Happy Holidays friends! And to any of you who are new here, thanks for stopping by. We’re pretty excited today to be sharing our first Christmas home tour with all of you – and really, our first EVER home tour here in the Dreamhouse! We’ve also teamed up some fabulous & super talented Canadian bloggers to share a whole lot of Christmas inspiration from home tours, to recipes, travel tips & everything in between so be sure to “Have Yourself a Canadian Little Christmas” & check out the links at the bottom of this post.

We’re starting our tour right at the front door. When we designed the Dreamhouse we had planned to put in an ultra-modern front door, but as our reno budget grew, that went from being a “must have”, to a “nice-to-have” and eventually to a “thing we’ll upgrade later as our bank account permits”. We installed a builder basic white front door, added some sidelights and called it a day. And Kes and I have both hated that door everyday since. So after a year of looking at it and cursing quietly to ourselves about how it ruins the aestetic of our entryway, we decided on a whim to give the inside of the door a quick update with a coat of paint. We used PARA Paints Molten (P5205-85D) in a flat finish and are seriously in love with how it turned out. It might not be the modern door of our dreams, but it’s gone from eye sore to focal point. Yes, this is the inside of our door. I know most people put wreaths on the outside of their doors, but this door looks so pretty now I said screw it. 🙂

From the front door we take you down the hallway and straight to the dining area at the back of the house. This spot is just adjacent to our kitchen which isn’t quite camera ready (sorry), and gets the most incredible natural light due to the 2 large sets of window wall doors we have at the back of our house.

Our style for the most part is a mix of modern paired with rustic and industrial elements. We’ve carried that through our Christmas decorations using mostly neutral colours, mixed metalics, wood accents & fresh greenery. The dining table is no exception.

I’m in love with those placemats from Bouclair. Believe it or not, they’re plastic, which makes for super easy clean up. Any of you moms out there with messy eaters like me will understand…

We got a downpour of snow just in time to set the winter wonderland ambiance for the photos. If you know me, you know I’m absolutely not a cold weather person, but even I can’t deny how beautiful it is (from inside of course, lol!)

The dining area is also open to above, which gave us the perfect location for our Christmas tree.

Last year Kes was insistent that he wanted a 12′ tree and made it his mission to find one. I intially thought 12′ was overkill, but I’m so glad he persisted. If you follow us on instagram you might have caught our insta story a couple of weeks ago, and seen all the fun we got up to trying to assemble this thing. There was definitely some questionable ladder use and a little unsafe balancing going on.

Next to the dining area is our family room. We’ve changed up a few things since the last time you saw the space.

We added these gold reindeer pillows that I picked up at Homesense and also a few fur accent pillows & a throw to give it a cozier feel for the winter months. Our cat Tiger has claimed our faux fur throw as his new favourite napping spot – and who can blame him!

The media wall got a little festive accent with this cool industrial looking snowflake marquee & some greens. We also added a few sparkly twigs to the floor vase.

I love how the accent wall color reflects off the mirrored finish of the snowflake!

Our stairs are probably the most industrial element in the house. I love the combination of the exposed steel stringers which we painted black combined with the wooden treads. Instead of traditional railings we installed these DIY cable railings floor to ceiling. I opted to decorate it with these simple DIY ornament string garlands, some lights and this cool modern looking wreath which was another simple DIY made from wood shims.

The last stop on our tour brings you back to the front of the house. If you remember our family room reveal you might have seen the big empty space adjacent to it. What you might not have realized was that that large empty space was essentially right at the front door of our house. Having such a large empty space as the first thing you see when people walk into the house doesn’t exactly create the greatest first impression – instead it looks like you just moved in and have no furniture! Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been working on remedying that. And here’s what you see when you walk into the house now…

We created this DIY faux fireplace feature which really grounds the space and gives us a focal point to create a conversation seating area around. We painted the face of it in PARA Paints Mama’s Boy (P5205-62D) and the insides in Molten (P5205-85D) (can you guess what inspired us to pain the front door). You might also recognize the blue occasional chairs I re-upholstered, which have been moved here from the family room.

Eventually we’ll add a gas insert and convert this to a functional fireplace, but for now its so nice to have a pretty spot to decorate – not to mention hang some stockings! We decorated inside the ‘fireplace’ area with some fresh greenery, birch logs, pinecones, candles & of course these adorable mini twinkle light lanters I picked up from The Home Depot.

Faux fireplace be damned – I don’t care if they’ll never actually be burned, there is just something cool looking & geometric about the profile of these stacked logs!

I love this vector reindeer print so much – he may find himself a permanent fixture on the mantle.

That brings us to the end of the tour. But before you go, here’s one last look back at the whole space.

So there you have it! Thanks for taking the time to visit the Dreamhouse for our 2016 Christmas Home Tour! I have to say a very special thank you to my lovely friend Aleah of Sparrow Lane Interiors for helping us out in a crunch with a few pieces for the room. Kes and I hope you have a safe & happy holiday season. And make sure you check out these amazing Canadian bloggers below as well!

Have Yourself a Canadian Little Christmas

Alex Inspired | Sunshine & Sugar | The Dream House Project | Glittering Ambition
Lesley Metcalfe | The Lunchbox Season | Elizabeth Montilla Design | Once Upon a Maison | The Healthy Garage