So judging from the lack of comments, none of you has any Christmas treats to which you are loyal. That's fine. More chocolate oranges por moi.
On to something a little more interesting {
I hope}. I am really struggling with decorating our house for Christmas. Actually, I'm really struggling to decorate our house period.
When we moved in August, we moved into a place with more rooms and space than we had ever had before. So that means we are in need of some furniture. I had big plans for what I wanted/needed/envisioned and have a list at the ready. But then the car disaster happened {
and is, unfortunately, still happening} and all available funds were derailed. And I just couldn't get excited for it.
So the current state of our house is a bit depressing. We need to have a loveseat reupholstered, we need another couch, a new coffee table, a new sofa table, a new bed frame, rugs, rugs, and more rugs, a TV console of sorts, bookshelves, a sideboard, and something to function as a kitchen island. See? Told you we needed a lot of furniture. I really, really, really hate to buy mass-manufactured junk so I've been keeping my eyes peeled in local antique stores and on Craigslist and eBay for pieces that speak to me, but I've had very little luck. And I hate to unpack and find a place for things when I know those places are only temporary until we get the furniture we need. So we're currently living in a state of half-unpacked, half-unfurnished, 99% not decorated. It's no bueno.
Which made Christmas decorating a total snoozefest. I mean, we put up our tree. And it's sparkly and lovely. But, much like all other areas of my decorating life, it's just not quite what I wanted or envisioned. I have an incredibly strong aesthetic in that I can tell you exactly what I do and do not like, what my taste is, and what I want my home to look like. I am HORRIBLE at execution. I waffle between paralyzing fear of doing something that I won't like and biting the bullet, doing it, and having it turn out not quite right. I totally get people who hire interior designers.
So back to our tree. I am somewhere in between the NO THEME!! and THEME!! camps. First of all, I've always known I would be a more-than-one tree kinda gal. Except I have never put up more than one tree. I own more than one. I have the vision for them. I just never do it. I like the idea of our "main" tree being more of a memory tree but with one or two solid colored ornaments all over the tree to make it look cohesive. The rest of them can be themed or color-coordinated to the rooms.
Second, I love the look of a more-is-more tree. You know the ones I'm talking about. TONS of ornaments, LOTS of twinkling lights, garland strewn about. Except our tree was in this weird in-between stage of too much stuff so it looked busy, but not enough stuff so it looked intentional. So I just kind of scaled back and have accepted it for what it is this year.
I realize I am probably WAY overthinking this, but as someone who is really passionate about and fascinated by and loves interior design, it is just so frustrating to not be able to put my aesthetic into actual action in my own home. I grew up dreaming about decorating my home, and now I'm adult and I have a home and I am frozen.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels this way. Help me. Talk me off of the Christmas decorating ledge. Give me some advice about how I shouldn't care so much about what it looks like if the tree is filled with ornaments that have lovely memories attached. Or something like that.
In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of what my fantasy Christmas decor looks like and send an elf my way to make this happen for me.
All images are from my Christmas Pinterest board and, for the most part, can be linked to their sources from there.
8 comments:
Oh. My. Gosh. I totally understand! Thank you for putting all my decorating frustrations into words! The new hubs and I are in a house with many rooms - and some of them are just random and weird and we have no idea what to make of them. But, we have no furniture. So, one room is deamed the "side room" (which holds laundry, the office/craft area, and the first room you enter from the carport). We have a "junk room" for junk (imagine that), and a room that is used as a closet. Plus another extra room that just has a table in it at the moment. No money to buy furniture even if we knew what to buy.
As far as decorating goes, it's pretty much a downer. I've collected a few Christmas decorations over the years, so we put those up, but they really only live in the living room. We got our first tree this year (it's real and smells divine), and it was fun to put together. I'm with you on the many-tree-avenue. My mom has dozens, and I mean dozens, of trees in my parent's house. I like the memory tree, but I feel like those get filled up with children's ornaments... we don't have those yet. So, for the time being, we are a themed-tree home. Red and green. One day, we will have another... possibly many.
I love decorating and I have so many ideas. Funds however, I do not have many of. Frustrating! I guess I have to remind myself that my parent's cozy, warm home was not created over night. It took years of collecting. Mine will get there. In the meantime, I must make the most of what I have and enjoy it. Things are just that - things. Yes, they can create that nice warm, cozy place, but so can family and friends. Ugh. Daily struggle here! Good luck decorating!
I am currently at home and my parents tree is beautiful . Tons of lights and ornaments (majority are vintage glass.) however, it did not look like that when we were younger. It took years to get it so perfect. lord knows next year what my tree will look like! Probably a few lights and handmade ornaments :)
I feel the same way. In my case, it's because I get completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Christmas decorating possibilities and then just don't know what to do. I 'freeze' too. I can't decide on a cohesive theme, but know that I can't incorporate them all. I definitely lean more toward the classic reds and evergreens, but also love the bright pops of the more modern colors too - the pinks, silvers, blues and purples. And those two themes definitely don't mix. Auggggh! Decor stress overload.
I hear you - I do! I hate having a vision and feeling like you have to compromise it because it's not working.
I've gotten lucky and kept my eyes peeled at chains (Bloomington Coat Factory, Badcock Furniture, Ashley's Homegoods) and also some local-ish furniture stores and have been able to find a few chairs where there is only 1 in stock - it doesn't feel AS mass-produced and usually the salesperson is looking to move it off the floor and you can negotiate some.
Maybe you'll have some luck with the over-all decorating after the holidays & sales for the new year.
Good luck!
I have three trees (1 big and two four footers). The big tree is full of all kinds of ornaments with a red velvet ribbon that wraps round and round. My goal for this year is to find a beautiful plaid ribbon to add to it in the opposite direction. We'll see how that goes.
My smaller trees are more cohesive- one has a 12 days of Christmas theme and is pinks, blues, greens, purples. It's in the playroom. The other is all red, clear, and gold ornaments with gold stars and gold and white ribbons around the tree. I love having lots of trees and I'm hoping for a fourth for my kitchen eventually.
I would LOVE an interior decorator. Pinterest gives me such good ideas but I don't know how to execute. We're redoing our kitchen near the end of 2013/beginning of 2014 and I'm definitely getting help with it. I don't want to screw up something so expensive and be sad about how much money we spent and not like it. I love our playroom and our dining room, but I definitely would love help with our family room, our master bedroom and ALL our bathrooms!!!
Aw I totally know how you feel. I had to let go of decorating my whole house. It really does take years to build up Christmas stuff and furniture to make a house feel complete. Wouldn't it be nice to be all pretend designer-y and be like, "ok y'all I'm completing the install on my home and then having it professionally photographed for the final reveal." And then do it again with Christmas decorations. Sigh.
I am still in love with that Southern Living Christmas tree near the stairs. Just love it!
But in my world my three kiddos make a ton of ornaments that they feel NEED to be on our tree and how could I say no to their sweet faces? So we have two trees. One (fake) with mini white lights, glass bulb ornaments and gold ribbon. Second one has C7 colored bulbs and ornaments that are filled with ornaments with family meaning.
Also, we moved from a tiny-tiny townhouse to a four bedroom single home late in 2005. My house is still a work in progress!
My husband and I moved into our current house March 2011 with no furniture save a mattress and a chair. Furniture is expensive and while our house is not empty, there are still so many little details (and pieces of furniture) that we need to 'complete' areas of the house.
My advice is to wait for what you want. There have been many opportunities for me to have bought something to fill the space, but I forced myself to wait and have thus far always been pleased with what I have ended up finding!
Enjoy your first Christmas in your new home. Remember, you are your harshest critic!
Post a Comment