It’s that time of year. I *drool* over my favorite blogger’s Christmas house tours. Then I look at my own house, and sigh. I think “…maybe next year I can show my house…”. But in reality, I know that my house will never look like those houses.
And you know what? That’s OK.
As a blogger, I have to find a balance. I must take the “perfect picture” to have it get repinned on Pinterest, but it’s also deceptive. Almost every time I take a picture of something in my own home, I am shoving something else out of the picture. I want to make sure that you are aware that I don’t live in a model home. My home is very lived-in. We are new parents to a 4 month old boy. We live in a 1400 square feet twin home (about 100 years old) that has lots of work to be done. And we live in our house.
I want to show you these pictures because I’m sure many of you can relate. If you can’t, well, more power to you. I’d love to hear your secrets. If you can, then I love you.
See this Christmas tree? It was $35 at our local cut-your-own place. We get concolor fir trees because it’s best for my allergies/asthma.
See my curtains up on the rod because I’m scared of a house fire? (they’re next to the radiators). Also, Isaac’s jumper would definitely not make this repinnable, but he just loves to look at the lights!
We brought Isaac to get the tree in the front-pack and he cried almost the whole time. I had all of these visions of having the perfect time cutting down his first Christmas tree, and it was miserable. Ha! We picked the first decent one we could find so we could leave quickly.
On the bookshelf next to the tree I set up the branches from the centerpieces I made years ago. They’re in front of a 99 cent thrift store frame that I can’t figure out what I want inside. So it remains like that. Clippings from our tree’s bottom branches are on the bottom.
Those branch clippings were taken from the branches that are still on our front porch. It’s really not so far from our front porch to the trash can out back – but it’s just so COLD!
Next to the window – some simple Christmas decorations. I love the tree I got from Michael’s for $5!
I bought a plain fresh wreath at the Christmas tree farm with every intention to decorate it and post it. See how much I got done?
Maybe it’s for the best – it looks gorgeous plain! I can keep it up longer too.
I really love my Christmas gallery wall. It’s simple, festive, and didn’t cost me anything! This picture is true to real life – our couch’s slipcover is almost always wrinkly, and Buckley always claims the pillows for his own.
Although it pains me to do this, I promised honesty in this post – so here’s what I didn’t show in the picture above:
Yikes. But remember – we LIVE in this house. This was my workstation for writing out Christmas cards, thank you cards, and working on an Etsy order. It’ll get cleaned up…eventually. Oh and my Miele vacuum is out on the right – because I use it all. the. time. No use putting it away.
OK onto the next room. I prepped the staircase for our Christmas card pictures (and added the book page flower), but I think the clean laundry waiting to go upstairs is an especially nice touch:
Can’t forget to add that the radiators are a perfect drying spot for cloth diaper inserts:
I made a small vignette on top of a dresser in this room (tree: thrifted, sign: JoAnns, hurricane vases: West Elm, lantern: Hobby Lobby, candleholders from our wedding):
But what you don’t see is our diaper/baby station underneath:
Oh – and the space heater. Our house is so cold right now because of our unfinished kitchen floors…
Oh boy. Yes, our kitchen is a disaster. Yes, I hesitated a few times before I added that picture. Oh, and our dishwasher has been broken for a month.
So there it is – my very real, imperfect home decorated for Christmas. I love The Nester’s saying – “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful”. Amen. My house is so telling of the stage of life we’re in, and I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. We live in this house.
Share this post if you can relate – or know others who can!
What is imperfect about your home this Christmas?
I can’t even tell you how much I love this! I’m in the works of posting my own imperfect Christmas tour, and am even working on posting a general house tour. I’ve hesitated for so long because my pockets are lined with gold and I can’t afford to have every inch decorated yet, even though we’ve been here for 2 years. How do people do that?? But after some nudging, I’ve decided to share it as is!
God bless you for this post. I don’t feel like such an enormous failure – I feel like we could be friends in real life.
I loved your imperfect home tour. I think your home is lovely. I was too afraid to link up at the Nester, but just posted my Messy Christmas Home Tour! Blessings!
Fantastic! I hope you get lots of pins and lots of blog traffic from this post. Loving on that baby is better than a perfect house tour any day! Merry Christmas!
Love your decorations! Don’t feel like you need to apologize for your charming home! I found this post more inspirational because it seemed more REAL … and now I want to break out some more Christmas decorations from storage to put out in my home! 🙂
I especially love the cloth diapers drying on the radiators! A house that is well lived in is often one filled with much love!
Lovely. Simply lovely.
My favorite? Your cloth diaper inserts on the radiator. My “babies” are now 6 and 4, and I miss cloth diapers!
Merry Christmas,
Nicolette
Your home is gorgeous! I’m not kidding. I think homes that look lived in are MORE beautiful than homes that look like cold museum displays. They tell a story of lives beautifully lived, in spite of – or maybe because of – life’s imperfections. Be proud of your home. Your decorations are lovely and your baby is wonderful!
As far as your closing question… you’ve seen my home so I have no need to comment. 😉 But we’ve had fun taking a week to decorate our tree – a little every night before the kids go to bed – and I just managed to vacuum the carpet that the food stains and stuck-on playdoh never come out of and that show my kids are eating (a huge accomplishment for my little guy with the feeding disorder!) and enjoying their childhood. The “imperfections” are what mean the most to me, like badges of honor hard-won. Enjoy your beautiful home and family, and have a wonderful Christmas!
Love the diaper changing station – our living room floor (and we have no family room so it’s the first room you walk into in our house) was diaper central for 2 years with the changing pad, diapers, wipes, Butt Paste, etc just sitting out because I was changing so often what’s the point of putting it away all the time? Today I look around and see the wrapping stuff blocking my basement door, laundry piled on our bed waiting to be folded and put away (yeah right), vacuum in the middle of the living room floor because I hope it just decides to do it on it’s own instead of waiting for me, not to mention the Little People explosion all over my house because my 4 year old son is suddenly into creating these elaborate scenes with them. In 20 years I’ll have the “perfect” Christmas house – and probably get pretty wistful at the memories of the chaos. Enjoy it all!
Who needs lots of perfect decorations when you have a cute baby in a Christmas outfit? I especially love the vignette on the dresser, but think it would look better without the candleholders. They detract from the lantern behind them in my humble opinion:)
I stumbled across your center piece decorations from a couple of years back and immediately put some gold painted sticks I had in a cylinder vase, which I put in the center of my advent wreath. Thanks for the idea. It added the height I needed without obscuring the view across the table.
Hope you have a merry Christmas with your new son. If you haven’t gotten the book, Spirit Led Parenting, I highly recommend it, especially in this first year. Also, save yourself a lot of angst and go ahead and get a leather sofa now. It’s an investment in peaceful living. I know because I have 3 boys. You don’t want to spend your life washing and straightening a slipcover.
One more thing – Simplicity Parenting is a good book also. I’m sure your son will receive an avalanche of presents this Christmas. Just go ahead and box some up and save them or rotate them. A baby only needs a few toys or he will become overwhelmed. You also don’t want to spend your life picking up toys:)
Wow, I never comment on the random blogs I sometimes sift though but this is amazing! I cannot tell you how many blogs I have seen just in absolute awe of their homes and making me feel like a failure all at the same time! I always am thinking, this women must have no kids, this women must be in retirement bc no way I’d ever have time to keep my home that way. When I do try I literally am cleaning all day every day with my five year old and hubby that is lazy at home? 🙁 I adore this and will share and repost! And lastly I don’t usually go back to blogs I’ve visited but I am putting this one in favorites 🙂 you’re amazing and remember you are a mother first not a house keeper 😉 your home is beautiful.
Christina I totally love and appreciate this post!! This is real life and that means that the dishes aren’t always done, laundry can be found in various stages of clean/fold/yet-to-be-put-away, and diaper changing stations take center stage. However the state of our house, it is the spirit and love we put into it that makes it special, and your house is wonderful! From one mom of a newborn to another, THANK YOU for keeping it real 🙂