Mad for Plaid: The 2018 Holiday Home Tour

Welcome to my holiday home!

It’s been two years since I hosted a full-blown Christmas home tour here on the ol’ blog.

As I was hustling to take photos of my house on Sunday before the last of the sunlight faded away, I was cursing myself for signing up for a home tour this year. Now that I’m back to work full time, I leave the house just as the sun is rising and get home well after it sets. Taking photos in the dark doesn’t produce quite the same quality images that broad daylight shots give me.

Now I remember why I wanted to be a full-time blogger in the first place. 😉 Being home during the day is kind of essential when your home is your best model.

But this year I decided to hop back on the welcome wagon and share my Christmas decorating ideas like a good design blogger should.

I really do miss sharing these home tour events, so I’m honored to be a part of this beautiful Home for the Holidays tour this week along with a bunch of my amazing blog friends.

In an effort to keep it as stress-free as possible, I set aside my need for perfection and re-used a lot of my fall decor that was already sitting on the fireplace. If you have been paying attention you would probably know that I keep repeating this decor recycling trick for many years now. That white tin square has been the backdrop for pretty much every mantel pic since I’ve moved in this house.

These brass bells were on my fall mantel, and they stuck around for the Christmas one, too. The giant jingle bell in the center is new, and it made enough of an impact that I didn’t spend a lot of time decorating with much else.

In January I declared that my word of the year for 2018 was “Hygge”, which I explained over in this post. 

Hygge is a Danish word that basically means comfort, warmth, coziness, ambience and companionship during the deepest, darkest, and coldest parts of winter. I’ve tried to live this work intentionally this year, although many days I lost my comfort underneath piles of laundry and dirty dishes.

These birch logs have sat inside the metal orb on my hearth all year long as a little hygge reminder. The burlap basket underneath Christmas tree made an encore appearance as well. The only thing new here is the Polar Express train that we setup for Caroline to play with around the tree.

She did play with it. For about four minutes.  And now it’s just sitting there for looks.

Over on the coffee table, I’ve put a bunch of birch log candles inside copper trays.

The holiday hygge game is strong with this coffee table.

But since I am a blogger and I have a reputation to try to salvage, I did splurge on a few new things this year.

My most favorite new decorations are all these cute plaid pillows!

I’ve been mad for plaid for a few years now, but when I saw these buffalo check pillow set at TJMaxx and the JOY cable knit/ pom-pom pillows from MudPie, I knew I needed all of them. Plus I caught a crazy good Black Friday sale on the Joy pillows at a little boutique store and got a BOGO! Even better.

Maybe it’s the Outlander lover in me, but I keep coming back to plaid.

As you can see from this home tour, I still like things that are rustic and junky and a lil’ bit on the cluttered side. My home is filled with treasures that I love, and I try my best to display them in a pretty way without going overboard.

But, sometimes I cannot help myself and stuff just spills out over every horizontal surface in my house.

My little white ceramic Christmas tree with multicolored lights reminds me of my Granny, so I display it proudly each year.

My Christmas tree is not perfectly decorated, but instead covered with ornaments that mean something special to us. Every year as we decorate it we get to walk down memory lane and talk about the vacation or event where we bought the ornament. Reminiscing about old memories while making new ones is what Christmas is all about.

Thank you all SO much for stopping by and visiting my holiday home tour this year. I miss you all terribly and wish I had more time to spend talking about everything and nothing like the good old days. Hopefully 2019 will bring a fresh new wave of inspiration to my life and I’ll feel like sharing ALL of it with you! 🙂

Love you guys!

Beth

PS-Don’t miss the other homes on the tour! {and a giveaway!}

Today I’m joining in on the Home for the Holidays Christmas home tours with my great blogging friends! If you’re visiting from another home on the tour, please stop by the comments and say hello so I’ll know who sent ya. ALL the homes this week have been absolute stunners, so you really need to go check them out if you haven’t already.

Friday

Housepitality Designs

UnSkinny Boppy

Starfish Cottage Blog

Here is the line up for the week:

Monday

Maison de Cinq * My Soulful Home * French Garden House * Savvy Southern Style

Tuesday

So Much Better with Age * Cynthia Weber Designs * At the Picket Fence

Wednesday

Becky’s Farmhouse * Love of Home

Thursday

Little Farmstead * Our Southern Home * Celebrating Everyday Life

Friday

Starfish Cottage Blog * Housepitality Designs * UnSkinny Boppy

Since we love our readers and want to give back this season, we have an AMAZING giveaway for you to enter!