Christmas Decor

I hope this post finds you happy, healthy, and in the holiday spirit! This week I am going to show you a few of the ways I decorated our home for Christmas this season. 

First, the trees. I normally put up three Christmas trees: one upstairs, one downstairs, and one in my daughter's room. Our living room tree is always the first to go up (as in the day after Halloween...that's right, I said Halloween) and the last tree to be taken down (as in mid February...I usually succumb to guilt and peer pressure around Valentine's Day).

Because it's up for so long,
it really needs to blend in with the everyday decor of our house.
I use sea grass orbs and mercury glass bulbs to decorate it...
two things I could admire all year long.

This tree usually PACIFIES me for awhile 

and I'm able to hold off until December to bring out the more traditional Xmas trees.  

We always put our "family tree" downstairs.
The kids decorate it with all of our keep-sake and home-made ornaments. 

It's imperfectly perfect and always my favorite tree each year.

Unbeknownst to my dear husband, I made an executive decision last spring to replace our old family tree (aka...disposed of it in three large garbage bags strategically placed in the dumpster over a three week period) with this 8 foot pencil tree from True Value. He would have insisted 'it was fine', but after eighteen years of loyal service it shed more than our Basset Hound and was about as barren as Charlie Brown's tree.

While we're downstairs I might as well show you a few pics of our basement.
My most recent purchase is this grapevine deer head from Pottery Barn.
I just love it!
My husband and son are avid hunters
so having a faux deer head in the house is kind of comical.
I'm actually surprised they've tolerated it as well as they have.
Go figure...?

As you can see, our basement is very woodsy. 

We keep Uncle Herb's saddle, wreaths,

 

garland, and my vintage sewing spools displayed year round. 

Ok, let's head back upstairs 

and I'll show you the last of the three Christmas trees. 

Our daughter, Emersyn, gets a full sized tree in her bedroom 

simply because she has the space for one. 

What a lucky little girl!

She decorates it with disco balls and shimmering ornaments 

all by herself and thinks it's as beautiful and grand 

as the tree standing in Rockefeller Center.

Edyn doesn't have the space for a full sized tree, but her room is still festive.

 

She has a vintage jewelry tree I got at an antique mall years ago and 

these white stockings I made from old table linens and blankets.

This year we added these $2 cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby. 

I glued chevron cardstock to some of their their fronts and
picked up a couple Xs so we could switch 

HO HO HO to XOXO in February. (I know! Clever, right!?!)

Finally I want to show you how I wrapped some our packages this year. 

I used a combination of 

craft paper from the Walmart stationary section, 

holiday gift wrap, twine, and scraps of burlap.

Then I picked up some alphabet stickers 

from the Target dollar section to personalize the packages.

(Target's dollar section is duh-bomb!)

The rest of the materials 

(ribbon, trim, printed gift boxes, pine cones, etc.)

were left over from years past.

Now the big question is:

Will our basset, Blanche, leave them alone under the tree?*?*?

As always, thanks for reading 13 County Custom Finishes. 

I hope all of you have a 

WONDER CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

I'll see ya next year...

~Wendy

Dark Walnut and Aubusson Blue Bench (Part III)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We were blessed to spend it with both sides of the family this year. Two delicious turkeys in one day;)

If you've been following the blog you know I've been updating the benches in my home over the past couple of weeks. Here's the church pew I refinished in ASCP Graphite...

Part I: Graphite Church Pew

and this is the ASCP Country Grey bench and chevron seat cushion I made.

Part II: Country Grey Bench & Chevron Cushion

Today I'm going to show you my third and final bench project. I paid $20 for this six foot bench at a local garage sale. It's been hanging out in my basement for the past couple of years patiently waiting to be refinished.

This might be a good time to talk about the term 'refinish'. I use it pretty loosely on this blog. Technically I should probably reserve it for occasions such as this when I actually strip, stain, and urethane a piece of furniture. Refinishing furniture is a multi-step process that's much more labor intensive than 'just' painting something. I suppose I'm comfortable branding my painted pieces as 'refinished' because of the waxing process involved with chalk paint. The Annie Sloan line offers amazing colors but it's really the wax that gives my pieces a special finish. Special enough to use the term refinished. (That and I usually just do what I want. You should try it <if you're over 40>. It's incredibly freeing.) 

For this project I used Zinsser Fast Strip to remove the first few layers of latex paint,

then sanded down the remaining paint, stain, and varnish with my electric sander.
(Late November + sanding outdoors for over an hour = BRRRRR!!!)

I wanted the piece to have a layered look

so I purposely left a tiny bit of the old white paint on the top and sides.

For a little more character I added just a smidgen of ASCP Aubusson Blue
and gave it two coats of Dark Walnut stain. The real magic happened
AFTER
I applied a couple coats of Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane.

WHALLAH...

Well, what'cha think?

 Should I love it or list it?

I'm going to...

love it.

 

The semi-gloss finish is absolutely gorgeous over the rich Dark Walnut stain.



 The flecks of color make it so unique...like a piece of artwork.

My husband doesn't know it yet, but we're going to take the bench to the cabin 

and set it behind the couch 

(until I can talk him into making a sofa table...shhh!) 

The dark patina of the bench will offer a beautiful contrast 

to the pine walls and ceilings.

As always thanks for reading 13CCF. 

Be sure to join me next week to see the chest of drawers I refinished
to go with this bench!

~Wendy

Country Grey Bench with Chevron Burlap Cushion (Part II)

In Part I of the "bench series" I refinished a church pew with Annie Sloan Graphite Chalk Paint and Clear Wax.

church pew in ASCP Graphite

This week I'm going to show you how I spruced up a bench my husband made for me using some rough sawn timber he found in the cellar after we first moved into our home. Herb and Valerine, the previous owners, had been using the wood for shelves to store their canned goods. Don didn't use any nails when he built the bench. The whole thing is doweled together and incredibly sturdy. He's made me lots of things over the years but this piece is truly one of my favorites. I consider it a keepsake and will always have a place for it in my home.

To begin with I painted the under coat with ASCP Paris Grey.

Then I topped that with ASCP Country Grey and Clear Wax.

It was my first time using Country Grey chalk Paint.
It's a nice neutral hue that can be paired with other colors
if you're ever in the market for a two tone piece.

The next step was to make a seat cushion.
Geometric patterns are very popular right now
so I decided to look for patterned fabric. 

I found this blue chevron burlap at Walmart for less than $5 a yard.

I was a little leery to work with burlap because of it's loose weave
but it really wasn't that hard to sew.

I just double stitched the edges so I wouldn't have to worry about it 

unraveling while I was working with it.

The cushion? I made it several years ago. 

I was a stay at home mom when my children were young 

so I was always trying to save money and decorate on a budget. 

Here's the thing:  I love-love-love feather pillows.
It's like....Burger King or McDonalds, Coke or Pepsi.
People always have a strong preference and I am 100% feather/down filled pillows.

I used to pick them up on clearance all the time just to get the feather insert. 

Then when I found the perfect fabric or polyester throw pillow, 

I would make the insert from my stash of feather pillows.

 WHAT A MESS trying to sew and stuff those feathers into the cases!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good gravy I must have been crazy!!! LOL! I can't believe I did that. No matter how hard I tried to contain the feathers, it always looked like
a chicken had exploded in my kitchen....
and have you ever tried to sweep feathers???

Oh well, I'm still reaping the benefits of my early days of sewing "enthusiasm". 

Last month I bought half a dozen pillow covers on clearance at Pottery Barn for $10 each.

Good deal, right? 

Unfortunately, their inserts are sold separately for an additional 20 bucks apiece 

so I ended up coming home with just the pillow covers. 

Low and behold I found six 20 x 20 feather inserts stock piled in my storage room. Six! Insane. 

I tell you this story, not because I want you to think I'm a feather pillow hoarder, 

but because it's good to laugh at ourselves sometimes. 

Sadly, I probably have enough material to keep you laughing for a very long time.

Anyways...here's the final product.

What do you think?

I love it.

I love how the rough sawn wood and

Paris Grey show through.

I opted to add a couple buttons for closure.

 

The Country Grey is more of the bone color rather than off white or creamy.

 

It will look great behind my denim sofa downstairs.

 

As always, thanks for reading! Be sure to visit 13CCF next week to check out  

PART III of the bench series!

~Wendy