Living Room Christmas Tour

I finally found some burlap ribbon! Our Cowboy Christmas tree from last year and a peek at this year's tree, that I changed quite a bit, were on the previous post here. I decided to go with less red and more natural elements, more in keeping with the style I'm striving for in our living room. A bit rustic and a bit cottage. The burlap ribbon was suggested in the comments of that post, and when I found it yesterday, I took everything off the tree and started again.

The muslin garland was made by sewing several long strips together, sewing down the long edge and turning and turning and turning inside out. I could have saved time and fabric and ripped strips as Donna from Funky Junk Interiors did here, but since I sew I tried it this way. The muslin has some nice texture and flecks that match the pillows I made.

Is it strange to have a shelf over your couch?

I quickly put some garland, berries and pinecones on the shelf for the picture (I should have secured the phone cord though.) The paint colour in here needs to change too. We used a temporary light cream to cover up the dark brown colour that made this room dark as a cave. I brought the slipcovered ottoman from our bedroom and put the very large ottoman in the family room to make more room for the tree. Now I'm liking it. One chair has the slipcover almost finished and one to go.

We haven't put the cowboy boots and lariats around the base of the tree yet but I sewed a quick drop cloth tree skirt to match the garland. The tree skirt may still get a ruffled edge.

The rusty metal stars and bells are totally my style. I found some darker and smaller bells for interest. Most of the ornaments, the burlap and the raffia were on deep discount at Michael's, or bought very reasonably at a craft show. I made the mini lariats out of twine.

I love the wavy glass on these lanterns I picked up in September at Lowe's. They were discounted to about $5 each.

A bit of red in the sleigh and bells.

I added lots of white lights, I usually use tons, but they aren't showing up too well with my camera, and some may be hidden behind the muslin. I'll have to work on that.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed our Christmas living room tour! I love comments and if you have any suggestions that would be great too.

The first link up is to Shabby Chic Cottage's Transformation Thursdays.