Everyday Decor and a Little Upcycle for Christmas

Jeani Miller Miner
by Jeani Miller Miner
Not having a garage in which to store our daily decor during the holidays I find my self getting creative and working our everyday decor into our Christmas decor. A few additions and a tweak or two and the daily becomes decorative!
Our breakfast nook. The Rooster is out year round as is the table runner. JOY was made with a square of paper over canvas and a few ribbons and pine cones. The pumpkins were left over from Halloween - a little glue and silver glitter made them Christmas worthy. The narcissus are faux and used year round. A bundle of cinnamon sticks tied with a scrap of ribbon left over from gift wrapping and I'm done
printed out the word JOY on computer, transferred it to a piece of chipboard. Cut it out and glittered it. Maybe took 10 minutes. I also did other words, so quick and cheap.
The menu board is used for every family gathering - (I always take a photo of it and include it with our event photos). The spoon was downloaded from the Graphic Fairy (along with a knife and fork) and printed large scale. $10.00 frames from the thrift store were painted black and the image was decoupaged to the old picture. I pull out all our candle sticks and add some greenery down the center of the table. Battery operated light strands are tucked into the greenery for extra sparkle during dinner.
Another view of the dining room (note the knife and fork). My everyday white dishes are left on display. I simple add some Spode pieces, lights and garland. The Merry Christmas garland is written on chalkboard pennants so that is used all year long - erase and rewrite! Still to do - paint and reupholster chairs (including the 5 still in the attic!!)
the view from the dining room table. The couch is covered with a matelasse coverlet - another upholstery job for spring!
I love bunnies and this one is amazing. It was originally a chocolate mold. You can see the seam where it was welded together. The little tray was added after the fact. He is out all year holding various goodies. Right now he's got a scoop of faux snow and a wire crown.
The reindeer ornaments were originally brown (plastic). A good dollop of glue and German glass glitter and they now look pretty high end.
I prefer an aqua and gold and silver with hint of apple green colorway for the front room. The star has been used every year for at least 20 years. The name of person who places the star is written on it along with the year. It's a tradition!
I wanted more dangly, bling on the tree so I took apart an IKEA light fixture thingy. Those square crystal drops (dozens of them) are from a $4.00 IKEA find!
My apothecary jars are out year round. The filler changes with my mood, the event and the seasons. For Christmas each one gets snow and then I add the simple filler - extra tree ornaments, glittered jingle bells, a strand of garland, a handful of berry picks and this year my favorite, a bottle brush tree tied to the top of a car (thanks to a fellow Hometalker for this darling idea). Old doorknobs (from our house) silver Christening cups, glass yogurt jars (upcycled with a glued on strand of crystals) with tea lights, my mom's Hummel angel, an old Norman Rockwell collector's plate and a pair of concrete birds rounds out the look. (tip: before beginning I put a sheet of freezer paper on the mantel for easy clean-up; the snow goes back into the bag each year)
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  • Mary Mary on Sep 26, 2018

    So beautiful!! I want to come to your house for Christmas!!! I love the Star tradition!

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    • Jeani Miller Miner Jeani Miller Miner on Dec 28, 2018

      The star tradition is one of my favorites too. It was an 'on sale' after Christmas find one year. From a distance you can't see the names and dates, but up close you can - it's like a journal of the past years and I just love it.

  • Lisa House Lisa House on Dec 28, 2018

    Lovely home, awesome ideas, thx for sharing! 🎄

    • Jeani Miller Miner Jeani Miller Miner on Dec 28, 2018

      Thank you Lisa. I am committed to re-use since I have limited space for storing all my goodies. I think that being forced to think outside the box has yielded some fun and original ideas. Another idea, not shown, are my Christmas throw pillows. I made a set of pillow covers that fit over our outdoor toss pillows. I just slip the covers over them each holiday. The added upside is that when we bring the outdoor pillows in I don't have to store them either; they just get covered and used inside. After winter's end, they are uncovered and they go back outside onto the garden and deck furniture. All I have to store are the covers. I did choose to cover the pillows with winter themed patterns rather than Christmas so they could remain out longer and not look out of place.

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