Christmas 2018 Home Walkthrough

I love seasonal decorating. My long term goal is to switch our decor details five times a year: winter, spring, summer, fall, and holiday. Right now, I’ve really only built up the holiday decorations, but I’m slowly filling in those others as well.

When I do Christmas decorating, I like to keep within the character of each room, and just add in little details to bring in some holiday cheer. I don’t want to overwhelm or feel the need to replace any major furnishings or year-round decor decisions.

This year, like most, I picked up a few new decorations, and reworked some old ones. We also had a few additions this year that are repurposed from wedding decorations. It makes me so happy to see those little details around, since the wedding feels like a distant dream at this point!

So let’s get started. Here’s a tour of my apartment’s Christmas decor for this year:

Living & Dining

This apartment has a fairly open floor plan, so the living room, kitchen, and dining room are really one big space. I didn’t want to overwhelm the area, but I do like to use the mantel to balance out the tree on the other side of the room.

I love decorating mantels, and this one as always includes some special little details that really represent us. The book is a childhood favorite of mine, and the light up bottles are recycled from the wedding.

Our tree has no theme, other than just “us.” One day, I’d like to have a display tree in a formal living space, and a family tree like this in the family room. But for now, this tree is perfect. It did fall over a few days after we got it, and I’m not sure it every fully recovered it’s fluff. We left off some of our more fragile ornaments this year just in case it starts to lean again!

The living room couch got an upgrade this year with this sparkly teal pillow that I could just not resist, and this super soft reversible blanket with soft gray snowflakes and sheep skin. Tessa loves cuddling under it!

Behind the couch, I set up a vignette with my favorite new addition from last year: salt dough Christmas cookies! I also love this candle with the berries and leaves in it, but I’ll never light it.

One shelf on one of our bookshelves also got the Christmas treatment. I reused this bowl of gourds from fall and added a pretty gold ribbon. I also love the addition of the Trans Siberian Orchestra CDs. They are one of Kevin’s favorite bands!

The dining table is currently covered in cookies, but is all dressed up in preparation for Christmas dinner. The place mats, napkins, and fresh flowers are from Wegmans, which always has amazing seasonal decor selections. It takes a lot of willpower to walk through that store and not buy all their dinnerware sets.

Guest Room

Our guest room is on the first floor, and it’s one of the rooms that gets the best light, so I hate to close it off. Of course, that means keeping it clean and decorated! I went for some small but powerful additions in this space.

The red pillow and blanket are from HomeGoods, and I like that they aren’t fully seasonal. I bought them for Christmas, but with the idea that they can be used all year round in other spaces around the house.

The runner and this adorable pillow are both from Target’s Opalhouse Christmas line, which I am moderately obsessed with. I love the little print on this runner (it’s actually a table runner!) and the pillow brings just the right amount of joy.

I pull the red into the guest bath as well, with this cute towel set. I love HomeGoods for towels, because they have such a great affordable selection, and you can totally mix and match. You can also see one of my favorite holiday details in this photo: tying random ribbons on things!

Other Spaces

One of my favorite additions this year are the new pre-lit garlands we got from Target. The 20′ one is perfect for the stair banister, and I love the light it adds to the living space and loft.

Also new this year: I added some little details to my office! This room is where I spend most of my time during the day, so it needed it’s own little tree. I kept with the room’s general color scheme of pink and purple with this adorable deer (HomeGoods) and this white tree and ornaments from Target. This whole tree and ornaments cost only $14!

The front powder room is usually decorated in blue, so I brought in a light blue and silver feel with the towels. I just love these reindeer towels, and they pair with the simple white snowflakes so well.

Next Year’s Goals

Hopefully, we’ll be in our own newly purchased house this time next year, which makes it tough to have really specific room-by-room goals. So I’ll just say that next year, I hope to come up with some new arrangements of the decorations we already have to make them fit in the new space.

If we are still in this apartment, then I’d like to spread some more cheer to the upstairs, maybe adding some Christmas touches to our master bedroom and bath, or to the loft.

What’s your favorite piece of new Christmas decor in your home this year?