Christmas Inspiration in the Living Room

It’s good to be back with you guys to share a bit of Christmas inspiration in the living room. A big thank you to my bestie S who surprised me with a guest post and a farmhouse inspired advent calendar yesterday. No matter what season of life you’re in right now, family and good friends make everything so much better, right?

The advent calendar was actually the catalyst for how I decided to decorate the living room for Christmas this year. No playing, you guys, I had NO idea how to make everything feel festive without putting up a tree. I mean, the Christmas tree is usually the centerpiece of the living room and this will be the first year we haven’t had a tree.

It’s not that we didn’t want a Christmas tree – you guys know those twinkling lights get me every time! It’s just that it didn’t make sense given our work and holiday travel schedule is totally bananas and we wouldn’t be home to really enjoy it anyway. Thankfully, there will be a sweet little tree waiting for us perfectly decorated with all its rustic charm at Christmas so we won’t be missing out on the twinkling lights at all.

Once we gave ourselves permission to embrace simple Christmas decorating, everything fell into place. We bought two strands of garland that matched the swags in our Christmas entry and our Christmas dining room.  You’ll see more of the matching wreath on our front porch next week too.

Since Santa had already packed up our stockings for the cabin, we decided to use the gray felt stocking we used on our holiday mantel last year. They worked out perfectly!

I found this picture while out shopping with my mom for clients a few months ago and I knew almost immediately I wanted to use it for the holidays. You’ll definitely see it used again in a different room for an upcoming makeover I hope to share with you early next year. I’m already excited about it #plannerlife ha ha

We’ve been enjoying the simplicity of the urns we aged for the mantel so adding plaid bows and store bought trees made decorating everything even easier.

I’ve had this large dough bowl for year now! It was definitely an investment piece but we use it over and over again. It’s great to fill with shells or flowers or pinecones or even moss balls as the seasons change.

We like to keep things fairly simple on the coffee table and end table too. I created a runner from some of the plaid fabric we’ve been using around the house, added a silver serving tray, a store-bought wreath, clove pierced oranges and pecans from our family’s pecan grove. The candle is one we of the same candles we used when we lost power during Hurricane Irma. It was totally sentimental when we got it out of our hurricane supply box.

Most of the time we’re cozied up with hot drinks in the living room so keeping the end table festive yet clutter free is always a priority. Placing items on trays that can be easily moved from one spot to another saves a lot of extra fuss.

Do you guys have a cozy spot to read in at home? This sun-drenched spot is one of my favorite spots!

Sometimes we use these old bank bags as Christmas stockings but this year we’re all about the greenery. How cute would they be to fill these bags with little gifts, rosemary, or a poinsettia and give them away to friends, neighbors or family members?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “I wish I had bought more of these floral picks at Michaels.” They’ve been so easy to use around the house as has all the fabric we picked up at Joann’s on sale.

We haven’t had a tv in the living room for a few months now and you guys, we love it! It’s really made for some relaxing mornings and some quiet nights snuggled up with books and magazines when we’re home.

The weather has been fairly warm save for Thanksgiving week so we really haven’t had a chance to light a fire yet but I’m hopeful we’ll get to make s’mores inside again this season.

See you guys back here tomorrow. It’s been a busy week trying to get back into the swing of things but there’s definitely a lot to share. Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo