Use rustic galvanized items, emerald green, buffalo plaid, and lots of greenery and lights to create simple Christmas decor with a farmhouse vibe. A few new things are mixed in with older favorites to create a unique look that brings holiday joy.
Hello! Welcome to our home where you can see how my holiday decor plan came to life and created a simple Christmas decor.
It's always so fun to be able to share my Christmas decorating with you guys. Every year now since 2010 I've been inviting you into our home for the holidays (you can see a compilation of my cottage Christmases through the years here). I know I love getting to see other's homes on their Christmas "tours" and getting a glimpse into others decorating styles at this time of year - and I hope you do, too.
This year I've seen everything from over-the-top (a full-on decorated tree in every room), to "cozy" minimalism - and even a family that is forgoing their big tree for little individual trees for each of them. It's all good as long as it makes you happy and helps point you to the season and all it's sweet meanings.
And if the thought of decorating doesn't make you happy and seems overwhelming? Then I say don't do it! Do what works for you and your family. I used to swag every window, adorn every tabletop, and make sure that every room had a touch of Christmas (bedrooms and bathrooms included). The past five years or so, I've come to realize that it just doesn't matter as much to me and I've let a lot of that go.
So what do I decorate now? Well, the last two years we were living with my mom while we searched for a home (and finally found our farmhouse fixer!) and I only decorated the dining table and the top of a piano in her house. Now we're in a temporary manufactured home with walls a color I'd never choose and an old dirty-looking blue carpeting (yes, we've 'cleaned' it - it's way past it's prime...), but I'm choosing to just work around it.
My daughter and I were really looking forward to seeing some of our old decorations that were packed away - our nativity and music sheet wreath topped the list. So even in this temporary home I decorated the dining room and living room with a simple theme of galvanized metal, dark green, black-and-white buffalo plaid, and greenery like I shared in the Christmas Decor Plan. I mixed the old with a few new things and we're all just loving the festive feeling in the house now.
Come along and let me show you how our simple Christmas decor looks in this place we're calling home!
(Note: anything that's still available will be linked at the bottom, so if you see something you like, check there to see if you can grab one, too. Oh, and one other note - see if you can spot the thing that's missing!)
Galvanized, Green & Buffalo Plaid Simple Christmas Decor
Our former porch pew now lives in the entryway (well, it's all one big room with the living room, so I'm just calling it the entry...), so it's the first thing you see. The vintage music sheet wreath that I made years ago is still going strong and greets you along with the pew.
The Christmas pillows are from H&M that I found over the last few years (they're not available anymore, but always check their home section for great deals on pillows). I just plop any existing pillow into these cases for the month and then remove them at the end - super easy and a nice change.
The "entryway" table holds our vintage nativity set that belonged to my grandma. I have memories of setting it up with her, and then with my kids, so I don't think a Christmas will go by that I don't put it somewhere. Well, when it's not packed away in storage, that is!
Here's a case of embracing what you have - I'm calling this our "bookshelf-mantel" (similar to the "piano-mantel" from last year, lol) since it's holding our stockings as well as the snowy galvanized scene from last year and the music sheet JOY sign (made from a cupboard door) that's been going strong for years.
I think I may have to get used to mantel alternatives since the farmhouse doesn't have a fireplace either.
I went simpler with the galvanized scene this year, though, and didn't bother with all the fake snow (it looks pretty but was a pain to clean up) or wrapping the tree bases. The candles are on a remote and the lights plug in so it's easy to turn on and off.
I painted these houses to look like galvanized metal - here's the tutorial if you'd like to do that, too (this finish works on any metal you'd like to galvanize - and even wood - so it's not just for houses!).
Here's what it looks like during the day without any lights on. I really do like the metal-white-green color scheme. Though when editing these photos I do think that I should've changed out my grandpa's butterfly art - it just looks a bit too springy for this season. But you know what? Most all of our wall art is still packed away and I didn't want to buy anything more, so I'm calling it good. #dowhatworks
Oh - I do want to mention that snowy bare tree painting on the middle shelf. It was given to me by the talented Mary Cartwright when we were in Arizona. She was showing me some of the amazing works in her studio and she just handed it to me! I was so touched - I just love it and it goes so well with the winter scene.
In the rest of the living room, it was a matter of adding the new buffalo check pillows to the couch, adding a garland and lights on the cabinet, and setting some candles and greenery in a galvanized tray on the footstool. A couple of white poinsettias (just $3.99 each!) are like the icing on the cake.
Besides the buffalo check, I bought this vintage looking garland that I couldn't resist since it looks like an old mercury glass garland, but it's mostly plastic (the bigger balls are glass). I have some small vintage ornaments that I thought it would go great with.
One of the things I was so excited about from the Christmas decor plan I shared was that cozy buffalo plaid throw you see above. It's backed with fleece and is so great to snuggle up with. Plus, I love how it looks - and that it was half price!
You can put almost anything in a tray and it will look good. Cedar boughs, galvanized snowflakes and tag and battery operated candles. Boom - done.
And I haven't even share this with you yet - I finally got a real leather chair! I've been wanting one for years but they are expensive (a-hem). I saved quite a bit of money from selling a lot of our furniture and decor when we moved two years ago and have been holding it for a leather chair and a large rug.
I found a chair on the Pottery Barn website I liked, but the shipping was $100. What? You can get furniture shipped for way less than that almost anywhere else, so I started looking around and ended up with this cute little chair. I saw it on Overstock and one other site, but they still wanted something for shipping. I checked on Amazon and it was there - the same chair with free shipping!
It is real top-grain leather and looks very nice in person. It has a bit shorter back than I was thinking, but it's actually really comfortable. And I LOVE the casters on the front legs - which the PB version didn't have. It was also cheaper, so I saved about $300 total over the PB chair so I was able to get a 9x12' wool-jute rug from Target with the savings (sadly already discontinued or I'd link to it - it was such a good deal), which you can see a corner of above. #win-win
Click here to see the same chair on Amazon.
Click here to see the easy felt wreath pillow tutorial.
And the table - I really do still like setting the table. This centerpiece would've looked best with my gold and cream wedding china, but it's still packed away, so we're using what we have. I did unearth brass candlesticks which I think gives a nice glam touch to the homey plaid and rustic galvanized metal.
I'm really loving this darker green combined with the black-and-white buffalo plaid. And I have to plug those napkins - they are a nice and thick cotton and were such a great price for 12 (you'll find the link at the bottom). I simply used two of the napkins folded to create a "runner."
For the place settings, I simply downloaded the green-and-white Christmas tags from the VIP Subscriber Library and cut the ones out that had simple designs on them before tying them with jute around the napkins.
Something like this really makes your guests and family feel special and it literally took me 10 minutes.
I do like adding wreaths or decorations to the four main chair backs. In the past I've used Dollar Store decorations and real live greens or herbs, but the greenery always dried and fell off before the season ended. So when I saw these faux cedar wreaths from Hearth & Hand - on a 2-for-1 sale! - I knew I needed them. They are actually pretty nice in person. Up close you can tell they're fake, but most of the time you're not up close, ha!
I tied them with simple jute and know they will become a staple each year.
Did you spot what is missing? Yep, our tree! We don't have it yet - we get a real tree and to make sure it lasts we usually wait until the first or second weekend of December to get it. I will be adding a few pictures of it to this article, which I'll let you know about in the newsletter (so if you're not a subscriber, click to fill out the form here or at the bottom to not miss a thing!)
I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my galvanized, dark green and buffalo plaid simple Christmas decor! I wish you the best this holiday season and hope that I can have some part in helping to make it special for you. Thank you for stopping by and 'visiting' - I appreciate each and every one of you!
Sources for items shown above:
- Buffalo Check Pillows
- 12 Buffalo Check Napkins (really great quality for the price!)
- Eddie Bauer Buffalo Check & Fleece Throw
- Green stripe pillows no longer available - here are some dark green linen pillows to get a similar look for a great price.
- Small Galvanized Houses – here's a tutorial to make your own.
- Lamb’s Ear Garland and Lamb's Ear Picks (very realistic).
- Slim Gold/Brass Candlesticks - The link is similar to the ones I have – also look at thrift stores.
- Galvanized Tags.
- Glass Vintage Look Garland
- Frosted Leaves & Pearl Garland
- Green Cotton Tablecloth. I bought this from H&M Home, but it’s no longer available in this color. Here’s a similar one.
- Galvanized Holiday Greens Container
- Bottle Brush Trees (plus regular small faux trees)- you can find similar here.
- Christmas sentiment pillows - each year H&M has one as part of their holiday collection for around $6. This is the pillow for this year (in green, red, or white/red).
- Mini Faux Cedar Wreaths
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