2018 Christmas Home Tour

Christmas Decorations DIY and Affordable!! If creating a beautiful home this holiday season while on a budget sounds like something you can relate too, me too! Today I am sharing our home decorated for Christmas and how I did it on a budget while using some simple DIY's to pull it all together. This year when I set out to add Christmas decor to our home I had a completely different mindset. First of all we are in a rental. This automatically changes the landscape of my decor. It also means that I am limited to what I decorate with and how I decorate. To keep things as rental friendly as possible I solved this problem by only decorating on surfaces. I'll share more about what I mean about "surface decorating" in a few. Secondly I had a huge mindset change in how I want to decorate moving forward. This is not a new concept or idea just a new realization for me. In the last 4 years that I have been decorating my home for the holidays and sharing it here on my blog I have had this un-realistic idea that I need to have a new theme for my Christmas decorations each year. This has been fun and I have enjoyed the creativity that this has encouraged! But Its time make a change! This year I have adopted what I am calling my "capsule" Christmas decorations collection. This means that the spaces I have decorated this year will use the same items next year and look nearly the same! I know maybe that seems kind of boring but hear me out! I always get so focused on re-creating the main spaces in our home that I am pretty much spent by the time I'm done! and so is my budget! I always want to decorate more spaces such as my kids rooms, master bedroom etc. front porch etc. But, by the time I'm done re-creating a brand new look and theme in the main areas of our home there is no energy or budget to decorate the other corners of my home. My solution is to stick with a main theme and same decor year after year. I know this is basically what most normal humans do! But as blogger I got way over my head and stopped thinking like a real home owner and practical decorator! So the time has come to cease the extravagant and completely re-imagined home decor year after year and keep it stream lined and simple! I also hope that this will have a couple trickle effects. The first being I only purchase or create things I absolutely and truly love. For starters. I kinda splurged on some new garland this year for my Christmas decorations. I found this full and beautiful faux cedar garland from Hobby Lobby and loved it instantly! The Haley last year would have said no simply because it would have eaten up my whole budget to re-create a brand new look. This year I said absolutely and didn't even hesitate to put it in my cart! I know it will be a staple item to create a specific look and feel I'll love year after year. Garland is also so versatile and while it may be hanging on my hutch this year. Next year I could always put it somewhere new! The point is I truly love it and not just because it goes with the "theme" but because its quality and a great foundation piece for my Christmas decorations that I can build on. The second trickle effect I hope this has is memories and traditions. I came from a home where my mom was a very simple home decorator. She had the same staple pieces that she decorated with year after year and I would get so excited as a kid when my "favorite items" would re-appear. They became part of the holiday traditions in our home and made the season that more special and sentimental! I hope by using the same decor one year to the next my kids will also start to remember the pieces they love and get excited whey they come out of storage! The final reasonI am excited about this capsule Christmas Decor concept is the affect it will have on my wallet! This year I gave my self a little bit of a bigger budget as I really collected things I loved and wanted to set the foundation of my Christmas decor. I also came across items I just loved so much and this made it easy to splurge a little. There have been years where this has not been the case and I have struggled to find items I really loved at Christmas time adding very little to my collection! I took advantage of my vision and my local retailers being on the same page and that means next year I really don't have to add a single item to these currently decorated spaces!! That means while I may have spent a little more than I typically do my decor is set!! I won't have to spend a penny on decorating these spaces next year. That is very exciting for me!! Keep Reading and find all my sources HERE: https://themountainviewcottage.net/ch... Music is from the artist Borrtex and I attribute all music and artistry to him his information and licensing info can be found here:   / borrtexofficial   Affilate links:  My stockings are out of stock but these are very similar https://amzn.to/2KAPe01