Christmas: Less is More Decor For This Girl

 

Merry Christmas!!!

Only one day!  I can't believe how this month has flown by, but I vowed last year, that this year, I was going to cut back on my decorating to focus on what's most important this time of year. I want my children to have memories of celebrating Christmas, because it is Christ's Birthday.  I don't want their memories to be of mom decorating three 9-foot, fake trees, trillions of lights and garlands, stressing over entertaining, and grumbling.  
I want them to realize that Christ was born on Christmas.  That's it. Plain and simple.  (I'd also like to throw in a dash of "actually enjoying time together" too!)

We have been busy having fun! Last weekend was cookie-baking-day at my sister's.  (Actually, all of our boys and my little lady were there too!) Here's my three favorite girls : My mom, sister, and daughter.

We got our first real tree in 8 years, because I insisted.

As far as my decorating this year, I've scaled way, way back.  I pulled out all the bins and categorized by color.

Gold-ish for the living room 

Red and Silver in the Dining Room

A Country Kitchen

...and a fun Family Room

 

 

 

 

...but my favorite decorations are the ones with made by favorite DIY-ers!

Have a Wonderful Christmas!

How to: Faux Paneled Hall





Before and After 

Sorry for the delay on this, but life is crazy right now!  Between work, kids, and trying to get this place decorated for Christmas, I've been too busy!  Anyway, here it is, my version of a "paneled" hallway.  Again, I am not a pro, I'm just teaching myself how to do this stuff. 

Do what you want, but this is what worked for me: 

I used 3.5" X 1" MDF boards for the "panels" and 1" cove molding to fake the routed edges.  I added a base cap to the top to simulate a chair rail. 

My first step was to measure out my walls, and decide how large or small you want the "panels."  I didn't want anything too overwhelming, this is a narrow area.  (I have three separate walls in this hallway.) I then decided how high I wanted to have my chair rail, (I used the dining chair as a guide, so that when if I put up a chair rail in my living room and dining room, it will match up. 

 I divided each wall evenly to create the large "paneled" areas.  One wall ended up with three "panels," another has two, and the last has just one. They're not exactly the same sizes, because the walls are all different lengths with doorways breaking them up. 


 

This is all I use, I standard miter box and saw out in the garage!

 
I attached the  MDF 1 X 3.5 boards horizontally along the existing baseboard with liquid nails and then nailed it into place.  I'm a lover of MDF because it cuts like butter, compared to pine, with my little miter box and saw :)

  I did the same along the sides and top, then added the cove molding to the MDF, using liquid nails.   

I filled all of the scuffs and scrapes on the wall with lightweight spackle, and sanded the walls down with medium grit sanders.

The cove molding was added to the boxes with LN's, you can see the trim on the left side, none on the right in this pic.

Cove molding close up

Then I glued the base cap across the top piece, for a finishing touch. 

Tons of caulk and sanding, then two coats of high gloss white paint...I had some help. 

Here's the finished, well almost, product. I still have to address the doorway and paint the baseboards, and excuse my nighttime pics, I work on off hours ;)