A Black and Gold Christmas: Holiday House tour

Even though I had my home decorated for Christmas by the 5th, which is much earlier than I usually do, here it is December 23rd and I am just now sharing it here. Procrastination… it’s a gift.

I always change my colors at Christmas time. I love Christmas and might have a little bit of OCD (Ornament Compulsion Disorder.) If I put out everything all at once, it would look like Christmas threw-up in our home, so I pare it down to two colors and it looks great.  This year I went with a Black & Gold color scheme.

Your Christmas decor starts with a first impression, so I like to make sure the front of our house is decorated.  No offense to those of you with animatronic, blinking yard decorations, but my preference is more from the all is calm, all is bright school of yard decor.

These are my actual rain boots and they might be my favorite part of my Christmas decor this year.  Why a Southern Californian needs a pair of rain boots, I don’t know.  I probably bought them because they’re super cute, but I brought them out of the closet, placed glass jars full of water into each one and added greenery.

I also love this wreath, made with bits of ribbon leftover from this project and roses made from coffee filters, which I spray painted gold.

This little ledge on our front porch is a perennially difficult spot for me.  I don’t want it to be a focal point, but I can’t leave it un-decorated, so I just add a string of lights, some greenery and a few gold baubles.  You can take a fake garland and add snips of real greenery to fluff it up.  (I always ask for the clippings from my local tree lot and I use them everywhere.  Free decor?  Yes please!)

Inside the house, I think our dining room might be my favorite place.  I took an old frame and painted it black with a gold glaze and used chalkboard paint on a piece of foam board and then confirmed that I am NOT a chalkboard artist, but it works well enough.

I picked up some fresh green wreaths from Trader Joe’s and threw some antlers and gold framed Christmas memories into the mix.  Done.

We have a kids’ tree where we hang handmade ornaments, specialty ornaments (like Spongebob…) and anything else the guys want to put onto the tree.  I also cluster the treasures the kids bring home from school near the tree, such as Grant’s lovely “Gingerbread House” with what I thought was a moat until he told us it was a balcony.

My beachy bookcase gets dressed up for Christmas too.

I decorate with cards and photos from Christmases gone by, hang mistletoe over our bed and have a Santa watching over the wine.

All of these details are fun, but the living room is where the main tree resides.

Tip: If you’re going to incorporate black into your decor, you need to have a lot of gold as the back-drop so it will pop.

I never, ever, ever like our mantel.  It’s asymmetrical with a huge vaulted ceiling and I just never know what to do with it.  Sigh.

I love Christmas and all the decor and entertaining, but mostly I love hanging out with family, cuddling up by the fire and just enjoying the  fact that we are blessed beyond measure, and certainly more than I deserve.

Merry Christmas!