Our Great Room at Christmas

Good morning. I hope that your week has gotten off to a good start! Continuing with my previous post, here are some shots of our great room.

This beautiful 1800's glider horse sits on top of our 

entertainment center.

Shortly before Christmas last year,

I frivolously took the plunge on eBay winning the bid for it.

I never showed it on my blog because I could not get a 

decent photo of it, and still can't, 

as you see here. 

But it is such a beautiful antique that I am sharing it anyway.

She sits up there all year round,

with different seasonal pieces surrounding her...

This year we decided to go with a small,

4-foot country Christmas tree

which I decorated very minimally.

I purchased it on-line through Walmart.

On it there are tiny star lights 

(LED, and battery-operated) 

strung on beautiful bendable silver wire.

I purchased them on-line from the

baby division of Restoration Hardware...

...and lightly larger ones drape down over

the gifts,

antique galvanized milk box

(remember the days of the milkman?)

and bench.

We bought the milk box in Hendersonville

and I love it because the front of it says

"Willow Brook Farms".

The bench,

which I painted with Annie Sloan 

Chalk Paint (Olde White)

and finished with her clear wax, is one

that you may remember

from this post when it was 

an ugly shade of yellow...

To the left of the milk box is a basket 

filled with birch logs (from Michael's),

greenery, and a twig star

(which was originally a Walmart

tree topper from which we cut off

the red berries).

The basket is actually one that you

would use for serving utensils...

On the tree I put just 12 small mercury glass

ornaments, all different.

They were purchased on-line at Luna Bazaar

found here 

A lovely company to deal with!...

...and some hand-felted small acorns

through Etsy,

and found here...

...and then added about twelve crystal 

ornies. 

Can't remember where I got them, but

I think it was Target...

The best part about trimming this little tree

was that I could sit down and do it,

and then was able to move it to the bench.

This was a real bonus to my back,

which has been aching considerably

lately!!

*******************************

And now, for our big accomplishment of 

the season.

You may recall that a few years ago we 

bought an old black china hutch top 

and installed it over the fireplace.

You can see a post about that here.

It was nice for a time, 

but truthfully I got tired of figuring 

out how to decorate it seasonally

without it looking like it was always 

filled with "chotchkees".

So, Mr. Perch and I, who are

avid fans of HGTV's "Fixer Upper"

decided to rip out the shelving,

take off the top layer of the mantel,

which he had put on to support the hutch,

and add a beautiful piece of wood as

the top part.

He went to about five stores in search 

of the wood, since we knew that

we didn't want something typically found

at a big box store.

There is a wood-workers' store in Raleigh

called Klingspor's Woodworking Shop,

and there he found a beautiful piece of

butternut wood (not the squash!), 

which is also known as

white walnut, and more rare than

black walnut.

He cut it to fit,

sanded it smooth,

and I applied three coats of a wood 

finisher product that they recommended

(not a stain).

And of course, above it he planked the 

wall for a ship-lap look,

adding crown molding at the top.

As with the farm table 

and all of our diy projects, 

DH does the woodworking and building,

and I do the painting and staining.

Fair deal!...

We kept the rest of it simple by adding some

 glittered pine cone branches (bought at Michael's)

 to the mantel (the glitter looks like rock candy)...

...and swagged a glittery star and jute

 garland underneath it...

And since I couldn't find any decent

candle holders, I used, of all things,

two antique wooden bobbins

that I had upstairs in my studio!...

In this photo you can also see that we 

added greenery to 

the tops of the windows

(now minus curtains!)

which flank the fireplace...

There you have it!

Not quite what you would see on those 

beautiful, but heavily sponsored 

and advertised decor blogs,

but home just the same.

Home is where the (humble) heart is!

As ever, thanks for spending this time with me!