{seasonal style} My Home Style: Christmas Tree Edition

Welcome to another addition of “My Home Style.” Today we’re talking Christmas trees. As you may already know, I describe my personal style as MODERN. GRAPHIC. FAMILY. Last year I showed you how the big Christmas tree in our basement {the one where Santa leaves the loot} reflects this style, but today I’m excited to show you the new ornaments I made for the skinny tree in our living room.

Special thanks to Stephanie of Casa Watkins for coordinating today’s My Home Style: Christmas Tree Edition blog! If you’ve just stopped by from her site, I’m thrilled to have you here! At the end of this post, you’ll find links to all of the other bloggers sharing their Christmas tree styles today.

As far as design styles go, modern and graphic are pretty self-explanatory. But you may be wondering how “FAMILY” is a style?! As the mom of two preschool age boys, just about every design decision I make is with the kids in mind! But rather than letting the “kid friendly” requirement hinder our style – I find that it encourages me to be even more creative and bold! And the Christmas tree in our living room is the perfect example.

Last year, I simply wrapped our skinny living room tree in black and white striped ribbon without any ornaments. But I couldn’t decide if the look was classic and chic, or if it was lacking something. So this year I decided to try something new. When I spotted some fun letter ornaments {affiliate link} from the Land of Nod, they immediately caught my eye, not only because I loved the graphic color-dipped look, but also because we are all alphabet, all the time these days! Beckett is learning to read, and Cooper is learning his letters and sounds, so it seemed fitting that our tree should be covered in letters.

I initially thought about buying a full set of the Land of Nod ornaments, but I found myself wishing that I could get all of them color-dipped in red to match the Christmas accents in our living room, rather than in a variety of colors. Plus, at the time they were priced at $5 each {they are now on sale for $2}, and I just couldn’t justify spending $130 for new ornaments for the living room tree.

Instead, I decided to go the DIY route. I purchased thin 3″ wood letters {affiliate link} from the craft section at Target for just $.79 each. I also picked up larger wood letters for each of our first initials {A, B, C and S}. In just a couple of hours, I was able to recreate the look of the Land of Nod color dipped letter ornaments on a budget! Get the tutorial here!

I just love the way these graphic red and white letters look on the tree in our living room!

Our skinny lodge pole pine Christmas tree is the perfect size for the corner of the living room, below the two high windows where I display some of my favorite glass ornaments safely out of reach of little hands. The big, bold letters make a great statement on this small-scale tree.

Instead of a tree skirt, I sat the tree inside of a black and white stripped basket that I picked up at Michael’s.

These DIY ornaments were such a quick and easy project! My boys love that we now have an alphabet tree, but the modern, graphic style of the letters makes them a blend seamlessly with our living room decor.

If you’re digging my MODERN. GRAPHIC. FAMILY. tree style, or if you want some tips for creating a super kid friendly tree, be sure to check out our basement tree as well! You can read all the details in last year’s My Home Style: Christmas Tree Edition post. Also be sure to read all of my kid-safe Christmas decor tips.

Now the blog hop continues, and the next stop is my dear friend Melissa over at Polished Habitat. I just lover her modern glam style, and I can’t wait to see how she blended it with all of her sentimental ornaments.

You can also check out all of the other Christmas tree style posts this week using the links below…