now it makes a lovely addition to my winter woodland scene.

I also keep my greenery on the banister for winter. I just remove the ribbons and bulbs and anything that is too Christmasy. An old sled and skates are quintessential winter props in any vintage junk decorator's home.

On the other side of the staircase is our office which I will show you in an upcoming post. My blogger app is acting up so this seems like a good place to stop for now. I hope you enjoyed the living room tour today! You can see a bit more of what we've done in other rooms in previous posts. I hope you'll check them out. Not only did I use a bold wall color in my living room, but I also used wallpaper in my dining room. No regrets!

Come back and visit soon!

Amber

Parties:

http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/2016/01/whats-it-wednesday-199.html?m=1

http://www.adelightsomelife.com/2016/01/home-and-garden-thursday-131.html#comments

http://jannolson.blogspot.com/2016/01/share-your-cup-thursday-180.html?m=1

http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/2016/01/wow-us-wednesdays-256.html?m=1

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/2016/01/feathered-nest-friday_14.html?m=1

Repurposed Antique Fireplace Cover To Chalkboard

I know, I know. You want before pics! I just jumped right into this project and before I knew it I had finished so I don't have any, but I can describe it for you.

I saw this very old, chipping, dirty fireplace cover at a consignment store way back in the summer. I didn't want to mess with it because it was in bad shape, chipping and painted Pepto pink!  However the cover was still in the shop when I dropped some things off a couple of weeks ago. I looked it over more closely and noticed the awesome shield design and other cool details.

 I already had a contractor garbage bag in my car, so I asked the the associate to bag it up for me. I'm really sensitive to dust mites, molds and anything else so I didn't want to touch it. The associate obliged and my sweet husband handled it for me when I got it home. Once it was shop-vac(ked) I just painted the whole thing with some homemade chalk paint. 

I took this grate thingy from the center and filled the hole with my "chalkboard" which is actually just a black foam poster board from Jo-Ann Fabric. I just stuck it on the back wedging it into some little metal notches. No cutting. No glue. It just worked. I'm sure you could cut and hot glue to fit whatever opening you need though. Then I drew my "Noel" as on a normal chalkboard. 

I copied my hand lettering from this ornament. I just free handed instead of messing with a printable but there are tons of free printables you can download if you want.

I was even able to clean up messes with a damp q-tip like on a regular chalkboard. 

Even up close you can't tell it's a foam board. With my coupon it was only around $3.00. I don't think it can be erased but the back is blank so I'll probably flip it over after Christmas and do a non-seasonal design. Easy! 

The house is really coming together now. I hope you'll stop back in next weekend for my full Christmas tour.

Hope you like it!  Do you think we will get sick of chalkboards anytime soon? I'm still loving them!

 A Merry Christmas to you!

Amber

Parties:

Show and Share http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/2015/12/show-and-share-no291.html?m=1

Vintage Inspiration Party http://knickoftime.net/2015/12/vip217-christmas-roundup.html

Make it Pretty Monday http://www.thededicatedhouse.com/2015/12/make-it-pretty-monday-week-160.html?m=1

Feathered Nest Friday http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/2015/12/feathered-nest-friday_10.html?m=1

Holiday Home Sneak Peak

Hello fellow busy bloggers!! Today I'm sharing some photos of some of my Christmas decorations. I'll be doing a home tour for all the linky blog parities on Friday and Saturday so I hope you'll come back! Today's posts will just be photos but I'll elaborate more on the home tour. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. Do you like it so far? We moved in right before Christmas last year and it was rushed, so I really feel like this is the first "decorated" Christmas here. The home is a lot different than our last with all the rich, dark wood and colors, it's been a fun challenge to incorporate my shabby decor but it's coming together. I really hope you'll come back next weekend for the tour!

Merry Christmas!

Amber

Getting Ready For Thanksgiving

Hello friends! I'm super excited for Thanksgiving this year since it will be the first one in our new house and with my new double convection oven! Today I'm going to be going over my store list and checking it twice and maybe I'll even head out to try to get most of it bought to avoid the last minute chaos. I really love Thanksgiving and I don't do Christmas beforehand. I have just a few things out this year and it's all that's really needed to add Thanksgiving beauty to our home. 

I just created a little junk vignette around my chalkboard on the big buffet in the front room. Love it! Easy and quick.

On a small side table I grouped my favorite turkey tureen, a yard sale pheasant my mom just surprised me with, a Jim Shore Scarecrow and some various pumpkins and gourds. I decorated my little ivory tree with leaves and mini-gourds. We recently repainted our living room with a historic 1920's color, (I actually ended up having to make it from several colors to get the color I wanted) it's a dark rusty orange so all of my fall decorations look great.

 

I've messed around with the buffet in my living room several times trying to find the perfect way to display this awesome $5 yard sale turkey I found a couple of weeks ago.

I got rid of tons of fall decorations when we moved, but I couldn't part with these vintage Gurney turkey candles. They always look so sweet grouped with my brown transferware and fall dishes.

I also kept all of my antique turkey platters but they are still packed away. I was missing them and contemplating digging them out but I saw this one at a thrift store and decided it would be enough to satisfy my turkey platter fix for this year, and saved me the hassle of unpacking. 

Outside I've cleaned up all of the summery decorations and packed them away. Pots are being cleaned and the gardens cleared out and leaves raked. I'm still enjoy the last of the herbs and pumpkins through Thanskgiving.

The Rosemary is wonderful and I have been using it in my homemade simmers to keep the house smelling fall wonderful and fresh.

Are you ready for Thanskgiving? I can't wait!

Amber