Dare to Deck the Halls: Christmas Vignette

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t do much holiday decorating. After 5 years of marriage, last year was the first time we ever had a Christmas tree (when you live in a shoebox-sized apartment and eat mostly student-loan-flavored Ramen, it’s kind of hard to get up the motivation/funds to decorate the aforementioned shoebox). But since this is our first Christmas in our new house, and we finally have some space and slightly less poorness, I knew the time had come. Time to stop being a grinch and start decorating a bit for Christmas. It. Has. Been. Awesome.

Here’s what I came up with to Christmas-ify the buffet table in my living room (and luckily, my decorating falls right in line with this coming week’s Dare to DIY theme: Deck the Halls).

I’m awfully pleased with it. I think for this entire first year in our new house, I’ll just continue being overly-impressed with myself for doing totally average things that I’ve never done before due to lack of space/house/money/etc. Don’t burst my bubble, I like it in here.

It all started with this little reindeer . . . I snatched it up in an instagram sale from Nicole (here are her blog and shop) and decided to let it be the inspiration for all of my Christmas décor. I love that it’s modern and fun, but still has an old-fashioned, rustic, traditional feel to it. I figured that would make a good décor theme—modern woodland? Fresh rustic traditional? Do these count as theme names?

It looked kinda teensy and lonely on that window all by itself, so I layered it on top of a wreath that had been hanging in my bedroom. It’s one of those DIY coffee filter wreaths you’ve probably seen all over the place. I love all the texture between the ruffly wreath and the reindeer itself, and a little burlap runner on the top of the buffet adds some more homespun rustic texture as well.

I thought some little trees would fit the whole modern woodland look nicely. But those styrofoam ones at the craft store are ridiculous. I’m not paying that much just to do a DIY project. Isn’t saving money practically the whole point of doing crap yourself? It is for me, anyway. So I made these bad boys out of posterboard and covered them with fabric, and I love how they came out! Pre-made cones this large would have cost me a small fortune (goodbye Forrest’s college fund), but altogether, the 3 of these cost something like $6-10 total.

On the other end of the table I’ve got a lamp and Scentsy warmer that are always there . . . I just tossed in a little basket full of ornaments, and added some felt flowers to the lampshade. I’ll show you in another post how I attached the flowers to make them completely removable without damaging the shade. I kind of feel like a genius for thinking this up. And I’m purposely not googling it, because even if someone else thought of it first, I’d like to maintain the illusion that I am creative and original, thank you very much.

I sewed together a little garland made from circles punched out of an old book (after cutting and sewing so many circles, I feel like I’ve read A Farewell to Arms . . . war, a lot about someone named Catherine, blah blah blah. Literature shmiterature.) and strung it behind the wreath, along with a super-long matching garland to go around the Christmas tree (which I am apparently incapable of taking a decent picture of, so you’ll just have to take my word for it: it looks nice).

And before you even enter the house and spot my lovely vignette, I kept up the rustic theme for the front door with a homemade and homey-looking star wreath.

How cute is that? I’ll share more details on it later, too. I can’t say I’m a big fan of our 90s-relic front door, but I do love all the light that comes in through that goofy mottled glass portion. And it looks an awful lot better with that cute star wreath hanging there.

So in conclusion, after 5 years of a very Grinchy attitude towards decorating, I can totally see why people love Christmas decorating and put so much effort into it. This is super fun, and it’s going to be a sad, sad day when I have to take my little Christmas vignette down.

I can’t wait to see what you’ve made to deck your halls on Monday!

Make sure to stop by and visit Décor and the Dog, NewlyWoodwards, and Two Twenty One to see their Dare to DIY: Deck The Halls projects, too!

I’m linking this project up to Home Stories A to Z, Tatertots and Jello, House of Hepworths, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tidy Mom, Liz Marie Blog, Craftomaniac, The Shabby Nest, Positively Splendid, Whipperberry, Funky Junk Interiors, Classy Clutter, Today’s Creative Blog, Uncommon Designs, Live Laugh Rowe, Miss Mustard Seed, and Serenity Now.