This past weekend we participated in the Fonthill Christmas House Tour.
The basic details are this. Business' from the surrounding area are invited to decorate a local Fonthill home for the Christmas season and then the public buys tickets through a local church and tour these homes one at a time via a map one day of the year. It's a tradition I remember partaking in as a kid even, going to these houses with my mom and now I'm the decorator for one.
This year there were 7 homes on the tour and we decorated a local blogger/ authors home. Marcella DiLonardo is the author of Hey Modest Marce and the author of cookbook Bake the Seasons, set to come out in April of the new year and her home is stunning. Really we hit a home jackpot as the base and bones of this home were just stellar for Jill and I to add the icing on top.
Offering up your home to be apart of this tour is no small feat. As a homeowner you don't really have much to do but, having us invade your home for multiple days, not be allowed to touch your own decor, have half your decor put away and then deal with the chaos of hundreds of people coming through AND THEN deal with the tear down of all the said Christmas decor and have to put your home back together is a big ask. Having a set of great people who are also customers do this for us is a wonderful testatment to the shop local mentality, the giving of the season and all around to the feeling I am trying to invoke through my shop.
Welcome to Modest House.
I will try to link a bunch of the items shown whether it be to the Oliver and Rust online shop or the other shops I know some of the items are from.
My general concept for this home was to work with the modern feel of the pieces as well as decorate the home as if this was how the homeowners would actually live for the holidays. I didn't want it to be so overdone that no one would believe people lived there but also bring the European vintage vibe that was introduced into the shop this season.
The living room is a quaint room with this showstopper of a fireplace. The light fixture is from Rejuvenation.
Oliver and Rust items include: large vintage brass deer, small vintage pair deer [homeowners own but were purchased at the shop] moose antler, vintage ornaments, tree & skirt plus all ornaments, glass hurricane.
We utilized a lot of fresh magnolia to tie the tree together with the decor.
The lineup of velvet pillows and swiss army blanket all from the shop plus a graphite linen blanket tucked into the arm of the sofa at the other end.
Left to right: Mood Moss pillow, Royal Apple Green pillow, Santa Suit red velvet pillow, Tobacco Leather lumbar pillow
A snuggle worthy modern chair with an amazing photo of the couple's dog.
The alpaca buffalo check blanket and forest green pillow were just the simple bits to elevate the holiday mood.
The great shelving was there and already had some wonderful items on it from West Elm. We added the Indian water pot and greenery at the top, the mercury tree pair, vintage Mijiu pot and a Murray fox statue
The view from the living room looks back into the front hall with the Christmas staircase we decked out in cedar garland and natural wood bells.
The dining room has a lovely view onto their back deck and yard.
The wine rack, buffet are Crate and Barrel, the gold clock on the wall is Schoolhouse Electric. The table decor and buffet decor are from us including that massive buck bowl sitting proudly in the center of the table along a vintage grey grainsack table runner. We set the table to seat 4 to give the tour a feeling of being invited to dinner.
The dining room opens up right onto the kitchen. Just check out the great work space here. Marcella works from home on her blog and her cookbook so has the space to allow her creativity to flow. She baked the cake you see on the stand just to tantalize the guests right along with myself and Jill. I am proud to say that I did not grab a fork and try to eat it even once. I will admit to totally staring at that stove more than a few times and asking many questions about where she got things including the wood knife block on the wall.
This light fixture is also Rejuvenation.
The front hall credenza was a simple display including a preserved boxwood garland along the top of the mirror, a large moroccan pot with a golden cypress topiary, two of our European Belsnickles, a small moroccan tray loaded with vintage ornaments and a glowing winter white candle to give the home the smell of Christmas.
The original french doors hang open between the living room and dining room so we added preserved boxwood wreaths to the door knobs for an added green flourish.
And now we head upstairs to the second floor.
The bedrooms upstairs both feature pink in different ways so we kept the decor mostly neutral and simple to give the holiday vibe and keep in tone with the room as the homeowner sees it. The master bedroom has a beautiful papered feature wall that allows all the accessories to stand out wonderfully. The pink and white linen bedding are Marcella's. The pewter lumbar and berber stripe pillows were our addition to the bedding. The black striping tied in the black chair on the other side of the room
The big lanterns are Marcella's (Crate and Barrel) and we added our natural bristle trees, deer heads, a rust deer head into the window, some natural eucalyptus, and a lumbar Abenaki pillow.
The second bedroom has a pale pink and white wallpaper which definitely meant the room was kept neutral. We added some white and grey textiles including the blanket, the woodland pillow and some sweet deer on the end table. The other side of the room not pictured featured a dresser with additional simple decor.
Lastly the working office. Our white reindeer guards the door and the beautiful wood desk.
Thanks for following along everyone and joining our tour.
We had a great time decorating this home and as I type this I realize I TOTALLY forgot to take a picture of the front of the house. It looked so great with a big wreath and porch greenery arrangements, grey wicker log holder, rocking chairs and blankets.... but I was racing out to the store after taking the photos inside and people were already starting to arrive. Oy, total oops moment. Guess you'll just have to pretend I took those photos.
Have a great day everyone,
