Christmas Tree Party, 2014

Well hello! It’s that time again! I’ve hosted this little shindig for six years now – crazy! It’s time to gather together and show off your beautiful Christmas trees and decor:

But first, mine! :)

We usually have four trees in our home – it sounds crazy but one I’ve never even decorated till this year:

And it was so easy and cheap – check it out here if you missed the bedroom tour earlier this week.

Another one is a real tree for the kiddo’s stuff – the fun one with colorful ornaments. I love it. (Check out last year’s party to see it more of that one.)

Those two are minimal effort and don’t take up much storage space.

A few years back I picked up a flocked tree for our newly finished basement:

Goodness, I love this tree. It was from WalMart and I’m still so happy with it. It doesn’t shed a ton of “snow” and you would think it would. It’s just so beautiful.

It’s only three pieces and super easy to set up – I had it up and fluffed within 30 minutes. Every Christmas break we pretty much hibernate in the basement for two straight weeks so it is lovely to have this down there:

Of our three faux trees I think this one looks the most real. It will look spectacular one day when that electric fireplace behind it is actually built into the wall. Been dreaming up that project for years now. :)

And our last one…I have a confession to make about our big tree. I call her Big Bertha. The Beast. Pain in my butt.

She’s huge and I kind of dread getting her out every year – isn’t that awful? When she’s up I’m so happy but the process wears me out. My husband goes along with pretty much all of my ideas for decor around the house and rarely has a strong opinion about things…but this tree is his baby. He loves Christmas decor and loves. this. tree.

Last year he was out of town and my sister helped me get all the pieces down from the garage – I thought I would be able to make things a bit easier by making it 10 feet tall instead of 12 feet (I didn’t put the bottom piece of the tree on so it was shorter).

Swear to God he noticed when he walked in the door – nobody would ever notice!! He did. So this year he pulled it down and we set up his baby in it’s full glory.

Twelve feet of tree takes some time to decorate – and it’s a workout on the ladder. Another reason this tree wipes me out? The cats LOVE IT. Our insane kitty literally climbs up around the inside of it and will poke his head out the top. It drives me absolutely crazy:

But last night I was taking pictures of it and I have to tell you…after pulling the cat out for the 15th time, my heart warmed and I just sat and appreciated Bertha:

That snowflake is made from the old Hoosier Dome top for you locals by the way – we spent a lot of time there back in the day so I had to get one. :)

She is a beast but my goodness…she is spectacular:

It’s all worth it. :) And I love that my husband loves the tree so dang much:

Although I’d be fine if this guy lost a little of the love:

I’m not gonna lie – I got a little emotional standing there last night, just taking a moment to enjoy it.

It is magnificent. :) Here’s the view from our second level:

My “Fa la la” prints went back into the frames and they reflect the light beautifully:

And of course a little bokeh never hurts:

Whew. It’s a lot of work but after all is said and done…so worth it. There is NOTHING like sitting by a lit up tree with all the lights off, am I right? So grateful.

Now I can’t wait to see your tree and decor! Link up here – and if you’d like to link back to TDC it would be appreciated but it is not mandatory.

I’ll be back on Monday – I’m currently in freak out mode to get all the shopping done. ;) Have a great weekend my friends!!

An InLinkz Link-up

A glass door, sorta kinda

Hello to you! Hope you had a great weekend! Ours was lovely – lots of time outside, a date night with my hubby and family time as well. So happy that summer is here!

So a couple years ago I wrote a post that got a huge response – I never imagined talking about glass doors would be so interesting. :) I spoke of my desire to add some glass to our front door. We have a transom window above the door and five windows in the living room/foyer, but because we face north the foyer especially can feel dark.

It got even worse when I painted the inside of the door black years ago:

I LOVE my black doors though, so that was staying. :)

So many of you agreed with the desire to have that natural light coming in as well. Those of you who already have glass sidelights or doors were mixed – some loved it and some hated it. Because a lot of you are in the one percent like me:

Ninjas!

So the years passed and I still couldn’t get over how much I wanted some natural light up there. And the boy got older and I really wanted to be able to easily see where he was at outside. One day I realized I was going to just do what I said I would never do – get a storm door:

I’m going to be honest here – I used to be a storm door snob. I mean, in my defense, there are some that aren’t great looking. I have just always preferred the look of just the plain door.

But my mind changed. It happens. I’m growing, changing, all that stuff.

We got it from Lowe’s and it was actually a long wait to get it installed. It was about six weeks, maybe more, from start to finish. The last two weeks were the hardest – it was getting nice out and the Bub was outside all the time and I wanted that glass door so bad!

When it was installed I instantly felt very mom-like and very suburban. You know how I feel about suburban – some think it’s a bad word but it’s me. Proud of it.

I’m not totally obsessed with the way it looks from outside, but it’s not horrible at all. I went with a cranberry color (there weren’t a ton of options) because I figured it would work best with our front door. When I got home from ordering it I realized how much more rust our door is than cranberry, but I really don’t mind it:

For a hot second I thought about painting the door again but I think this is fine as is.

We ALL love it. It’s open all day, everyday. LOVE love love. The animals are obsessed:

I do know one thing now though – I could NOT do an all glass regular front door. No way, no how. When darkness hits that baby is closed and I need my privacy.

I was so thrilled about the door I figured it was time to update the trim like I’ve been doing all around the house. What a difference!:

You can see how I install my DIY craftsman trim here.

Now it works great with the new window trim up there as well:

I still need to do some caulking on the door trim but it’s almost complete. I want to replace that foyer tile even more now! I still need to finish up replacing the chair rail throughout this front area as well.

We’re enjoying all the natural light that the new door brings in. I adore it! It makes the whole house brighter. We went with the heavier storm door with great security features, so I feel comfortable leaving it open all day:

Do you have a storm door? Does it make you feel incredibly suburban? :) Or do you have a glass front door and love it? Either way the natural light is amazing and I’m never going back! Whoot!

Living room refresh

Good Monday to you! Hope you had a great weekend!

I’ve mentioned before that I LOVE when I get to move furniture around…because I never move it around. Our house has a very open floor plan and very little useable wall space (that isn’t covered by windows). So once I find a spot for something it stays…forever. Moving furniture is a rare treat. :)

I found this étagère at HomeGoods a couple years back and it was love at first sight. I loved the detail on the sides of it and the size – nice and skinny. It started out between the two windows in the living room, but that became too busy to me, so I moved it next to the sofa last year:

It was there for a long time, but the height right there bugged me. It was right where the dining and living rooms meet and it felt awkward. I don’t have a full shot to show what I mean. It wasn’t awful or anything, I just wasn’t feeling it.

I decided a few weeks ago to try it in the corner where this desk/console used to sit:

I wanted to use that desk in my office so the spot was freed up. I moved the bookcase over and loved it in that spot! And that of course started off a series of other small projects as well. It’s how I do. :)

When I installed the new window trim a couple weeks ago I started replacing the chair rail as well. I wanted something simpler that would sit flush against the window trim. And when I put the rail in years back I kind of cheated along that half wall behind the desk. Long story short the trim on the half wall didn’t meet up with the chair rail on the wall. So I removed all of it, including the top of the half wall, and installed all new:

Now the chair rail on that wall is one continuous piece of wood instead of two mismatched pieces. This would all make more sense if I had taken a before pic, but I forgot. :)

I got this new-to-me primer at Lowe’s when I was painting the window trim and so far I love it:

It gives the wood a great base and goes on really smooth. I finished off the new chair rail and the top of the half wall with caulk and two coats of semi gloss paint. I still have quite a bit of chair rail to replace but I’ll do that as the budget allows.

But the best part is that I think this piece has finally found it’s forever home!:

It’s much bigger than the desk was, but takes up less visual space for sure. I couldn't believe the difference. I love how open it feels now and that we can appreciate the pretty detail on the side!

I loved what I had on the wall above the desk so I moved that between the windows:

I’m not sure that will stay but I do like that the round mirrors break up all the rectangles in this spot – windows, wainscoting, bench and bookshelf.

OH! And I pulled the chair away from between the windows and I LOVE it. I hesitated to put the chairs on the rug (they don’t match but I’m working on that) -- I’ve liked having the floor more open. But WOW, what a difference it made to pull everything together – it really opens up this room. Love it. More pics soon!

I edited the contents of the shelves down a bit:

I’m not 100 percent on the bottom shelf, but I’m using what I have so I’ll deal. ;)

I’ve decided for now I’m not putting the drapes back up. I’m sure I’ll crave more color there eventually, but for now I’m loving how clean and simple it is. Speaking of color, I was looking back at photos and found this before that shows the étagère in it’s original spot and the old pinky walls:

Can you believe how pink they were in that light? Goodness. Anyway, here’s how it looks now, with new paint and trim: My little BFF is smooshing himself into this shot. :)

This room was on my list of spaces I wanted to rework this year and so far I’m really, really happy with how it’s coming together! It’s a two story space so it’s harder for me to figure out.

Do you move furniture around a lot? If so I’m jealous. It’s a free fix when you get the itch to tweak things around the house. :) Or do you keep things the way they are forever like me? I love using what you already have in a different space – it feels brand new when you move it around!

DIY craftsman window trim

WHOOT! I finally tackled a DIY project that I’ve been wanting to do FOREVER. But I was afraid…so afraid. I am excited to share it with you – there are a lot of pics so grab some coffee or a Coke and enjoy. :)

In addition to beefy baseboards and door trim, my dream has always been to add chunky trim around our windows. It just adds SO much character, I just love it. But all these years I haven’t been able to do it because our window sills weren’t wide enough. A long time ago I realized I could add some very skinny trim around the window that would match up with the sill:

This is a before I shot quickly before I started three days ago when it was 80 degrees and gorgeous. Today it’s 32 and snowy. But I digress.

To do the trim I wanted to do I’d have to take the whole sill (or stool, as it’s technically called) off and that intimidated me. But then I saw Cristina’s tutorial last summer and I thought it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought. I ended up following her instructions and they worked perfectly!

I actually wanted to do this SO badly at Christmas after we got our tree up. I thought it would look so lovely to have the beefy trim on the windows, but I reeled it in and realized starting this in December was not the best idea. ;)

Fast forward a few months and I finally started! First up, I removed the apron underneath the sill. Fun story – in the CRAZY cold we had this winter the window was iced up and when it melted it went into the wall. That area below the apron was a big bubble of water. Good stuff!:

So first you need to score all the areas (with a razor) that are caulked, otherwise when you pull the trim off it will pull the paint/drywall away:

I freaked for a split second when I pulled it off and thought there was mold:

But it was just overspray from when the room was painted years ago. :) Whew.

Here’s where I forgot to take a pic, but after the apron is gone, you take a crow bar and start pulling up the stool, or the sill. It was actually MUCH easier than I thought it would be. I mean, I’ve stood on these things – I thought they’d be impossible to remove. But they came up pretty fast and easy.

The only issue I had was the ends would start digging into the drywall as I pulled up:

When I worked on one end at a time (instead of trying to pull the whole thing up at once) it helped a bunch. I just focused on one side and got that up and clear of the drywall, then got the whole thing out. I do have to touch up a little drywall there but it’s not bad.

This is the shape of our stool when it was out:

And here’s what it looks like underneath:

I was actually AMAZED that we didn’t have any water issues – our windows get condensation every winter if we don’t adjust our humidifier in the HVAC system just so. And they were covered in ice more than once this past winter. This shows the power of glossy paint and caulk my friends!

After all that I took the skinny trim off the sides of the windows:

I kept that all for future projects. I’ve used it on all of the wainscoting in this room.

Then I started the process of building up the new trim. I shared this image when I did my first craftsman door trim and it is so helpful:

 

I can’t find their size used for the fillet, so I use a trim piece called stop instead. It works great.

Also, our window sills are deeper so I had to use 1 x 8 wood instead of the standard 1 x 5. I followed Cristina’s instructions and used the old sill as my guide for the new one. The only thing you need to keep in mind is your trim that will be on the sides of the windows – mine was 3 1/2 inches and I wanted the stool to stick out a bit from that, so I traced the original onto the new wood, but gave myself four inches:

Here’s how it looks installed so that makes more sense:

I followed my traced lines with a jigsaw to cut it out. Don’t worry if the lines aren’t perfect!:

They will be mostly covered with the new apron and the trim on each side of the window. The parts that aren’t covered are easily fixed with caulk. (My BFF.):

Putting up the trim is my favorite part! Seeing it come together is awesome. You’ll notice in that pic above that I had to pull off some other trim – more on that in a minute.

I took my sander to the edges of the new sill because this pine has really sharp edges. I do this on all of the door trim I’ve installed too:

I just knock it down a little so it’s not so pointy. If you have a router this would be even better. Then I did one coat of primer and two coats semi gloss paint on everything. I may go back over the stool with a high gloss just to make sure it’s waterproof.

So when I was putting the new trim up I realized the wainscoting I installed years ago was going to be in the way – I had to pull off each box on the wall and reinstall it all to make the new trim work. Total pain in the butt.

Some of it you can’t see, but some areas I still need to putty, sand and paint again:

I still need to touch up that area that was a bubble of water too. :)

But that will come later because for now I’m enjoying the new window trim that I love! Whoo hoo!:

I had to pull the chair rail down to do it and I’ve wanted to replace it for a while anyway, so I started installing a new simpler rail:

I only have one wall done so far. I can’t BELIEVE how different the room looks with the beefier trim around the windows.

I took the drapes down before Christmas (you know, thinking I would do this back then), and I don’t know if I can put any back up:

We’ll see. :)

Here’s a closer look at how the new chair rail, reinstalled wainscoting and new window trim works together:

I still need to clean up the walls a bit like I said, and caulk around the trim up higher, but for now I’m calling it good!:

I took one of these images and detailed the wood I used:

That should help if you’d like to try this yourself! Remember the 1x2 and stop up on top and the stool on the bottom will be a bit wider than the other pieces. The ones on top are 1/4 inch longer on both sides and the stool on the bottom is 1/2 longer on both ends.

Here’s a shot of the before again:

And here’s the after:

Now…I just need to find someone to add the trim to the upper windows. Cause this girl is not doing it. :)

Have you beefed up your window trim? Like everything else, it will take me years to get it done throughout the whole house, but this start makes me happy! Big props to Cristina for her awesome post that gave me the courage to tackle this one! And if you have any questions let me know in the comments – I tried to cover everything but I always forget something.