Duke Manor Holiday Home 2023
Home tour during the holidays at Duke Manor Farm for 2023.
Although I typically do a full blown house tour this time of the year, I couldn’t get my mojo together this year. Not sure if it was due to time or motivation….although my house still feels merry and bright.
I have been doing holiday house tours since the beginning of time (well, since 2013) and they are a lot of work. After a while you ask yourself who am I really doing this for? When it becomes more for the blog and less for you and your family, your mindset changes. So this year, it was all about what was on my camera roll on my phone.
Living Room
I bought nothing new this year to add to my Christmas decor arsenal. The tree in the living room has a mix of navy, silver and white ornaments. I added some long gray velvet ribbon on the ends of the branches. I was trying to keep the tree consistent with the room colors.
I took these pictures day and night, with the dog, without dog. Although I scaled back on the ‘stuff’ that I usually put out, my house still feels festive and brings my family joy.
This is the tree in our Den. I was going for a natural woodland vibe for this tree because I wanted to use these owls that I have never used. Shame on me because they are so cute. I will definitely recreate this look next year.
Kitchen Area
Our ‘family tree’ is situated between the eating area in the kitchen and the family room. It’s perfect cause you can see it from the two rooms that we are in the most. Ideally, I would like to put the tree in the family room, but we have more room for a tree in this space.
This tree is covered with all the ornaments that we have collected, or kids have made over the years. I used this tree as my inspiration and mixed in some color with the red, navy and gold balls. I had the red and white ribbon on this tree and have always loved it, so I added big bows all over the tree.
I especially love the lights on at night. We have these remotes for all the lights (in and out) around the house. Remotes sure do make things a whole lot easier. Click on, click off instead of plug in, plug out. 🙂
I want to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope the holiday season gives you plenty of time to pause, reflect and to enjoy this time with family and friends.
I’ll pop in next week with our game room reveal and a recap of 2023.
Big Hugs,
How do you attach your bows to the tree?
Do you make the bows 1st and then attach them to the tree or do you tie the bows to the branches?
Laura I just discovered your blog and love your style. I have followed so many blogs over the years (I’m 68 with 2 dtrs aged 42 & 38 and no intown grandchildren. I’ve never (mostly never) followed fashion trends for house decorating (give me a old Williamsburg house/or old English estate and love either and loved Bunny’s styles). The reason I wanted to follow you (of course because your home is gorgeous, you live in Ga (my Dtr lives in Athens); and you have a family centered home. But caught your write up of your marriage tips. I have seen so many bloggers (since 2008) keep recreating/redecorating/redoing their home with their husband’s “help” and then they are divorced. It’s stressful and totally redo everything….I can’t imagine. Thanks for mentoring to others about how to make a marriage work….I really can’t stand the saying “happy wife, happy life” because no one can MAKE a person happy. Way TMI but i have been happily married to my high school sweetheart for 51 years and always realize each others differences. (btw I caught a snide Comment from one of your readers about spellcheck/Gosh, people are so critical; wish I could trade in my beautiful subdivision home for a cabin in the woods, people are so angry/awful/must be unhappy).