Christmas Home Tour: Dining Room

A few days I showed you my decorated living room. Today, I will show you my dining room, which is more decked out than I anticipated! In other words, lots of photos.

When we first moved into this house, the dining room was covered with icky, peeling, beige wallpaper. I took it all down, only to find cracked plaster underneath. So, I did a texturizing and faux painting technique and have really loved how it turned out. I did keep the wood paneling, simply because I did not have the resources to get rid of it, but perhaps someday soon I will.

Without further ado, here is what Christmas time looks like in the Overstuffed dining room!

When you walk into the room from the living room, this is your first view. I took this photo after dark, because that’s when I love my home the best. Even though photographically, it isn’t as great.

I had a different (better) table runner on the table until the other day when my daughter and her friend spilled hot chocolate all over it. It is not yet out of the laundry. This one will just have to do for now.

To the left of the table is the hutch. I decked it out with boughs of holly, some peppermint striped candles, and this fun Christmas tree shaped candle holder. Instead of candles, I used glass Christmas balls on it.

I didn’t do much with the inside of the hutch. It needs to be arranged better anyway. But I did put my Precious Moments nativity set inside. My husband started buying me pieces of it when we were very first married. I would get a piece of the nativity each Christmas for about the first five years of our marriage. My personal style and taste has evolved much since then, but I still love this nativity set because so much sentimentality is attached to it.

Next to the hutch is the doorway to the kitchen, and next to the doorway is a tallboy where I keep linens and other various items.

I designed the printable specifically to match those Christmas trees. If you are interested in printing one for yourself, click here: Six Christmas Printables Based on Beloved Christmas Hymns.

Directly across from the table is the sideboard. I keep our fruit basket on it, but also decorate it up for the fall and winter holidays.

I filled an oversized Mason jar with gold ornaments and some lighted branches. I love how they run on a timer and come on just at dusk and stay on for about four hours. Otherwise, I’d have to either have them be on all the time or dump out the jar twice every day to turn it on and off.

I like how the berry wreath looks on my wrought iron decoration so much that I may just decide to keep it up all year long!

I love the NOEL blocks, purchased on an after Christmas clearance last year. They go well with my Christmas photo frame, which holds one of my favorite Christmas pictures ever taken of the girls. (It was our first Christmas in this house, you can read the original post and see a larger photo here: Christmas 2009).

To the right of the sideboard is a radiator. I have put my Willow Tree nativity set there, along with some greenery.

To the right of the radiator is a window, and next to the window, I put another Christmas tree. I had had some other ideas for decorating it, but never got around to it, so this is how it has remained all month. Maybe next year.

Now we’ve made a full circle of the room. To the right of the tree is the archway we entered from. I love to tape all of the Christmas cards I receive on that archway. We haven’t received a ton yet this year (I’m hoping it’s just because everyone is as behind as I am this year–mine only went out a couple days ago!).

And, lest you think that my home is always looking perfectly clean at Christmas time, I’ll zoom out a bit and show you the truth.

Yes, you can see the festive mistletoe and the Christmas cards, and I even cleaned off the table so I could take these photos. Look closely, though, and you’ll see the piles of laundry I still have not folded in the living room while my husband works on getting the last bits of work done for the semester.

And because I know I won’t get to them later, here are a couple bonus photos of some of my favorite Christmas decor. Both our in the living room, but I didn’t include them last time.

This is on the piano. I just love the feather Christmas tree, and I enjoy how it looks on the candlestick.

And here is our electronics charging station—this is where we have always put the main Christmas tree until this year, but nobody wanted to give up the convenience of charging up devices there! So we moved the tree by the fireplace (which I have loved) and kept this here.

I made the red wreath last Christmas when the Anthropologie inspired pom-pom wreaths were all the rage. Most of them were white (I made a white one, too. Look closely at the photo of my laundry on the floor and you’ll find it), but I made a red one as well. I made all the pom-poms by hand while traveling in the car to the orthodontist (don’t worry! My husband was driving) and then glued them onto a wreath form. Love how they turned out.

That chalkboard has been there all year. I have put various quotes on it, meant to remind me of my word of the year for 2014. This quote, of course, is no different. My word is peace.

I hope all of you have a wonderfully merry and peaceful Christmas this year!

Merry Christmas!