2015 Christmas Home Tour: A Canadian Prairie Christmas

Christmas is my favourite time of year and I adore decorating our home for the season. This year, I've teamed up once again with a fantastic group of Canadian bloggers to share with you our Holiday home tours. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the line-up for the week - you'll be so inspired! Our decor this year is a little traditional (I've brought back the red), a little country, and a little quirky. As always, I've incorporated lots of DIY elements, vintage elements, and family-friendly additions that make our house ready for any family gathering this Christmas. I hope you enjoy this year's Christmas home tour: A Canadian Prairie Christmas! Stay on the lookout for DIY Tips, Styling Tips and Free Downloads scattered throughout this post. I want to make sure you leave this page with some free goodies.

Welcome to our home. You're just in time for the first big snowfall of the year! Usually we have a lot more snow up here by now (we're in Alberta, Canada). This year has been extra mild.

We built our home all on our own in 2013. For more on that, read this post.

This is our dog, Tippy. She's the scariest guard dog you'll ever see in your life.

Styling Tip: Prop up faux evergreen trees in large buckets or baskets on either side of your front door for instant and inexpensive Christmas curb appeal.

Styling Tip: Use a blanket scarf as an outdoor throw on porch chairs. Click here to learn how to make one.

I hung wreaths from all of our lower front windows, and I love the look! It's just so very festive.

DIY Tip: Click here to learn how to make a porch curtain out of a dropcloth.

Here's the first thing you see when you enter our home - my keyboard & this lovely antique window & mirror! It's in our formal sitting room, and I'll share more of that room later.

Styling Tip: Mix real greens - like this cedar and pine garland with faux greens - like this little plant - for a sneaky combo of higher and lower-end cost Christmas decor.

Our entry cabinet on the other side is decked out with the bowl of pinecones from the Fall with the addition of some fresh greens and a sparkly tree decoration.

On our stair railings, I've tied some beautiful faux boxwood garlands and adorned them with sparkly little red ornaments.

Come on in to the family room! Here's where we spend most of our time as a family.

Do you spot anything new here? I finally have the couch pair of my dreams! I've always wanted a matching pair of sofas for this room, and when I spotted these lovely leather sofas from The Brick, I knew they were just the ticket.

This is the Davina Genuine Leather Sofa, and I love its mix of contemporary and classic. The tufting on the back is so chic, and I'm in love with the wooden trim and legs on the bottom.

These were delivered all the way out to our house from The Brick, and it was a great experience! The delivery guys were lovely and I couldn't be happier with our new pair of couches.

As much as I like the look of light furniture, I will always go back to dark leather for our main pieces (like these couches). Especially after the "pink marker disaster of 2015", dark leather is such a great choice for my little (and mischievous!) family.

DIY Tip: String ornaments & tags on an old door for a fun & unique advent calendar. For the free printable tags and more instructions, visit this post.

I found this beautiful Merry Christmas sign from Woodwerx.

Our Christmas mantel this year is a fun mix of little trees, neutral colours, and tons of texture. There's lots going on here, so I opted for a soft pallette of white, black and green for the mantel decor.

Free Download: Download your free PDF copy of this "Let It Snow" artwork I made for our mantel by clicking here. It's a large 24" by 36" design that you can get printed at your local copy shop as an engineering print.

DIY Tip: Click here for a free pattern and tutorial on how to make these linen burlap Christmas stockings.

DIY Tip: Tie some silver bells onto some rustic twine for an adorable and festive garland.

Styling Tip: Stuff stockings with faux greens until they're stuffed with gifts!

Styling Tip: Place a basket or two near your sofas to store extra pillows and blankets inside.

Styling Tip: Reserve a few sprigs of greenery from a live garland to use in other places around the house like this coffee table tray.

Tucked in the corner of our living room is our nativity set that the girls love to play with.

Our tree this year is decorated almost the same as last year's, but I've sprinkled a few red ornaments throughout. It's amazing how much of a difference only a half dozen red bulbs makes!

Now, come into our kitchen. It's the heart of our home! With a four year old daughter that LOVES to bake, we spend a ton of time in here too.

I had a little fun this year and decided to make some new drapes for our breakfast nook in a festive red plaid.

DIY Tip: Learn how to make your own easy rod pocket or ring clip drapes by clicking here.

For this year's Christmas table setting, I opted for a colour scheme of black, white and red.

I'm still madly in love with this rustic centerpiece box my friend made for me, and I've filled it here with faux greens, pinecones, candles and faux berries.

Styling Tip: Save old faux garlands to use as centerpiece accents or to cut and use to embellish gifts.

The chargers are made of paper! I designed them and had them printed at my print shop on 24" x 36" paper. (As you can see, I'm a tad bit addicted to cheap engineering prints lately!)

Free Download: Click here to download your free PDF version of these black and white Christmas placemats.

On top of my napkins, I placed some faux berries and a gingerbread cookie.

DIY Tip: Here's my favourite gingerbread cookie recipe!

Hanging on our art rod are these sweet galvanized ornaments.

DIY Tip: Learn how to make this large Winter wall hanging by clicking here.

We have some new furniture additions in the kitchen, too!

Meet our new stools - also from The Brick.

I wanted some more neutral stools for our kitchen to coordinate with the new drapes. I was also looking for something comfortable and safe for our kids. These beautiful Moriann Counter Stools were perfect!

I love the wings and the nail head detailing. The distressed legs are one of my favourite parts, too!

I hung wreaths on our kitchen cupboard doors like last year, but I changed the ribbon to red to tie into the drapes.

DIY Tip: Form old faux garlands into a circle and secure them with floral wire to make inexpensive Christmas wreaths of any size.

DIY Tip: Glue the edges of coffee filters to a styrofoam or scrapbook paper cone to make ruffled tree decorations.

Styling Tip: Corral various seasonal and kitchen items on your counters with a pretty tray.

Around the corner in our front room, I've added a plush red throw to the settee for some festive cheer along with a faux evergreen and a snow globe to the coffee table.

And here we are at the keyboard again!

DIY Tip: Learn how to sew your own keyboard or side table fitted skirt by clicking here.

Last but not least, here's a cozy last look at our master bedroom.

The addition of some faux greens and changing out the textile to cozy picks like linen, fur and flannel makes our room feel warm and festive.

Care for coffee and a cookie?

Merry Christmas, friends!

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Now it's time to take a tour of my Canadian blogging friends' gorgeous homes. Come back each day to see a new set of home tours from Monday to Thursday this week.

Monday:

AKA Design

Northern Style Exposure

The DIY Mommy

Tuesday:

The Creek Line House

Restoration House

Wednesday:

Suburble

The Happy Housie

Nalle's House

Thursday:

Clean and Scentsible

Fynes Designs

Rambling Renovators 

A Pop of Pretty

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by The Brick. As always, all of the opinions here are my own. I only recommend companies that I use and love myself.