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!

Living Room Fireplace Reveal

So tickled to finally get to share our finished fireplace with you all today! It is an absolute dream; I can’t believe this is the same house we moved into 9+ years ago! A few weeks ago I shared our plan and inspiration here, and now that it’s finished it’s even better than I had expected. As with most projects, some of the details evolved as the build came together, but I think it’s worth sharing the plan I had laid out last January. So almost a year ago!

And here’s where we ended up:

We could not be more grateful to our dear friend, Bill, who spent the better part of 3 weekends coming over to help us with this. To say he is incredibly skilled is a massive understatement, but beyond that even is his generosity. We were so blessed by his knowledge and willingness to help - and all I did was send him home with bacon! Listen, there’s more where that came from for anyone out there who wants to help the Biebers with home projects. Lol!

At the last minute we decided to paint the shelves and bench seat white to let the mantle really stand out. The mantle was removed from our dear friends’ 1960-something fireplace when they started their home renovation. They decided to replace it during their own home reno process, so we lucked out big time - it is SUCH a gorgeous, chunky piece of wood. The years of use have banged it up and faded it’s color and that kind of character is just what our new structure needed.

Funny, we moved the sofa to this side of the room, (it was previously against the windows), just to get it out of the way during the construction. It didn’t take long for us to love it this way! The kids said they prefer it here, facing the fireplace, so I think we’ll leave it! Plus, we’ve got to make space for the Christmas tree this weekend. No idea where it’ll go. Send any suggestions my way because I am stumped! Hah!

Adding a bench to the side was one of my favorite ideas that helped the whole thing come together for me, visually. We didn’t know whether to add shelves to this side, cabinets, or what. It was really tricky to figure this side out! When the thought of a bench with storage inside came into play it was just perfect. Bill created a lid that comes up like a piano bench, and it’s the easiest access to our new hidden storage.

I think I mentioned this in my last post, but link to our actual insert is here, and we are really pleased with the unit. It warms our large open space up very well and is completely safe for little ones, (the glass doesn’t get hot because the warm air is pushed out of a vent only at the top of the unit). The insert itself does not heat up, making it completely safe inside its frame of drywall and 2x4s. The unit is plugged into an outlet accessed inside the storage bench, and we can slide the unit out of the frame anytime we need.

That’s it! Hard to measure what a difference this has made to our home. With such an open floor plan I have already been enjoying having the fireplace on while in the kitchen, during homework time, dinner; it’s just been wonderfully cozy.

Speaking of, here’s a sneak peek at our Christmas mantle…

More Christmas coming soon!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Design Reveal: Charming Living Room in Alexandria

I told my family I was only going to be at this newly completed client home for an hour - hour and a half tops! It was relatively close in nearby Alexandria, and just a small living room. But as it goes, I just had the most fun getting to talk to my sweet client, Annie, in person for the first time since we started working together a few months ago! Five hours later, I did eventually get home. ;)

As we have proven here over and over again, remote interior design, (aka eDesign), is every bit as personal as in-person. We communicate very closely with each and every client regarding every decision on the space. And even though we develop a unique and individualized communication flow with each person, the months of FaceTiming, texting, calling and emailing always come to the same end result: a space that person truly feels is theirs and lucky to call home. As people who love people, this line of work is right up our alley! We adore getting to connect with others and put our heads together to create the very best home that suits their style and needs.

Today’s reveal is really fun because Annie’s style is very eclectic and she had the COOLEST stuff to start with! She has spent time immersed in so many cultures around the world, her collection of artifacts and photography is seriously impressive. So fun for a designer to play with! Want to see what the space started out as?

Lots of stuff going on here, but also some really cool stuff. Our aim was to highlight the beautiful pieces Annie already had, add pieces that complimented those, and find a visually pleasing, inexpensive way to hide the rest! Take a look!

One of our design concepts sent along the way. We had yet to decide on the coffee table and exact pillow placement, but that’s what a concept is - a check on the visual feel of the space. These are meant to help us know if we are heading in the right direction and what adjustments, if any, we need to make moving forward!

Before you say anything I am fully aware that this is maybe the 4th or 5th time we used the IKEA Ivar cabinets. But you guys, at $70/unit, completely customizable, and only 12” deep, these babies are a small space small budget best friend. Not to mention ideal hidden storage for a small apartment with (almost) no closets. We hiked these Ivars up on black stainless steel legs which set them at a much more versatile height, and gave them a much needed layer of visual interest for this small space.

Big fan of this chair in this space! It’s modern but rustic enough to pair well with the English roll arm sofa.

This home wears the glow of Summer well. I may have to book some time here come February!

That’s a wrap! Happy to say we are already locked in to work with Annie on her bedroom next! But before we start on any new projects I’ve got a few more weeks of Summer to maximize with the kids. Taking this season off has resulted in the best time with my kids. I love this age so much and have thoroughly soaked in this time together practically distraction free.

I hope you all enjoy these last weeks of Summer and amidst whatever your responsibilities are can find moments of joy and rest. Thank you so much for taking the time to come by today!