Rickerson Christmas Home Tour

I am super late to this party but better late than never, right!  So here is a little glimpse of our Christmas decor.  

We will start on the outside and make our way in.  We decided not to do lights on the house this year :((.  But we had bought these wreaths after Christmas last year and I was excited to put them up!

Up close of the porch.  Christmas chalk art on our chalkboard and my favorite vintage Santa.  I found this Santa several years ago from a pharmacy in Pittsburgh, Texas.  It was a random find but I love it and have put it out for around 9 years now.  And we planted rosemary next to the front door, which look like little Christmas trees and smells great!  Do you see the little boy peaking through the window??

We don't have a fireplace in our living room, so I decided to hang our stockings on the stairs this year!  It is great for the whole family - I loved how it turned out and Mathis prefers that Santa enter through the front door, so they will greet him when he enters.  The two decorative stockings are from Anthropologie a couple years ago and the other two are from Hobby Lobby.  The greenery is from the Floral section at Hobby Lobby.  I wanted to add round bulbs that were battery powered but never found any that I liked.  Instead I went with the bronze strand of jingle bells and white poms, which I found at Home Goods.  I threw some burlap bows in and some pine cones from our backyard.  

Here is the living room...

We added a new star to the tree this year.  It is from Michael's.  I also added the black and white check ribbon this year, found it at Michael's as well.  I love the Wendy Addison "Nest, Noel, Joy" paper garland.  I bought it from Canton several years ago and wish I had bought more!

Love this white vintage nativity scene that I found at Canton among the junk.  The tree and pot are from Ikea.  I made the fabric banner for Mathis' newborn pictures and have used it for various things since.  I thought it had a Christmas-y touch with the plaid.

Moving on to the dining room.  We have some vintage Christmas houses.  Mathis loves to move these around play with them - they have become one of his favorite toys these days.  We also made our first gingerbread house - so much fun!

I added some ribbon to the cabinets and it has been a great way to display our Christmas cards!  I love getting Christmas cards.  I have saved them every year since we got married.  This year I finally hole punch all of them and put them on rings with their designated year.  I love seeing everyone change and families grow!

Another one of Mathis' favorite toys is the Pottery Barn Nativity Scene!  Every piece is lightweight and made of felt - great for kids to play with!  

You will probably find our Elf (named Shelf) in our dining room.  That's usually where he tends to hangout.  Also our Star from Afar.  

 

I have a basket on the kid's table in our dining that is filled with some of our Christmas books and puzzles.  

A little glimpse at the kids trees in their rooms.  Mathis' stocking that I made him and his tree.

And a girly tree for Mercer's room!

I love adding Mathis' sweet homemade artwork throughout the house - the perfect decor!  And I can't wait to add more!

The little playhouse did get Christmas lights this year!  And we all love how festive it looks.

We hope you enjoyed the Christmas tour of our home and we wish you a blessed and very merry Christmas!  

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."  Luke 2:11

The Old Jones Home: Kitchen

Let's move on to the kitchen!  Most of the "before" kitchen pictures are from the sale listing (hence the MLS symbol) before we bought the house.  The owner previous to the one that we bought the house from used this room as a drawing room.  And our master bedroom was their kitchen.  I don't know if you could call this room a kitchen when we bought it, but here it is...

Before

During...

Removing the wall that was in between the kitchen and the living room.

And after...

It is hard to believe that this is the same room!  Everything you see in the "before" picture was removed - down to the studs.  The door that you see in the "after" picture is the door to the laundry room.  We replaced the window (that has the window unit) in the "before" picture with the window that was between the kitchen and laundry room.  That way we could put a sink under the window.

We had to submit any exterior changes we were wanting to make to the city's historical foundation.  For the kitchen that entailed the windows and doors we moved around...

Before

After

The cabinet to the right of the dishwasher is our pantry.

The coffee nook...

I keep all my coffee and tea accessories in that top drawer.

Another before...Check out the breakfast room walls within the kitchen - very interesting...

After

I love this piece that Charlie and I found at the antique shop for $35!  It needed a little work and is now perfect for this spot.

We added an island this includes another sink, another trashcan and 4 seats!  We use our island ALL THE TIME.

Here's a little look at the wood floors.  This wood is what is under the drywall in the house.  After moving and tearing down walls we salvaged enough wood to lay in the kitchen and it extends into the dining room.  I love how wide the planks are.  I am so happy with how they turned out!

Well that is the kitchen!  It has come a long way!  Thanks for checking it out!

The Old Jones Home: Laundry Room

Okay, let’s start with the laundry room.  I love laundry rooms!  Whether big or small – it’s a great space to decorate focusing on functionality!  Before we renovated this space it was being used as a storage room.  It was added onto the house at some point.  In the “before” pictures you can see the exterior siding.  This little room was falling apart and needed to be torn down.  We really liked the location – being right off of the kitchen, so we decided to tear it down and re-build it into a laundry room and mudroom.  The exterior door is where we enter the house, so it was a perfect spot for a mudroom.  Here are the “before” and “after” pictures…

Before

This space did not have a window, so when we re-built it we decided to add a little window. 

After

This is the mudroom area.  The bench is perfect for dropping our stuff, especially shoes.  The basket usually holds things I need to return to people or places.  And the drawers are great for beach towels and outdoor stuff (chalk, bubbles, etc.).  We drop our mail in the baskets above the hooks.  And to the right is basically our family calendar.  This is not my ideal set up but it’s what we have for now.  Charlie doesn’t know it but he will eventually be constructing a built-in.  hehe.  Maybe something like this…

Picture found here

And while he’s at it, this built in dog bed would be great too!

Picture found here

Okay back to the laundry/mudroom…

Before

The sink is original to the house.  We just had it re-surfaced and put in a new faucet.

After

We replaced this door with a swinging door that was in the house.  And we removed the window that was to the right of the door.  Can you spot the laundry room sink??

Before

After

Before

After

So there is the “before” and “after” of the most used room in our house!  I hope you enjoy seeing the pictures!  Now it's time for me to do some laundry!