Christmas Eve

I just wanted to take one last moment to say Merry Christmas to everyone!  I hope all of the hard work and planning pays off and it is a day full of joy and love.  I hope there is lots of squealing, maybe a few happy tears, and some good eating!

Much love from the Charmed Home to yours.

The Playroom

Hi! Come on in for a quick tour of our playroom: 

The playroom is technically a bedroom off of our family room.  We finished the entire room ourselves: electrical, drywall, mud, tape, paint, you name it!  Since we don't need it as a bedroom right now, we thought a room for our kids' toys would be the perfect use for it. The design idea came to be when my mom gave me a toy box that had been mine as a child.  Although I wouldn't generally decorate in red, yellow, & blue, the toy box inspired a primary colored, gender neutral space.  Perfect for our son and daughter!  So many children's items come in those colors, I figured I might as well embrace it.

I got the idea for the wall art from The Land of Nod.  Their posters were in pastel colors though, so I made my own in red, yellow, and blue.

As you can see, that soffit makes for a funny space beside the closet, so we put in some built-in shelves for added storage.  Baskets with labels and that corner was good to go.

On the other side of the room a simple table and chairs with a pottery barn map (in primary colors!). 

My favorite touch we put in the playroom is the french doors.  Its nice to be able to shut the doors, but still be able to see what the kids are up to in there.  If the room ever needs to be used as a bedroom we can put curtains on them in a snap.

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by.  Come again soon!

This post is participating in DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

Mercury Glass

Mercury glass has been everywhere this Christmas season, and I am jumping on the bandwagon.  I really hope it's here to stay for a while.

Last night I found these ornaments on sale at Rod Works.  I love when the Christmas stuff goes on sale before Christmas.  The good price made me feel better when my 2-year-old broke four of them this morning  too =( 

Now the question is, what to do with them?

Christmas Home Tour

 Welcome to The Charmed Home.

This year was a new start of sorts for us. We finished our basement earlier this year, and the upstairs of our house got a makeover when we doubled our living space.  Having a library and a (semi) formal living room to decorate this Christmas is my favorite.

So, here it goes...

When you enter through our front door the first thing you see is the library.  Believe it or not, that is my husband's nutcracker collection.  I am so grateful his parents made a tradition of giving him a nutcracker every year, because now we have an awesome collection.

 Those are my apothecary jars, and I have to tell you, I've been waiting since I bought them last May to fill them with ornaments =)

The rest of the shelves are pretty low-key, with just a few things here and there:

(we keep it real with our Little People Nativity Scene)

In the living room we find the tree:

This is my tricky little spot where the living room transitions into the kitchen with no real way of differentiating one from the other (LOVE that open floor plan!):

So, I used mostly things that matched the living room, and tried to tie it into the kitchen a bit.  Its not perfect, but it works.

 
And, of course, there's mistletoe:

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to head back to The Nester to check out the rest of the homes on tour!