East Coast Bloggers Christmas Home Tour

East Coast Christmas Home Tour – Front Porch Mercantile

  Welcome! **note this is our Christmas 2015 tour** We’re doing something a little different today. I’ve invited a couple other East Coast Bloggers to join me this week and would love to welcome you into all our homes. Today I would like to welcome you to my home, it’s not fancy (if you have…

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East Coast Bloggers Christmas Home Tour

Welcome!

Front Porch Welcome Front Porch Mercantile

**note this is our Christmas 2015 tour**

We’re doing something a little different today. I’ve invited a couple other East Coast Bloggers to join me this week and would love to welcome you into all our homes.

Today I would like to welcome you to my home, it’s not fancy (if you have been here awhile you know how I roll) and I hesitated to share as I have a bazillion projects yet to finish in my house. But then I figured some of you might relate, and the rest of you probably will forgive. So, keeping in mind the unfinished, non professionally decorated house, the perfectly imperfect and the bad lighting ..welcome to my Christmas home tour!

This Christmas is a bit weird for us as my baby girl (who is 19 but still my baby) is following her passion and travelling in New Zealand and won’t be home. My son is in his own home and expecting a baby at New Years (yes, we’re gonna be grandparents – totally excited to start new traditions) Having my girl away and not home is weird, on a lot of levels, and we almost didn’t decorate but decided to make the most of it and here we are…totally decorated a month early! Woohoo! (UPDATE NOV 2016 – Baby Ava Rose is almost one, my daughter came home, saved some money and moved back to NZ with dream job in 2016, we’re missing her like mad and this will be Christms #2 without her) :(

We have some fabulous family traditions, maybe you will be inspired by one or two. One awesome family tradition is getting our annual live tree, we normally head out to the tree farm and cut a tree the first week of December. My daughter’s favourite tradition. But…this year, she’s not here so we bought our first artificial – and we are thrilled with the ease ha ha (sorry L) Tree is up Nov 25th – look at that! She’s going to be mad, but she’s half way across the world, so, ya. We did it.

Living room Front Porch Mercantile

We put the tree in a galvanized wash tub. I LOVE the way this looks and was so happy when we finished. It took a bit of friggin with – putting the artificial tree in our reg live tree holder for one, as the base would not fit. But its up and even hubby loves it.

I love all the gorgeous theme trees I see in blog land. I really do. But, we don’t do “theme” for our decor. My tree is decorated with ornaments we bought 25 years ago in Maine for our first Christmas, with home made ones from my daughter’s grade one arts and crafts, with expensive beautiful ones dear friends have given me, with ones we’ve purchased on family vacations and my Nana’s vintage ornaments…just a hodge podge of Christmas memories. And I would not have it any other way.

My tree Front Porch Mercantile

Did you see my sweet beetle pillow with the cute tree on top? Theres one in the living room and one in the kitchen on the bench. I LOVE these. They are from my sweet friend Lucy at Craftberry Bush and you can easily order one here. (They ship from the US so if you are in Canada there is no surprise duty and  they arrive quickly) Still loads of time to order. The pillow on the front porch is from there too!

Funny thing, I had 2 other pillows from the shop here also, but friends came over and bought them the day before I took these pictures! lol!

Living Room Front Porch Mercantile

You can buy the cute Car/Tree Pillow HERE

Living room Front Porch Mercantile

My kitchen stools are painted in FAT Paint Red Barchetta, they were just black saddle back stools from Superstore. I love the pops of red in my kitchen.

kitchen Front Porch Mercantile

One new thing I bought myself this year was this beautiful stag head from Canadian Tire. I was totally inspired by my sweet friend Lucy from Craftberry Bush and her work with Canadian Tire. I REALLY wanted the beautiful wreath on her stag head, but it was just too pricey. I didn’t want to spend any money on Christmas decor so I only bought the stag head, then found a $6 wreath and added fresh greens to it and voila. I am kind of smitten.  The “fake mantle” as I like to call it was an old ugly brown plate rack mom had, I painted it with Fat Paint Warm White and voila…a fake mantle! The silver trays are from family pieces, some greenery and lights, I totally don’t mind the wires showing, drives some people nuts, I don’t give a hoot (remember easy peasy and perfectly imperfect for me).

Stag Head for Christmas at Front Porch Mercantile

In our house, it’s always been about inexpensive decor, we’ve never had big budgets for decorating and love surrounding ourselves with “memories”. I have recently been pairing down our belongings, lightening up and changing up my decor and simplifying. I have a ton of things to finish, including painting this table and buffet, they have been in and out of this room a couple of times since last December but I think they are staying for now so I will paint them soon. I just painted the chairs (and fabric) and you can see that makeover here.

I need a new light fixture as well but cannot find anything that floats my boat and is affordable. So I wait.  I have donated boxes of Christmas decor over the last year trying to simplify. Keeping lots of lights and things that have meaning.

Christmas at Front Porch Mercantile

Sleigh Rides sign on rustic boards (available at the shop) some music sheet paper chain, a little display on a cake plate, fans silver and a few favourite things on my buffet.  As Christmas gets closer this will hold colourful candies, barely toys and pretty candy dishes I find that an easy way to add pops of colour and decor at a low cost. I didn’t want to start eating candy now so I thought I should wait :)

Sleigh Rides Front Porch Mercantile

One of my favourite’s is my mitten garland. My late mother in law and my late aunt made the best mittens, and through the years made so many for all of us, most especially for my daughter, I could never throw or give away all the mittens they made for her, this was a perfect solution, our mitten garland hangs in our laundry room and we really love it. (truth, this is from last years, we since put up a lovely barn board mirror but the garland is hanging I promise).

christmasmittens

Our living room is not large and oddly shaped, I literally just finished painting the coffee table before I took these pictures. It was orange oak and I’ve put it off forever – funny right? I painted it in FAT Paint Gull Grey and love how it turned out. The side table next to the chair is new to me from my mom, and its getting reloved soon, I am going to put black and white Christmas pictures under the glass, I will share that makeover when I get it done. The framed vintage stocking in the shadow box was made by my husbands grandmother, it has his name on it and was very fragile, so I protected it with the shadow box and we love looking at it every year. (who sees my sleeping dog behind the chair? I hate dog beds, but we live with 3 dogs, so the dog beds are there, just strategic)

Living room Front Porch Mercantile

The hutch in my living room (painted Miss Mustard Seed’s Boxwood and Luckets mixed 75%/25%) is filled with lots of old family silver, crafts from my kids over the years and old Royal Dolton Christmas plates from my nan and a few of my nan’s Christmas ornaments. Hodge Podge of memories again. :)

Memories on display Front Porch Mercantile

We also have several framed Christmas pictures that are packed with our Christmas decor every year, we have pictures all over the house, in the bathrooms, kitchen, living room of years gone by, I love pulling these out every year. One awesome tradition we have is to take a picture of my daughter every year since birth with this bear. I get her to hold a sign (we use lovely chalkboards now ha ha) but for many years I had her colour the year on paper and hold it with the bear. We have not missed a year yet and she’s 19! All the napkins. scraps and coloured pictures of the years are at the bottom of one of my bins, love seeing them every year. We also keep all the letters Santa left every year. Corny. I know.

Yearly pictures since birth - Front Porch Mercantile

I painted up this red frame in FAT Paint Barchetta for my entry, it adds a punch of colour in our entry. Brownie points if you noticed the swipe of paint on my front door. One of those projects thats going to get done over Christmas. Still debating colour choice.

our entry Front Porch Mercantile

 

It's a wonderful life

Our family room is where we hang out the most in the winter. The big windows have sunshine pouring in all winter, we have a campfire just outside the window and regularly light the fire and hang out there. Inside we like to hang by the cozy wood stove. This room has a wee tree with coloured lights to get a little festive colour and cozy in here . Our dogs kind of love this room too. There’s another big dog bed behind that chair :) (just keeping it real)

Family Room Front Porch Mercantile

I just love my pillows from my creative friend Tanya of Nova Scotia based Girliture. I have 2 lovely pillows from her and they are just beautiful. Check out her website, you will love her pillows (she does custom pillows too!)

A nod to our love of Lunenburg, the seaside prints and the vintage Lunenburg fish box.

Family Room Front Porch Mercantile

The snow globes hold a special spot in our home. My late adored and very much missed mother in law gave my daughter one every year for Christmas starting when she was about 6, we never realized how special they would be to us all.

Snow globes and coloured lights Front Porch Mercantile

Evenings are my favourite around here. We used to entertain a lot. I mean like 5 or 6 large parties over Christmas, but these days we only have small groups of close friends in, life got a little crazy when I opened the shop :)

I love our house at night during the Christmas season. Its a wee bit magical and soothing. Our life gets a bit chaotic, but a  cup of tea and some Christmas carols around the twinning lights sure makes for a lovely evening.

Christmas at Front Porch Mercantile

 

Evening kitchen Front Porch Mercantile

Snow globes Front Porch Mercantile

Front Porch Mercantile

We spend a lot of time outside in winter, campfires, on the porch and on Christmas Eve we always go outside, either to make snowmen or just look at the lights and get some fresh air. It’s kind of magical!

 

Christmas Porch at Front Porch Mercantile The holly is fresh from my late mother in laws house and this year there is a bumper crop. I LOVE decorating with foraged items, all the other branches and greenery is from our yard and nearby woods. The only thing I bought for the porch was the pillow. (you can get one too herefrontporchwindow

Please join me Saturday Nov 28th (here is tour) as we showcase another East Coast Blogger Little Blue House by the Bay  and on Sunday Nov 29th (here is tour)we will showcase our sweet friend from Tweedside Road.

I hope you have the happiest of Holidays!

Thanks for stopping by, next time stay for that tea!

Join me later this week for the rest of the bloggers home tours, you are in for a treat!

Cheers,

Wendy

 

 

 

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8 Comments

  1. Hi Wendy. I really enjoyed the tour of your home all decorated for Christmas. I like that you used things you have and cherished mementos from years past. It looks so pretty. Your porch looks wonderful and I like the view looking through the window into your living room. I also like your ‘mantel’ with the silver trays and lights etc. I hope to catch the other posts you share on the weekend. Have a wonderful Christmas holiday.
    Blessings, Pam

  2. Where in the name of Pete did you find the time to write that long post? It is amazing! I seriously love every single thing about your home decor and your home! I’m coming and staying in Laura’s room over the Holidays! And having a glass on that porch.

  3. I have stayed away from most of the home tours this year but so glad I came to visit yours. Christmas is about tradition and with all your lights and red (my fav) and special touches it looks very similar to my decorating. Thanks so much for sharing. Lori

  4. Love the makeover those skates are getting (in your instagram feed). The salt and pepper shakers and the deer head are my favourite details. As always, you turn your home into the most inviting festive place. It makes me want to make mulled wine, light some vanilla candles, and curl up with my ‘Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories’.

  5. You nailed it! So proud for you! What a beautiful display you threw together in your spare time! From the skiis to the cake plate to the beautifully framed stocking and the dog beds…your home is beautiful and lively and lovely and lived in … just like you and St. John! Merry Christmas my sweet friend!

  6. Your home is beautiful. We have the same kind of tree…ornaments from years and years of Christmases with kids and grandkids. You’ll have to get your daughter to take a photo of herself in NZ on Dec 24th to add to your annual collection.

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