Last week on Instagram Stories, I showed how I pack up and store our Christmas tree and ornaments. I really love decorating for Christmas especially in our new house! As wonderful as Christmas decor can be, I think it’s really easy to go a little overboard and things start to feel a bit claustrophobic! I mean you have the tree and your furniture is out of its normal spots!

New year new season

The change of the calendar seems like a pretty great time to change your decor, but in North Dakota, it’s not really springtime yet. This year I decided to take down Christmas and go for a winter decor theme that was a bit more minimalist yet still very wintery.

The Layout

In order to keep with the winter decor theme I wanted to take down everything red to start with. This meant stockings, my red Christmas signs, and of course the tree. Our living room is still pretty blank. Our walls are painted Eider White by Sherwin Williams. We do have the original thick baseboards, pocket doors, and mantel all in a special walnut finish. We also have a leather couch and recliner, so there is a lot of contrast in colors.

Inspiration

I headed to Pinterest to see the threads in the pins I had been pinning lately. I found that I had definitely stuck with the high contrast theme. There were a lot of whites, with contrasting warm wood tones, and pops of green. I wanted to play on this contrast by finally getting to use these signs I picked up from Hobby Lobby almost 6 months ago finally! I absolutely love the quote on them! I also knew I wanted to have some pops of green to bring some warmth to the black and white contrast.

Shopping my House

I am really trying to not spend very much money on home decor this year, and instead try to stretch my creativity with things I already have in my home! So I went shopping in my own home. I looked for neutral blankets, pillows, wood boxes, books, candlesticks, and glass vases. I also grabbed my plants that had been moved to the dining room for Christmas to bring in my pops of green to my winter decor.

Decorating After Christmas!

I laid it all out and started with the biggest piece, the focal point above the mantel. I probably should have measured, and used a stud finder but I totally eyeballed it and got these two hung centered and straight on the first try! Then I started from the inside out on the mantel. I reused the cedar garland from Christmas, but choose to use just one section instead of 3. I also knew I wanted to use the new candlestick my sister in law had given me for Christmas!

Functionality Matters

Functionality is really important to me when it comes to decorating our home. We have two little kids, a dog, and two cats. We need the space and we need some storage. I have really worked on my morning routine and that takes place in our living room. I knew I needed a box to hold my prayer journal, my start today journal, my power sheets, and my planner. It needs to look good, but it also needed to block our Roomba vacuum cleaner from getting into the cords under our side table. I used this little apple box to hold my books, and hide my cords.

Plants

I absolutely love my indoor plants. I think I’m starting to turn into the crazy plant lady! I now have 4 fiddle leaf fig trees, one snake plant, one herb pot, one Christmas cactus, and one lemon tree! I tried something new and used my little baby fig tree to balance out my mantel. This little guy I ordered off Amazon about 5 months ago. When it showed up it only had 3 tiny little leaves! All of my fig trees are now in self-watering pots and have been doing amazing since they were re-potted in them! I also use the Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree Fertilizer when I fill their pots with water. My tallest fig tree I placed behind my TV, it’s not quite as big as it needs to be to fill the space, but it’s in a really good spot for sun and I’m sure by the middle of the summer it will look awesome there. It did put it up on a crate to help give it a bit more height until then! Check out my instagram highlights on my plants!

Take your time

The one thing I have learned about decorating is that it’s not something that is done all at once. It takes some time to get right. You kinda need to take the time to step back and make the little adjustments that really pull the room together. I’ve moved things about 20 times since I took these photos, but all the same, items are there. I hope this gives you some inspiration to decorate your house for winter after Christmas!

Did this inspire you? Pin it to Pinterest to share with others!

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