Bieber's Home Christmas Tour 2020

Hello and Welcome! I really miss spending more time on here with you all but do look forward to this annual tradition over the holidays! To be honest, two days ago such a tour didn’t even cross my mind. It’s been a slow roll out of holiday decor and each year it feels like we use less, with more emphasis on the items that spark the most joy. But as I placed a couple branches of boxwood haphazardly straddling our bedside reading lights, I remembered how magical the little things feel to me, and even worth sharing on our cozy corner of the web.

So with that, get yourself a warm drink and come on in!

My style lean with this house is that narrow margin where cozy meets minimal. With three kiddos it doesn’t take much for our home to feel cluttered, so I just don’t decorate with a lot on the walls or around the space. What I do use has to carry a lot of impact and lend to the goal of a warm and inviting home. For Christmas the goal is the same! This rug came from our bedroom (I swapped the two rooms’ rugs), and the brass mirror from our family room downstairs. Immediate warmth!

Before we continue I should share, for anyone new, that I have a tradition of naming our tree each year based on a celebrity/character I think it resembles. We’ve had Rosemary Clooney, Paul Pheiffer and everyone in between. This year, I’d like to introduce you to ‘Marilyn’:

I mean, it’s uncanny if you ask me.

The layout is a touch snug to accommodate the tree, but I don’t hate it! This is home in every way.

I’ve slowly been adding to our kilim collection this last year as the colors and patterns breath so much vibrancy into this space! After adding a few touches of Christmas, they have taken on a very merry vibe, indeed! The pillows, coasters, and even Albus’ bed by the fire, all add to the warmth of this home.

Our mantle this year is my favorite element! It’s messy and wispy and so very ‘us’. We aren’t a formal household by ANY means, and I think sometimes mantles can look a lot more formal than the rest of a home. I wanted to keep it low key but still special for this very dear season.

These two…what a pair.

Quick stop in the dining room before we move on! It’s a light touch but I could not love this more. I think as I’ve grown into my own style and taken the time to collect pieces I love that work well for my family, I’ve used less surrounding decor. What I see below is the contrast of the rich chocolate leather dining chairs with the whitewashed table I refinished last Summer, and the saturated black china cabinet (another summer project). It feels like a cozy English pub with no extra fuss. The magnolia is the only holiday addition here (aside from the angels Shire arranged in the cabinet), and all this room needs to feel ‘extra’ over the holidays.

Come on down to our family room - a rarely shared space!

This is our play room and TV room, so we use this room hard! I think this is only the second time I’ve really done anything decorative with it for the holidays, but I need to replicate this every year because the kids have LOVED it!

These cafe lights are on pretty much all day. Sometimes I’ll notice a kid has brought their laptop down here to do virtual school under the lights. How fun!

Heading up to our bedrooms, let’s take a peek into Shire’s first! There is just something magical about her freshly painted mint green walls with the rich Christmas greens, reds and brass.

My sister graciously gave Shire her American Girl Doll tree a few years ago on loan, and it’s the number one item Shire looks forward to unpacking every holiday season. Such a special piece that reminds her of her Aunt.

I think it’s safe to say Shire’s room feels festive even without the garland or Santa pillow LOL! It’s definitely the saturated floral curtains - they’re always fun, but especially fitting at Christmas!

Last stop ( because NO ONE needs to see the boys’ room)! I swapped the living room rug with this room, so now this room has a gorgeous light blue kilim rug which I’m especially enjoying with the mossy green duvet and rust colors peppered around!

A swag of boxwood hanging from each bedside sconce is it for this space, but what a fun touch to add for a few weeks! Because it’s the only additional element for the holidays it feels more impactful.

Imperfect and asymmetrical, yes. But impactful, nonetheless.

That’s a wrap on this years holiday home tour! If you’re in the mood for a little trip down memory lane, here's 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015. I wish you and your family a very wonderful holiday season. I know much looks different right now from years past, and I won’t make light of the very personal struggles you have personally felt this year. But I hope that joy finds you wherever you are today.

‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow’
Romans 15:13

Thank you so much for coming by! This community is precious to us and we appreciate you so very much.

Much love,

Matt + Chelsea's Christmas Home Part 1: Bedrooms

Hi there! It’s that time of year again, to open our doors wide and have you all in for a visit! While I’m not the most sentimental person, I do embrace tradition and this is one of my favorites when it comes to our blog. Really, in a perfect world we would all live near enough to invite each other over in person for warm drinks and holiday merriment. But, how sweet to get to reach out to you in this way; I really am grateful for this unusual and unexpected form of community which has blossomed into some RL friendships and, most surprisingly, an interesting way to earn a living!

To keep things short and sweet around here I split our Christmas tour into two days. Today I’m just sharing the bedrooms and I’ll be back on Friday with the main living spaces. We have three bedrooms in our home - the Master, Shire’s room, and Colin and Mason’s shared room. If you caught my last post you saw how we turned their room into our Guest Room for holiday visitors, but all is back to normal now. I should tell you ahead of time - I don’t do a whole lot in bedrooms for the holidays. Simplicity is ever calling my name, so instead I emphasized cozier textures for these colder months; thicker bedding, softer pillows, etc.

So welcome in, one and all! Come as you are is always my rule. We hope you enjoy!

Master Bedroom

Confession - I usually strongly dislike extra pillows on our bed. I just really enjoy a simple bed, (and being able to pull down the blankets and crawl in without the fuss of moving extra pillows around). But, our bedroom has a TV and the kids do watch it more with us in the colder months, so I grabbed a couple velvety soft shams and faux fur throw pillows to make it a more comfortable place when the gang piles on.

Let’s see, what else - oh! The balsam fir candle! Our christmas tree smell isn’t quite making it to our bedroom so I’m goin’ with the faux. I mean, if we’re not overstimulating all our senses this time of year what are we even doing? Hah!

Shire’s Room

Her room feels festive without even trying. The colors in here want for nothing! Just a couple special touches, (like the American Girl Kirsten Christmas Tree on loan from my sweet sister).

Funny story - I found that tiny wreath in the Target $5 section early in the Fall and thought it a cute wreath. When I took the tag off it started to unravel and I realized it was a garland. Oops. But I paper-clipped it back together; not to worry! Lol!

Colin + Mason’s Room

This room has just sort of evolved and come together like a happy accident. The elements in here have been collected/DIY’ed over years and they somehow just perfectly represent Colin and Mason and this stage of their life. I stenciled these birch trees maybe 5 or 6 years ago and they are especially fun at Christmastime.

Ah yes, can’t leave out the Bisou Natural air freshener satchel. That cute little ‘JOY’ bag hanging on the accordion wrack is hard at work cleaning the air. It’s filled with activated bamboo charcoal, which naturally removes odors, bacteria and excess moisture from the air. And do you know what carries around excess moisture? Prepubescent boys and older. Find out more here and shop for your own!

That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed a few quiet moments to yourself while you were here. I so appreciate you stopping by!

Pinch of Merriment Home Tour

You know, I really debated whether or not to even take photos of our home over the holidays this year to share here - I feel like every year I do less and less out of preference for simplicity in this house! But Cate and I just love celebrating home in all its forms, be it a bedroom to call your own, temporary military base housing, or the home you’ve lived in for 35 years. This home of ours has gone through so much as our family has grown and evolved within its walls. And it dawned on me that sharing it here has been an unexpected way of documenting life as we know it! So I share our home today less for today, and more for the future, when I will look back on this chapter and remember how very good it was, indeed.

Since I just shared our main floor after the kitchen reno, let’s start upstairs in the master!

Just a swag of fresh garland from Trader Joes, ($7.50 for 15ft), and we’re done! Odds and ends from the kids tend to find our bedroom fast, so I really like taking advantage of the wall over the bed for one pretty thing, rather than adding more items to our surfaces.

And on our main floor we would like to introduce you to this years tree, Mariah Carey! Every year I have named our Christmas tree after a person, (fictional or real), based on looks or personality - we’ve had Paul Pheiffer from the Wonder Years, Rosemary Clooney…. This year our tree has been a total nut. It refuses to stand up straight and has fallen over, so if you look really closely you can see the fishing line my husband is using to hold it upright. It’s not even standing on it’s own accord!!!! I had to name our 2018 tree after the diva herself, (it’s lustrous needles sure are pretty, after all). And yes, I prepped that star before taking a photo and it was straight before I turned around to take the shot. You get the name now?

Other than Mariah, just a few little things peppered around this space. Most of it has either been gifted, or I found at a holiday craft fair our first year of marriage - I hit up every single one in a 20 mile radius that year, not even kidding!

I’m very excited about one little project I worked in this season - the bench of my dreams! After Cate designed and started making these to order last Fall, I have been eager to make one for our own home! I actually commissioned one for a design client who’s bedroom I was working on last Winter, but to finally have one of our own is such a treat. I love it! Cate’s very easy to follow tutorial can be found here for anyone curious.

Still getting used to this view! That deep teal island used to be an L shaped wall!

One of my favorite objectives when I am decorating, whether it’s my own home or for a client, is to create as much impact with as few items as possible. I’m not a stone-cold minimalist, but I sure do crave simplicity! It’s funny the things that strike our fancy, isn’t it?

Wrapping this thing up at the kitchen! Isn’t that where company always ends up? I have been loving it in here since we took down that wall, but not by myself! The best part has been using it together! Having this space to interact with each other and with guests is the gift that keeps on giving.

I hope you enjoyed the tour, but mostly that you were able to relax and take advantage of a few moments of peace while you were scrolling through! Those moments are hard to come by these next couple weeks but the Lord can use even the brief ones to rest and restore us. We invite you back on Monday for a tour of Cate’s holiday home, and then next Wednesday, December 19 I’m giving away TWO gift cards to a very sweet and talented friend’s home goods shop. I don’t secret well so I’d better jet before it all spills out. See ya next Wednesday, friends!

Thank you so much for coming by today!

*Have some shopping to do? Check out our gift-buying guide here!

*Need a Christmas tree skirt? Our favorites are here!