Decorating Our Home for the Holidays

When entering our home, we're greeted with a festive atmosphere that's hard to resist. It's as if we've stepped into a winter wonderland, complete with twinkling lights and a sense of joy that's infectious. The best part is getting to experience this magic from multiple angles - whether it's walking up to the house or stepping into our favorite room, every view is a delight. And for us, finding The Best of Both Worlds means we can enjoy this festive atmosphere without feeling like we're sacrificing any of its charm.

Our home, in particular, is a labor of love when it comes to decorating for the holidays. We've always been passionate about making our space feel cozy and inviting, and with the holiday season, we get to add even more special touches to make it truly unforgettable. One of my favorite things about this time of year is watching the sun begin to set behind the trees across the street - it's like a golden glow that seems to infuse every room with warmth and light.

We've been working hard to create a festive atmosphere in our home, and I'm thrilled to share some of the highlights with you. First up is our living room, which has been transformed into a winter wonderland. We've added beautiful floral arrangements, complete with fresh flowers from our own yard, as well as lush greenery like boxwoods and cedar that add depth and texture to the space. And let's not forget the stunning glassware - I recently discovered an incredible brand on Amazon that offers some truly show-stopping pieces.

But what really sets this room apart is the attention to detail we've brought to every aspect of its design. From the swivel chairs, which are a game-changer for entertaining, to the cocktail station, which features a gorgeous tray and glassware, it's clear we've put a lot of thought into creating a space that's both functional and beautiful. And speaking of beauty, I'm absolutely in love with our new Garland Over The Mirror - it adds just the right touch of elegance to an already stunning piece of furniture.

Of course, no holiday decor would be complete without some festive flair. That's why we've added some gorgeous garlands, as well as a stunning sconce that flanks our mirror perfectly. And let's not forget about the cookie cart - yes, you read that right! We decided to create our own little dessert station, complete with Santa mugs and all sorts of tasty treats. It's become a fun new addition to our holiday decor, and we can't wait to use it throughout the season.

As I look around our home, I'm filled with a sense of gratitude for this special space we've created together. From the moment you step inside, it feels like you're part of something truly special - a place where memories are made, and traditions come alive. We can't wait to share more of our holiday decor with you in the coming weeks, so be sure to tune in to our Amazon lives for behind-the-scenes peeks at everything from our decorating process to our favorite holiday treats.

For now, let's take a moment to enjoy the festive atmosphere that surrounds us. Whether we're sipping hot cocoa by the fire or enjoying a quiet night in with a good book, there's something truly magical about this time of year. So grab a cup of coffee (or a glass of eggnog), get cozy, and let's celebrate the holiday season together!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwell hello guys as you can tell the sun is just setting and we've got a nighttime Holiday Tour for you I'm so excited come on in come on in get out of the cold I'm so excited that you guys are here today I am just thrilled that I get to share with you an evening tour of our home it is our most requested video and especially at the holidays so we're going to give you a full tour of the modern Cottage dressed for the holidays and we're just going to share it all with you give you Great Links and uh all the sources and share what we did I hope that you will absolutely love our modern Cottage dressed for the holidays if you're not a subscriber make sure you become one and hit that subscribe button and let's jump into this absolutely amazing tour come on let's get started shall we I was thinking should we uh let me go clockwise show you everything as you can tell this is our main room and we just absolutely love the two-story fireplace our iconic uh black fireplace there with the wreath on it it's just so much fun but before we get into that room too far let's go through here because this is an area that a lot of people ask us about a lot of times here why don't you back up Jack is holding the camera back up just a little bit and let's share with them how we've kind of got this little hallway here we've got the console table that kind of separates the room just a little bit and I actually didn't put holiday Decor on that just looking at that thinking I didn't put anything there I think maybe sometimes it's okay to have areas that don't have something on them and then over here we've got the gorgeous uh cabinet here this is the Workhorse of the house that's got all of our like Essentials dog leashes and everything so our house is a little strange cuz it technically doesn't have an entryway so we kind of created one for ourselves here I've got some gorgeous like pine cones and some juniper some live branches I think it really looks gorgeous with the banister did you guys see how we painted out the stairway here I love this I love it painted out the spindles black they were white before and then the wall was black we kind of flip flop things and I've ended up loving it it kind of freaked me out at first cuz it was so different and then I've ended up loving it so uh doing all the Garland up on the banister like this I mean I just love it let me show you the powder room cuz that is definitely an area that we did not get to and you kind of have to come back here it's actually starting to get kind of crowded with presents there uh but back here we have our powder room let's see Jack is kept it yes mostly clean we just recently switched out the lights and put in the marble counter toop and Floors that was one of the original things that we did in this room was put that basket weave down and so for in here I didn't put so much Christmas decor in here just a really nice simple vase with more of the Cyprus that we cut off of our trees I telling you the best thing I ever did I I bought cypresses for I think it was two Christmases ago bought cyp es to use on the inside of the house and when we were done with the holidays I just stuck them in the ground and now they're really nice cuz I've been cutting off of them for the whole season and they grow so fast that you're going to see them all over the house but yeah this is the uh powder room and actually these were from Amazon and so was the mirror actually the uh pedestal was from Wayfair if you can believe that I know and the flooring was from floring Decor so if you're not a subscriber of our Channel you should be because we share all of our secrets on how we make the house look super Lux for Less so I'll let you start heading through so they don't see the back of me here where should we go next Jack let's go across the fireplace okay across the fireplace kind of Christmas Central here yes so well we actually had the chair from CB2 sitting here in the white which does look really good but now that we started to add presents here and we know we have all the family coming we actually switched out to the smaller chair and we actually have two of these so I think end up maybe flanking the fireplace for the big days you can tell the house kind of lives and breathes if you watch a lot of the other videos uh sometimes stuff gets moved because we know what's coming we have decked this out with Gorgeous Garland we did a whole tutorial on that if you missed it we had so much fun we don't want to take it down now in the new year and we're debating as to whether we're going to LEAP something like this or what and then the gorgeous wreath of course just turned out so beautifully so I just I love how the house is literally centered around this room but let's not get stuck here let's come back here in just a minute so back through here I have this mirror that really isn't part of the design but you know we all have the habit of checking ourselves we come out of this room so I have left it but come on back here we've got our gorgeous little Gallery kind of area back through here I love the fact that we had like our own little hallway when we bought this house house and wow speaking of Transformations do you remember what this bedroom looked like when we first moved in yeah nothing like this no nothing like this we one of the first things we did was we ripped out the the carpeting in the bathroom we'll get there soon and then as soon as we could we put down these gorgeous hardwood floors these are actually French reclaimed Oak so they are just unbelievable I love the color of them I love the warmth that they add then in here we painted the bedroom and that was up for debate cuz it used to be dark and then we turned it light and I ended up loving it especially over these winter months because it does get quite dark back here because the sun is on the other side of the house which you may have noticed when we open the door you can see kind of a beam of light on me but we've ended up loving I mean I found some great things like the bench from Amazon the bed from West Elm I'll leave all the links for these items down below or at least as many as I can cuz we know we're going to end up with a bunch but uh I ended up loving we got the room ready for the one of the moms to come and stay when we went to New York and I had it kind of set almost like a guest bedroom well I loved it so much they end up leaving it I've got the tray here with oh we haven't got the candle going at the moment uh yeah we need to get the candle going but I ended up leaving the little cups and oh actually I've got matches right here this candle every room of this house has its own candle and this is the one from the from the nest I think is what they call it and it is just unreal it makes the room smell so wonderful and it really does we like anything that makes it seem like there's an actual fire going in the house so we tend to go for those fragrances but that one is just amazing yeah and in here we've got the Christmas tree I've got these gorgeous I've got these Gorgeous Flowers over here I got some roses these are just from the grocery store and so is the greenery and then I added some more of my Cyprus in here so that with the gorgeous wreaths and then with the tree don't you just absolutely love this tree this tree I don't want to take this tree out I don't either I love the warmth it brings to this room I know and these little ornaments show the them to these up close because these ended up being some of the most magnificent ornaments these and the little ones like this with the optic little like it's almost like a fluted design those I look at them every morning cuz this is my side so I look at them every morning and I'm just like this is like the prettiest tree it's so gorgeous it's really pretty and I'm really glad that Jack figured out how to put it in the planter because we weren't sure if we'd be able to figure that one out and we ended up being able to get it into the planter and I think that really just makes the tree just look permanent I guess I love that and of course the twinkle lights are magical I do I love the twinkle lights the way you have those in there and the Velvet curtains are something that are definitely particular to this time of year I've got a gorgeous wool blanket on here mixed with some Amazon lemons actually and then behind you look back here let's show them the blanket how we've got that kind of like over stuffed with the big fluffy Leopard blanket and then I left the Moss actually in this humongous marble Bowl so big it is this was a gift from Jamie young and I just literally freaked out when they sent that to us it's so big and I love the way it looks in here so yeah I love it U we got a little Ralph War Book open kind of gives you a little atmosphere put the espresso machine in here and it was supposed to just be for when you know Mom came to visit I love having the espresso machine in the bedroom if you've watched any of my Renovations you know that I was always dreaming of having like a coffee maker in the closet or the bathroom and I just hadn't got it in there and then we brought it in here and now I use it all the time you can see the cups aren't all even here that's cuz they're in a dishwasher from having been used because I love it I love just the smell of coffee brewing in the morning so I'll even turn it on before I work out and it just makes me more motivated to work out cuz I know if I work out I get coffee so and then I'll use it to make a latte but I just love it I love it uh did you didn't show them the light did you show them the big light that ended up being such an incredible find from uh from Amazon actually that was amazing that was incredible we didn't do too much in the bathroom but one of my favorite things that I did was that I put this humongous mercury glass vase in here and added in these huge branches off of the trees so yeah and then I've just got some cylinder uh little hurricanes I can't remember these are the on I think I've actually got a mix I've got one from greaton barrel and one from Amazon I have a couple sets of those and then these little can you see the little fluted design oh yeah in the candle that's in there I thought that those were so pretty those add Ambiance but the Nordic Woods candle in here I lighted every single morning it's just I know I'm hoping there's going to be another one underneath the tree for me I don't know I really hope so see if you've been a good girl I'm definitely not maybe maybe I better just order my own maybe maybe your list is the opposite of other people's yes you're like oh she's been a good girl she gets nothing oh yes I've been very naughty I may need to order my own but that Nordic Woods candle it just smells like it really does smell like the Nordic woods they just nailed that and so I will be burning that for for sure I think I'll actually leave that burning all year round actually I think that's going to be a year round fragrance and then I might add florals to like the rest of the house but I just love it I love it and then of course like just sitting in the tub and being able to relax in here with a little caddy I left the Olive Tree I still want to get a real tree for here I think that we will eventually do a real tree this one's a really nice affordable one from Amazon if you want if you don't have the light in the space that's always a good option and then what is the best part is the fact that in this room we also put in the TV this is why I don't have well I could put an espressor machine here machine in here yeah H maybe I should add that to my Christmas wish list maybe should but yeah right now we do have it with a little fire but it is nice because these all have really nice little screen savers so just with a quick tap you can just change the art so it is really fun that you and you really do use this TV I use every day and I'll light the candles and turn on the fireplace like fireplace so it's a fun little hack that just makes it feel like there's a fire going in the room so I kind of love it I love it all right back to the living room shall we all right so in this room the fun thing about the view is that you get to see the room the way that we see it when we wake up in the morning and so in this room it actually has two dominant walls because we had the fireplace that's now behind you that was so dominant we wanted to balance that out and so we saved and saved and saved and bought these gorgeous bookcases which I really love so you'll notice that the Decor on the table tends to be to where whichever side of the room you're on it really looks nice from both sides uh Loved These Little Cedar branches in here oh and the pottery Barn that Pottery Barn vase has had its moment again uh the beautiful sculpture I left that even as part of our Christmas Day core you've got P let me just show them this again cuz I don't think people get this they no one ever gets to see this view the way that we do so this is literally yeah what we walk out to and it is just epic it is I think so I love it I love it yeah and then we've just got the coffee table uh loaded at the moment we've got the Pottery Barn candle going and it's loaded with like really pine cones actually from the yard and more ornaments but in here I ended up still with a lot of the like cedar trees and the marble bowl full of ornaments I've got a combination of pillows I ended up loving these in that gorgeous black and white hounds tooth and then some velvet with the white piping I think that with the sculptural lamp and then the marble bowl is just so pretty and then of course it got a little bit of green velvet Black Velvet a blanket from Amazon and then the lamps in here are oh they were on it's just it's not quite dark in here not quite yet it really does look so magical in here maybe we'll just let you like walk through the house right at the end when the light has really kind of come down just a little bit but I need to watch my step because the elves have been playing that's right and they've been playing b ball here they've been coming with this with new activities every single day and uh yeah The Botch ball was a real hit you guys were playing about the real hit oh look at those shoes I know it was in a splurgy mood I would think so yes yeah now I don't want to talk about anything else but shoes shave my sh let me bring you back into our this is like our family area and like literally our most like hang out kind of area I'm going to mute the fire though because it sounds like there's like an actual bonfire going in here now we've got the volume turned down on the fire as you can tell I do love the Ambiance of having the fire going I mean it would be great to have a fireplace in every room but that's a pretty good stand in this is another one of the frame TVs and it has the frame on it which I think is just so cool and yeah more pine cones I we have a really old pine pine tree in our yard so I literally just gathered up pine cones and stuck them on top of the Moss can you show them how it's got Moss down in there so I just like yeah just stuck it down in there and then yeah we've got this room is just like so small actually and then it's like all windows so this year to get it feeling a little bit more like cuddly feeling we added the Velvet curtains the tree of course makes the room feel amazing we got this one on Amazon Amazon I'll leave a link I'm going to leave a link it's unbelievable well and this one we did in the pot too yes we did you did that I can't take credit for that Jack is the one that he there's a DIY on it in the room so if you want to check that out I'll leave a link for how to do that but yeah he just put rocks down in there and stabilized it so yeah I mean you can see a lot of the ornaments that come back year after year and then we just kind of add a few things you'll see the we added a tree this year I know like we don't have enough already yeah I think it's eight well that's not count I think it just adds like this really beautiful Ambiance to the rooms and for us what we'll do is that we typically uh will have like the presents in that room and then Santa always somehow knows that we want to have stockings in here and just moves the coffee table out and stockings end up spilling out all over the floor because it requires about 100 square feet to bring these babies in I know I don't know what it is it's Santa we just we like to help him out and add a few things something changed when you and I got married Santa suddenly started bringing a lot of stuff for the stockings I know I love stockings so yeah we have a lot of fun and then this is just kind of the more of the branches and just some cylinder bases this coffee table is made of the most amazing travertine and I thought about switching it out but it's just it's kind of a petite room and I I really ended up liking it the thing that I like the most in this room which should probably be the sofa cuz the sofa is amazing this is the most like here let me just show you right here you sit down you sit down ready I did that so hard my headband almost fell off well the we how long we' had the sofa a few years we bought it during the lockdown actually yeah none of us have been allowed to sit in that space only if they're tling with me you're the only one that allowed to sit sit here and whoever wants to sit with me is well welcome but this is my spot it's the comfiest spot in the entire house which is saying a lot cuz our bed is amazing but this mink blanket is the best blanket like ever it's so soft and fluffy and it's so velv like on the back and we just sit here every morning and every night we start the day here and then we end the day here and we just love it it's really cuddly and soft and I think we got yeah some H&M pillows in here a little Amazon the cool lamp from RH back here but if you're looking for a sofa the one thing I will say is that because it's plush you do have to refluff the the back pillows but that's because it's got the down in it and so it's just it's firm but then plush and we love this we love this we love it we use this thing nonstop yeah the other day Landon had a chocolate in his pocket and he looked down and he goes and we thought he pooped his pants he thought I think he thought he' pooped his pants he's like oh God there's poop on my phone I was like we were like oh my gosh he had chocolate all over the sofa and we thought we're going to have to we thought if it was poop we're going to have to literally just take it outside and burn it and I was like we're going to burn this thing right now and then I was like this is the best sofa we've ever had we're going to need to reorder this one uh I'll leave the fabric and everything listed for you if you're on the hunt for an amazing sofa it's actually from West Elm and and it's pretty affordable it's not the cheapest thing out there but you really get an incredible value for your money and I think you'll love it so yeah let's go show them in here all right all right so in here is our breakfast room and we ended up buying these gorgeous hurricanes from West Elm and I love them they have this amazing glow to them that paired with this gorgeous glass wear from that one is from Amazon and then oh my goodness I think these may actually be sold out the little yes the napkin Pottery Barn and the little tie from um the little what is it called napkin ring from the company store I will no white company I can't talk today too many things going on but yeah we ended up loving it and then up here we' got this gorgeous Garland and it really makes this area makes sense and so now we're like can we just leave this up your round I know we really love how that looks and haly came in yesterday and said ah this space just feels so Huga like cozy cozy they may not know if you were just tuning into one of our videos we lived overseas for 12 years so we lived in Copenhagen for six and then we also lived in Africa and ALS well Morocco in Africa and then in Spain so uh that's why she's speaking a Danish word it might sound funny if they don't know why but yeah we've got the espresso machine sitting here got some live branches I just really wanted it to feel really elegant and sophisticated but then to have like this beautiful like raw just natural feel throughout the house so even when we did the faux Garland this one is all from Amazon I've got a DIY for that one as well so if you want to see that I'll link that up as well but I think that it just made the house feels so cozy and inviting and it's still elegant and sophisticated enough that I can wear my little tucks but then we can also be like chilling in PJs and like you know the Fair Isle little kind of sweaters and just living it up so yeah in the kitchen we've got oh you passed that up oh yeah the you like he likes this cuz it's a candle cake look at this candle yes I I made a candle cake I gave it a little Garland of pears and Cedar and this is another candle that is making our house smell like Heaven it's another one from the white company this is their winter candle and it it smells like we have like a wasle kind of going in the room it's got like that kind of smell to it and it is just unreal unreal but I do think like we left all the really big art in fact we actually added another big piece of art in the Garland and I think that by doing that we kept the rooms feeling really elegant it really makes them feel a lot bigger but then we've got like home homey touches like the winter Forest this is my favorite thing to buy at the holiday season and then I use it all winter so even if you didn't get it for Christmas buy it and use it all winter long because I don't know why we're so obsessed we're taking all of our Evergreens out we still have January and February of winter left to go so which is the real winter which is real winter yeah like we don't get real winter across most of the country until January these are so cool this actually came with the s'mores set which was really fun if you saw the video where we did the outdoors so you can use them indoor or outdoors and they they really don't give a lot of heat off just a little bit just a little bit but you can actually make s'mores over them which our kids have really enjoyed cuz got a big bag of marshmallows and so we've just let them make them inside as well got the the kitchen aid out we are ready ready for some baking I know when that guy comes out cookies are coming that's right let's show them the cookie cart though let's show them that in this room now should we should we go through the doors this is something that everybody who's been on our channel for a little bit of time has not seen very much are you guys ready for this ready well we don't use them a lot no they are uh they're usually closed but this year we have them open and so you can actually come into the dining room SL office so you kind of get a view here of command Central this is where we still edit the videos for the channel I've got some more of those beautiful roses here with the cedar from the trees and then you can see that Jack got his second tree that he wanted so badly uh this is another one we ordered from Amazon I'm telling you we found some good trees on Amazon yeah we did The Balsam Hill ones and the ones from terrain the other ones from terrain are beautiful as well but if you're looking for affordable options Amazon has some good ones I'll leave them all linked up but yeah we had some fun going to HomeGoods and finding some extra orn well yeah cuz there's you got to realize there's this tree I mean look at the room this tree and then just a few feet away in case you forgot it's Christmas there's another tree it is kind of fun though because you can actually see the tree as you enter into the room and I when you enter up to the house so it is kind of fun because it gave us kind of The Best of Both Worlds in that we can actually see it from out there and then we can also by wait this room this time of the day is my absolute favorite it is literally when the Sun starts to tuck behind those trees across the street yes and it just kind of glows and like the lights hitting these glasses I know I love it and then I just finished doing these beautiful floral arrangements again all this is from the grocery store it's just a grocery store and mint jeul glasses cups what called y exactly and then boxwoods and Cedar from our own yard so yeah you don't have to even this like the other ones in there were so beautiful right but even this with that little jaquard like this and then just a a Velvet Ribbon and some boxwood and the little Cypress from the trees outside added in I dressed up this room a lot more this is new for us so I know a lot of you watch the dining room make over getting to see how we transition the room from being an office to back to being a dining room with just the desk to the side we've ended up using this room nonstop like sometimes kids complain when you want to do a formal dinner yeah but these are so soft and they theyed it I know and they and they swivel oh so yeah these are absolutely incredible and then we've got the cocktail station set up I'm so excited I know we've got this gorgeous tray and the stunning glasswar from this is actually from Amazon as well this was not this was one of of my little splurges from Ralph that is a Splurge yeah it's from Ralph laoren so yeah it's got that that a Croc embossed leather on it and so yeah we're going to have some fun we need to grab the champagne bucket yes yeah and bring that in here but yeah I ended up loving the Garland Over The Mirror flanking with the scon is flanking it and I just think oh we didn't show them the cookie cart there the whole reason we came in here I know here come around this way and show them the cookie cart the cookie cart was just actually it was it wasn't really a joke but we were saying in one of our Amazon lives how we were in we where were we we were in Vienna um uh Sal salsburg we were in salsburg and this amazing restaurant pulled out the the cart of desserts and so that idea kind of stuck in my head I followed it for like 45 minutes yes you did yes you did uh and I thought why don't we just make our own I mean going to salsburg would be amazing but that may not be on the agenda for this this year so we just made our own little cookie cart I did a whole DIY over on Instagram if you're not following me on Instagram you shouldn't be and if you're not watching our Amazon lives you should be watching those as well cuz we do this live with you guys and then we get to chat with you and it's so much fun but we added the little Santa mugs to this and then just again our box WBS are thoroughly trimmed up now they really are we use them all over the house we let them get scraggly and then like whenever we're ready to we take some clippings off of them so let's end up in here shall we yeah so yeah I love these doors don't you I love the doors that we put in what oh I was like what did I forget uh-oh uh oh Merry Christmas baby that was mistleto you guys couldn't see I know they're like what is going on every time he walks underneath the door they have to kiss I know it's super weird no would be surprised with us but there you go guys this is our home the main level decorated for the holidays I wanted to be able to show you upstairs but the kids are all studying for their finals right now so forgive us we'll have to I'm like we're going to have to do something for that we'll have to share you share their new rooms with you like after the holidays or on Instagram check out Instagram but yeah we just had so much fun decorating the house for the holidays and we just wanted to get to share it with you in January we're already already like how do we keep this you want me to sit yeah let's go sit down you got your coffee waiting for me I do actually have my coffee happy Holidays and Merry Christmas and we will actually see you before the year is out if you want to come back for a really amazing Trends video that is going to shock you but you're going to love it so have a wonderful wonderful holiday season and cheers you guys we will see you in the next one bye\n"