This morning I woke up to find my beautiful Christmas tree lying on the floor; broken decorations on the hardwood, pine needles everywhere, and a soaking wet carpet. Before we went out to buy a new stand I leaned the tree in the corner to keep it steady and took this picture of our chaotic living room. Definitely not holiday ready.
It was an absolute disaster! But this sad story does have a happy ending: our tree is happily resting in the new stand and our apartment is holiday-ready. What a transformation!
The Tree
We bought our tree last weekend for $20 at IKEA and our decorations are from HomeSense, IKEA, Canadian Tire, Amazon and the grocery store! I also picked up a few handpainted pieces from Jennifer Atkinson that really compliment our theme. We went with a Scandinavian inspired white and gold theme to match our apartment and I really like how it compliments the space without clashing with our usual decor.
Instead of a tree skirt, I used a blanket we had on hand to wrap around the ugly stand. My friend Stacy gave me the idea and I think it works so well! Plus, it totally saved me $50.00.
The Wreath
I’ve been dying for Stacy to write a blog post for me and this wreath is the reason why! She gave me this idea last year when she took a simple gold geometric wreath and added her own greenery to create this modern take on an old tradition. When I saw the same geometric base at Canadian Tire I texted her straight away to ask for advice! I used clippings from our tree and a sprinkling of baby’s breath to cut down on costs and I love how it turned out!
The “Mantle”
Obviously, we don’t have a mantle. Our T.V. stand was the obvious place to display our stockings and I think it still serves as a pretty focal point without taking away from our tree. For the purpose of this photo, I took the T.V. down to see how it looked with just the greenery and candles and I love the vintage vibe. I used more tree clippings to sprinkle around the base of the candles in a makeshift garland and used command strips for the stockings. I think the simplicity of the vignette is what makes it so cozy.
The Shelves
Adam made these beautiful shelves a month ago and I love how they create a focal point in our kitchen area. I used this cloche from IKEA to create a wintery scene using bottle brush trees from Dollarama (yes, you heard that right) and some old batting that I had in my sewing kit. Proudly stacked on top of HARBOUR magazine, I also added some warm fairy lights and a cheeky print that I made. I didn’t have anything wintery on hand so I quickly wrote out this little quote I found on Pinterest and within 5 minutes had a cute piece of art! This entire little area cost about $25 including the cloche.
I’ve mentioned this before, but this is our very first Christmas tree and the first time I’ve gone all out with holiday decorations. There are still a few pieces I’d like to add to my collection, but I’m holding off for another year. It’s exciting to think about adding new pieces to our decorations as the years go on and I know that I’ll look back fondly on these first special purchases.
Happy Holidays!
