Welcome to my Christmas kitchen! Can I offer you a lukewarm Pellegrino? Just kidding. That would be mildly unpleasant. And to let you in on a little secret, those bottles are actually all empty. I stuck them in my new Christmas present to myself because they looked so pretty and matched my decor better than the red wine bottles that were previously there. But before we dive into all the delightful kitchen details, I have to be honest up front and let you know that for “Part 2” of my home tour, I had the best intentions of showing you Christmas decor in the kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and at least one bathroom. However, my family has simply had enough.  Mommy, please stop decorating! Sometimes you just need to back away from the garland, plop your bum on the couch, and watch the movie Elf for the 5,247th time with your kids!
First we’ll make snow angels for two hours, then we’ll go ice skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we’ll snuggle.” -Buddy, Elf
Around here, Christmas is about celebrating Jesus, keeping family traditions, and making new family memories. The pretty decorations just help set the stage–and my fam said enough with the staging already. So, I hope you’ll enjoy my beautifully decorated Christmas kitchen. I’m kind of in love with it this year!
Today I’m honored to be part of Lindsay’s Blogger Stylin’ Home Tours – Christmas 2014. You can click the link to start the tour from the beginning so you don’t miss a thing. If you are visiting from Jennifer Rizzo‘s lovely home, a special welcome to you! I hope you’ll check out my Christmas Home Tour Part 1. (Pssst. You can click the link to have an additional tab opened  to save for later to see the main portion of my home.)Â
For those of you new to my home, our family lives in an urban row home and our house has a very open concept floor-plan on the main level. Our little breakfast nook sees a lot of action throughout the day. It is where meals are shared, homework is fussed over, belly laughs are enjoyed, and most of our parenting (for better or for worse) happens.
I typically keep decor in this area very simple because the table is small and we use it for everything. For a centerpiece, I placed my DIY Christmas Mason Jars on some mercury glass candlesticks and surrounded them with a wreath. These Christmas Mason Jars take minutes to make and look so sweet. Click the link for instructions.
My Christmas decor this year incorporated a lot natural elements, with metallics, grays and blacks. I knew I wanted the kitchen to match the rest of the home so chose black and white buffalo check and Christmas kitchen chalkboard art to bring a Christmasy feel to the space.
Fresh greenery always helps to make the everyday feel like a holiday! The milk crate baskets were a find from Target several years ago and are more than just decorative. They are filled to the brim with supplements and vitamins. I bought a pack of buffalo check fabric napkins on clearance for $3Â and used them to hide the mess.
And here is another great tip for you! Create faux decorative plates for any season using images from your printer. My chalkboard plates are not chalkboards at all. They are just circles of paper! I found these free printables online, resized, printed, cut and taped them to the plates. Voila! Cute kitchen chalkboard art plates that cost me nothing other than printer ink and a few sheets of paper.
In the windowsill, I used some metal pails and mini-Christmas trees. I love their simplicity.
The Santa teapot is the one we used growing up. My mom would make French Hot Chocolate for us every Christmas morning and the warmed milk would be served in this Santa. I continue the tradition with my own boys. The little chalkboard ornaments are something I made back when dinosaurs roamed the blogosphere. 😉 I dusted them off and knew they’d look great this year on my cake plates.
Our hot chocolate station, complete with marshmallows and candy canes, stands on-the-ready for those rosy-cheeked days!
And to balance out the refined-sugar coma, I have a bowl of fruit siting out for us to much on. Well, okay, as of yet no one has munched on a raw cranberry–except for a dog who must have found one on the floor that rolled away–but we DOÂ eat the apples and pomegranates! I love to put fresh pomegranate seeds on my salads this time of year.
One more shot of the entire Christmas kitchen for you.
And I’ll end with this public service announcement that should be remembered and obeyed this season:
Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting me! Your next stop on the tour is Jennifer from Dimples & Tangles.
Thanks for sharing your Christmas decorating. It is simply lovely. I found the printables you enlarged for your plates, however I have no idea how you enlarge the download to fit a plate. I would appreciate your sharing. Thanks, Sue
You’re welcome! I think I just saved the photo, opened it in Word, and enlarged it to the size I wanted.
Love the little mason jars with the trees in them – so adorable!
Beth! I love your kitchen! It is just lovely with the perfect amount of decor. My boys asked me to stop putting stuff everywhere too. I left half of my decor in the bins this year. I see a giant garage sale in my future! Merry Christmas! It’s been so much fun being on both tours with you this year! xox, Emily @ 11gables.blogspot.com
LOVE your Christmas kitchen! It’s so festive and elegant!
I’ve always loved your kitchen, but it is especially pretty at Christmastime! Thanks for that tip about the chalkboard printables. I wanted a little something to go inside some white plates and I found it here! Merry Christmas!
Beth, I just love your pretty Christmas kitchen! I just love pine garlands and the festivity they bring in! I would just sit in here and stare!
Beautiful kitchen! Everything works together so well! and I love your Christmas present to yourself :).
I have those Target milk crates, too, and am so glad I got them. They are so useful for hiding all sorts of things.
Thank you Kim! I am always asked about the Privet crates. I just love them too. Thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to comment!
Your kitchen is beautiful! Love those printables on the plates!
Debbie
ps. and the fact that Christmas calories don’t count 😉
I know, right? My butt hasn’t seem to have received that memo yet but I keep hoping that it will catch on soon! 😉
Your kitchen is so Dreamy!! It’s beautifully decorated, and makes me want to stare at it for days! Absolutely love it!!!!
Thank you so much Amy! Come on over and we can stare at it together. LOL!
Oh!! and I love that you actually showed the whole room, and didn’t just zoom in on a Christmas ball laying on a plate with everything in the background all blurry! But then again, a room that pretty needs to be seen in full techno-color glory!~
LOL! We bloggers are totally guilty as charged. We love our bokeh pictures!
Ha! ha! “Crop” is code for “crap on the floor” in blogland!
Beth, it’s all just beautiful. Lots of inspiration packed into this space–thank you for sharing it! Now I feel inspired to sit down with my fellows (even though they’re 17, 21, and 23!) and watch a Christmas movie–and consume some of those non-counting calories!
Hi Richella! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂 And I highly recommend Christmas movies with your sweet boys…er..men!
Oh your kitchen is decorated so beautifully. I love the greens draped on the cabinets and the tiny little trees in the window. Gorgeous.
Thank you so much Marty!
Everything is simply beautiful! And “Christmas calories don’t count”…. love that!
Thanks sis!
Part 2 is just as pretty as part 1. I love everything including watching Elf!
Thank you Julia!