Hello Friends, today I'm super excited to be part of a wonderful Christmas Tour of Homes with a bit of a twist. Our good friend Amber from Follow the Yellow Brick Home has put together a great group of bloggers to share how we decorate our homes for Christmas with vintage pieces and decor. Some of us are fortunate enough to live in historic homes, and others of us just love antiques and vintage furniture that we use to give our spaces a vintage vibe.
If you're coming from Anita's blog, Whispering Pines Homestead, thanks so much for following the Hop and visiting here. I'll be sharing a few of my antique and vintage pieces of furniture and keepsakes, and also ways we've tried to bring in a vintage feel to our home.
We live in a home built in the 1960's so it's technically an older home. When we bought our home just over 3 years ago one of the first things we did was tackle the old dated front porch. I had a vision of a Timber Frame European entry to give a more English Country look. Removing the ornate wrought iron railings gave us a completely different vintage cottage feel. Here's a photo from last year's Christmas front porch.
The front porch has several vintage pieces that are here year round. I have an antique metal depot bench and old house shutters that are here throughout the year and for Christmas, a vintage "Paris" sled from South Paris, Maine Manufacturing Co. An antique garden urn holds a small lighted Christmas tree and an old watering can is filled with greenery and tied with a red Tartan ribbon.
Here we are in the entry this Christmas with an antique mirror, but also newer pieces that just look like antiques. A much loved Eastlake petite dresser is across from this console, that I've used for the last 20 years. Using antique and vintage accessories and artwork make such a huge impact and give a vintage feel to our Holiday spaces.
I've used this little "oatmeal" colored faux tree in an urn here for the last several Christmases. This year I'm using a print of a pastoral scene called "The Shortening Winter’s Day is Near a Close” by Joseph Farquharson and a paper "Putz" pale blue church my daughter gave me many years ago.
I don't really seasonally decorate the formal Living room, but I thought I'd share it since we are doing a home tour. An original "vintage" feature of our home is the mullioned diamond paned windows in the living and dining rooms. I didn't really appreciate them until the front porch was renovated. Now I'm so glad we didn't replace them.
Here's the Dining Room dressed for Christmas. Cloches and English teapots are in front of a antique triptych mirror. I love faux paperwhites and use them throughout the year, not just at Christmas.
This year I'm using an old windowbox as a centerpiece on the table, filled with boxwood, hydrangeas and gilt pears. A pair of heavy alter candlesticks are placed on either side. I like to keep the Dining Room a little more formal with a French Country look. This year I'm using a Holly printed burlap runner on top of a piece of French grain sack fabric.
Other antique pieces in the Dining Room are this old mirror and our family washstand. A current Christmas pic is above, and below is a full pic from Christmas last year.
Our kitchen and hearth room, which were renovated in 2015,
have an interesting board and batten, shiplap type ceiling.
I don't decorate much in the kitchen, but I do love to have a seasonal vignette in the niche. Tartan plaid is my go-to Christmas theme, so plaid houses are here along with a new Thermos and biscuit tins. For a quick Christmas vignette I put together some vintage kitchen tools and gadgets with a plaid tea towel in a vintage garden tote. I made the little Log Cabin quilt topper many years ago. I love using the traditional red and green color combo for Christmas.
The Hearth Room is my personal hang-out spot for a quick place to put up my feet and relax. I use a small Christmas tree in the corner with white lights. It's sitting in a very old bushel basket wrapped in old grain sacks. This year the mantel is decorated with white metal "house" lanterns and burlap wrapped faux evergreen topiaries.
The Hearth Room has a wonderful old armoire that we purchased about 15 years ago with a TV housed inside. When we renovated the house we had our contractor enlarge the meager concrete mantel with molding. I use a small "cobblers bench" as a coffee table/ foot rest, and an antique porch column sits in the corner. I love having neutral spaces and furniture that can easily fit into any seasonal decor scheme. A vintage red/white windmill quilt and Tartan plaid wool throw are covering the slipcovered sofa and chair.
Another family antique is the sideboard here in the Hearth Room.
This year it's decorated with a collection of white churches.
A new dough bowl is filled with vintage mercury glass ornaments.
The cookbook cupboard always has a vintage "kitchen-y" theme. It holds "British Cottage" cookie jars and all my family cookbooks from when our girls were young. You can usually find Tartan plaids here at Christmas with an old lunchbox filled with goodies and a British biscuit tin from Walker's Shortbread.
Next stop is the Garden Room which is at the back of the house. This is where most of the white and chippy furniture resides. Our casual kitchen farmhouse table and china cabinet are fun to decorate seasonally. My transferware lives here and the large table always has a seasonal vignette. This year it holds a vintage ice cream bucket filled with "candy cane" poinsettias, a white lantern on a vintage cutting block and a stack of plaid dishes with a spongeware enamel camp coffeepot.
This year I went crazy and brought out the plaid table runner for the farm table instead of using it in the Dining Room. I kept my grain sack table runner on top to help tie all the plaids together. Plants and old garden goods (including an old metal gate) share this space with the dining area.
My Father Christmas is here too in the reproduction goat cart,
along with a few friends like my antique rocking horse.
A baker's rack holds all my fun Christmas "Kitch"
and vintage Christmas keepsakes.
The Holiday Cupboard is an old Pie Safe filled with ironstone tureens, red transferware, and various bits and baubles. This Christmas it has more white churches and Putz houses along with my herd of Nativity Lambs. It sets in the middle of a wicker seating area filled with Tartan plaid wool blankets. I'll be sharing a closer look inside the Garden Room and Holiday Cupboard soon.
I'll be sharing more of my spaces with extra pics
in these next few days before Christmas.
Thanks so much for coming by, We hope you'll continue with the fun by heading over to visit our friend CoCo at the Crowned Goat. and by clicking on the Linky pics below. You'll get a chance to see the way we use vintage pieces and antiques to decorate our Holiday homes. I can't wait to see all the great vintage goodies. You can find me on Pinterest Here and Instagram Here. If you'd like to get email notifications of new posts you can sign up on the side bar.
Have a Wonderful Christmas Season!
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