Don't you just love the rich, vibrant colors of the holidays? Metallic Gold and Silver mixed with deep shades of purple, red, green, and blue. How lovely!
Dining Room Decorations ::: Christmas 2009
Welcome to our Dining Room!
This is our sideboard which serves as storage and an excellent surface to decorate.
I love this vintage ivory frame that has been made into a chalkboard! I found it at an antique store last year and just had to have it!
I just LOVE these silver cake stands that I blogged about purchasing at Target.
This year's decorating budget was $25 and went towards these white roses, red berries, and greens with faux snow. I loved these beautiful vintage green vases that I've thrifted over the past year. Since we don't have green in our apartment I wasn't quite sure what to do with them until I saw Christmas flower arrangements made in them on Etsy in floresdelsol's shop.
Our Cafe table.
This is our favorite place to eat meals. It's intimate and romantic. Our 1890s apartment building has a mosaic floor in the entranceway that reminds me of our cafe table. I like having our apartment reflect the era of the building.
Like this tablecloth? It's sheer burgandy fabric (purchased at JoAnns) over a red tablecloth (purchased at Target). The tablecloth wasn't fancy enough for the occasion (a dinner party!) so the fabric was the perfect solution!
Ribbon and Berry Tiebacks.
The framed chalkboards working their magic. I wanted to keep the dining room neutral, so I chose to make these magnetic chalkboards to decorate seasonally.
Mercury Glass LOVE.
Antique Podium decorated for Christmas with Mercury Glass Candleholders.
Here are a few pictures of the Living Room Christmas Decorations!
The Coffee Table in the foreground is decorated with a glass bowl full of pearl and crystal beads and gold and white glass ornaments. As soon as I saw it I knew that this would be the perfect task for this glass bowl.
Votive Candles and two crystal star dishes make the table festive. Imagine the candles lit at night!
And this is our $10 Christmas tree. Isn't it beautiful? The tree is 'flocked' to look like it has snow on the tips. It has a little sparkle to the flocking. I used wide burgandy satin ribbon and draped it about the tree. Small Vintage style balls and icicle ornaments adorn the branches. A large Vintage style tree topper perches on the highest branch.
The tree skirt is burgandy silk with intricate beadwork along the edges. Another Goodwill find. I scattered pearl and crystal beads around it and placed several ornaments, 2 glittering reindeer, and 3 glittering star boxes beneath the tree. (Hey, I just now realized that the stars are a theme in the living room Christmas decorations!)
Mantel Decorations
These Mercury Glass votive candle holders can be found at Target for $.99 each. I scattered pale champaigne, gold, and red berry picks amongst the votive holders. Two reindeer are reflected in the mirror.
Another shot of the Christmas tree!
It's so fun having a different Christmas tree than last year! I wouldn't want to decorate the same way twice!
I've been busily decorating for Christmas and cleaning our apartment. We're planning a Holiday Progressive Dinner for our apartment building that will take place next weekend. I'm really excited to get to know others who live in the building - we rarely see anyone. Since we live in a historical building it will also be fun to see other apartments. There are three floors and each one has its own character. The 3rd floor has lots of brickwork - even brick arches in the one apartment (so cool!), while the 1st floor is very traditional to the 1890s when the building was built.
Today I scored an amazing faux Christmas tree at Goodwill. It was in the window and I had seen it yesterday and asked if it was for sale and they said they didn't think so...but I loved it, so I stopped in again today and asked a different person and she said she'd sell it to me for $10!!! It even came with a strand of lights. I wasn't going to turn that down! I got it all decorated today to surprise Vince when he came home from school. It's the perfect little tree! I'll have lots of photos of our Christmas decorations to show soon!
Tonight was a fun "night on the town" with some of Vince's fellow PhD students. We went to a German 'Haufbrauhaus' together. I enjoyed talking to Vince's friends who are from other countries. Vince is one of the only American students in the program. On the drive home we saw a beautiful buck as we were driving through the park. It had such large antlers that it looked more like a reindeer than a deer. Perfect to get us in the Christmas spirit!
I love the colors of the table decorations! And the linen curtains with the wreaths in the windows look so beautiful!
I'm dreaming of a Glamorous Christmas...
