Front Room Decorated

If your TV is over the fireplace, you have to decorate around it. I got a little carried away with lights the other night, trying to distract from the black hole of the TV on the wall. 

We've been looking for a tall TV cabinet with shelves for several years now. Almost bought one recently, but it was too deep and lacked shelves for storage. When is the furniture industry going to realize TVs are now mostly flat?

We did find a new love seat, chair and ottoman. I only have a few weeks to get rid of some furniture. I'm keeping this old wing chair though (sorry Bill) as Miss Mustard Seed recently did a great 4-part tutorial on making a slip cover, which I'm dying to try to do next year.

Between Santas, pillows and lights, there was no room left for the Christmas tree in this room. The red Santa stands on the bookcase behind the couch. 

I temporarily put the bookcase back there to hide the light cords that go around the black chalkboard.  

We have 12 foot ceilings and it's hard to keep the walls from looking stark. Fill them up is all I can think to do.

That pillow on the right is looking a little wonky. I think I stepped on it when I was putting the Santa back on the shelf.

To put color in the room, I chose to go with red this year. Lots and lots of red. 

The plaid throws were purchased at Old Navy last January for less than $5 each. This year, I noticed Old Navy has several different colors and styles of plaid throws for the same price again. There's enough material in one throw to make a couple of pillows, if you're so inclined.

 The bird pillow I bought at TJ Maxx. It has the same print on each side. All the rest of the pillows are from Pottery Barn, except the black and white one. It's made from an old Christmas sweater. 

Here's my traditional Christmas Chicken nesting in an old dough bowl. She gets around the room quite often and seems to like staring at the lights in the lantern next to the chair. Some of you like Elf On A Shelf...I prefer a Christmas Chicken.

This chalkboard has a Merry Christmas banner I bought for $9 down in McKinney. It seems like it would be easy to make, but so cheap I bought it right away. Better than waiting a year or two to get 'round to' making one. Yeah...T'is better to know thyself!

I stuck a little CD player on the top shelf in the bookcase. Wild Bill and I had a ceremony and got rid of "The World's Oldest/Biggest CD Player" last Sunday. It was a sad day for me.

My relationship with that "10-CD" player was special. I've had it since 1992 or so, when I bought it as a broke single mom. When we put it in the garbage can last Sunday, I actually cried. I text my three daughters a picture of it in the garbage and my ugly-cry face. Youngest daughter replied back that she couldn't believe I was still using CD's when I have an IPod and phone and such! I answered back that I still played all my old cassette tapes on it too until the tape player finally gave out a few months ago. I so loved that machine!

OK, back to Christmas...I like a little rustic look at Christmas time. These Santas fit the bill for rustic.

Here's a final look. You get points for staying with me if you made it this far.

Thanks for dropping by!

Let's Party:

Inspiration Monday
Far Above Rubies Christmas Tours
Dwellings, Amaze Me Monday
The Dedicated House