A Very Merry Christmas Home Tour (and $500 Giveaway!)

Hello friends, and welcome into my home! Today I’m part of the Very Merry Christmas Home Tour, hosted by Carrie of Lovely Etc. To celebrate the festive season, we’re offering a $500 PayPal giveaway to help with your Christmas shopping – yippee! You’ll find the giveaway toward the end of this post.

I’m so glad to have you here today! Come on in and let me show you around. We’ve been busy Christmasifying our house (is that a word?) and I can’t wait to show you the results!

This year I chose a colour scheme of copper, white and kraft paper, with accents of black and silver.

I wanted to create a sweet, feminine, handmade feel, so I used a lace doily motif throughout my home.

I kept the tree decorations simple, with paper doily ornaments and handmade cheesecloth bunting.

Beneath the tree, the gifts are a central part of our Christmas decor.

I made hand-stamped wrapping paper to create a personalised touch for our gift-giving this year.

You can find the simple instructions (including how to make your own stamp) in this post.

The kraft-paper and lace doily motif is repeated in my buffet display. I used a stencil to create the temporary Christmas artwork, and kept the colour scheme very calming and neutral with a palette of white.

Paper star lanterns add some twinkle, and I like how the cutouts mimic the look of my paper doily motif.

A few simple features add interest – a clear resin reindeer, white pillar candles, and a hurricane lantern full of glowing beaded fairylights.

Notice how the artwork is echoed in the lacy pattern on the Christmas crackers? The crackers were a simple DIY using kraft and scrapbooking paper wrapped around a cardboard tube.

Looking beyond the tree into the living room, you’ll glimpse my driftwood Christmas wall hanging above the TV.

I used the same combinations of wrapping paper to create this wall hanging as I used for the real gifts under the tree.

It looks so festive hanging there in the living room.

Right beside the TV is my fiddle-leaf fig, which I festooned with a handmade garland of clay stars.

Back to the table! For my centrepiece, I took some cheap glass vases from one of those awful variety shops (I think it was Madhouse) and gave them a classy, antiqued mercury-glass finish. (Simple tutorial in a separate post!)

I love the gleam of all that antiqued silver against the crisp white tablecloth.

To round out my centrepiece, I also used clear glass vases filled with metallic baubles, and wound a wire-edged white glittery ribbon carelessly around and through the whole arrangement.

Silver chargers under the plates add a touch of glam. (You can find these at Kmart for a couple of dollars each.)

Beside the table and tree is of course my little study nook (which recently received a makeover using a gold paint pen – check it out here.)

Last of all, in the hallway, is my Driftwood Advent Calendar.

The tutorial to make your own Advent wall hanging can be found here.

To help you fill your Advent calendar, I rounded up my 60 favourite Christmas Activities to do as a family, and the post includes these sweet Advent tags as a free printable.

Psssst – Speaking of free printables – I’m also offering a free Christmas holiday planner this month only to my subscribers. You can find the details here!

Now, don’t go before you enter the big, juicy $500 PayPal cash giveaway! You can gain additional entries by following as many bloggers as you like on this list. Every entry counts!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don’t forget to visit the rest of the homes on the tour – there are some amazing homes here! Catch a sneak peak from the photos below and follow the links to see everyone’s homes.