red | Operation Home

…for year-round Christmas decor.

Never. No way. No how.

It’s my favorite time of year, so why limit it to just one month??

That’s what I say.

Well, that’s the conclusion that I eventually came to, anyways.

Now don’t get me wrong…. I’ll never resort to leaving inflatable Santa sleighs in my yard. Or utilizing overly bedazzled wreaths of joy during summertime. Or even scattering brightly colored tinsel about. Well, maybe the tinsel. I’m not completely made of steel. 😉

Heehee! I kid, I kid…. What I’m actually referring to is this …..

This print that I originally spoke about in this post about free Christmas printables. If you’ll remember, I used it in the gallery wall in our old house’s living room….

And then never took it down.

Time after time, I apologized for having a Christmas print hung beyond the holiday season to visitors who gazed upon my gallery wall. I’d laugh and joke about my “forgetfulness”. About how “lazy” I was for having left it.. But really, deep down in the chasm of my brain, I knew that I’d left it up because I secretly loved it. I loved the simplicity of it. The subtle nod toward my favorite holiday. That little red dot after “Rudolph”. Just looking at it made me happy. Plus, I LOVED the contrast it added to the gallery wall. I felt like it really completed the composition of it.

And I knew….. Unless I found a replacement that I loved just as much as the reindeer print, it would continue to take up residence on our wall. No matter how long it took.

In all fairness, I did search for a non-holiday replacement. I checked out Pinterest, Etsy, and completed many a google search…. It went on for several months (well, over a year, actually). But, I never found anything that fit the bill. Nothing that I felt compelled to pull the trigger on. See, when it comes to art, I have to have a visceral response to it. I know immediately whether I’m drawn to it. If I don’t have that response, I don’t waste my time or money. Which is why it’s taking me so long to adorn the walls of our new house. I wanna do it right. Thus, at this point, after six months into living here, I consider very few walls in our home final or complete.

So anyways, my search for a reindeer replacement continued until we sold our house last September.

Then, we moved and I stopped searching in favor of dealing with more pressing issues having to do with our new/old 1975 house.

Which brings us to a few weeks ago. Remember where we left off with our pool bath??

I’d painted the room, built a pipe shelf, rustic towel hook and hung a neat New York print that I loved, but the room still didn’t feel right. More specifically, the blank space next to the New York print bothered me.

It doesn’t seem as profound in photos as it was in person since this microscopic room is kind of hard to photograph. But trust me, the wall felt… unfinished… for lack of a better word. I’ve known since hanging the NY print that I needed to hang something next to it. And every time I thought about it, my mind automatically drifted to the reindeer print. It was the right size, color, and composition. It would look mighty fine up in there in my opinion. But then, each and every time, convention would kick in and I’d find myself at war with myself…

“But, the reindeer print would be perfect there!”

“No, Christina, you will NOT be the crazy lady with Christmas decor up year round.” (Subconscious smacks wooden ruler against palm in consternation)

“But the typography! The colors!! The light, brightness of the piece!!!”

“NO. No,no,no. (Gasp!) …You can’t…. You mustn’t!” (Consternation becomes distress as subconscious dons bonnet and channels every Jane Austen character)

“But, I love it!”

“NEVER!! You will be shunned! Banished!” (Jane Austen behavior morphs into overly dramatic Shakespeare with back of hand to forehead)

“But… I… LOVE… IT.”

(Subconscious finally grasps this as a solid point and quietly stares with no response)

Because really, shouldn’t your home be a reflection of you and what you love… even if it defies modern convention?? Do we not learn from all the movies and books that love conquers all??

Answer: Yes. Sure we do.

So, I decided to take a page from the book of Nike and Just Do It.

Once I was at peace with this decision, I sprinted casually sauntered like a really cool person to my beloved print and hung it up on the wall.

Which left this….

Now, this very teeny room boasts nods to two of my very favorite things. New York (where I grew up) and Christmas.

Which when it comes down to it, only seems right… I mean a big factor in us choosing this house to begin with was that there were multiple places to put the Christmas tree. Well, maybe that was more of a concern of mine than Joey’s. 😉

So, anyways, now you know the long and arduous tale of a tiny project that made a big impact on a tiny room (and my very dramatic psyche). You may not agree with my decision to hang a Christmas print, but it makes me smile. And it’s quirky. And anyone who knows me can attest that “quirky” is definitely a mainstay of my personality (and those of my family as well) and I think that it’s only appropriate that our home reflects that.

So, what do y’all think? Christmas decor year round? Do what you love?

You excited??

I am. Why?? Because I finally did something to our laundry room. Woot!

Granted, it’s a little something. But something just the same.

So, let’s start with a basic floor plan refresher. Our laundry room is located directly off of our breakfast nook…

It’s a decent-sized room that houses a spacious pantry and our teeny pool bath. I actually think the pantry is larger than the bathroom. I mean, it doesn’t take much, but still… it’s kind of a strange distribution of space.

Here’s the room when we got the keys (along with some indicators to show you what’s where) ….

And here it is after we plopped down our stuff after we moved in….

And now….

Granted,. the space hasn’t changed much, and most of what’s in there right now (the rugs, basket, and wood shelf) will be switched out eventually. I’m not a huge fan of the dark brown sink mat, but we needed something there functionality-wise (Lucas + sink = puddle = slippery), and it’s what we had on hand. I’m on a use-what-I-got-front for most of the space at the moment. I did, however, manage to hang a new mirror and towel hook above the sink (which will stay)….

Sometimes the smallest additions can seem like the biggest triumphs in a space that’s been stagnant in decorating. In case you’re wondering, the mirror was a Tuesday Morning find for $39.99, and the hook (a clearance Young House Love hook) and towel I got from Target. I wanted to tie in the red and aqua tones from the adjoining pool bath….

And I love how you can see the bathroom’s reflection in the mirror. Heart.

I have to say that up to this point, the laundry room has been the most frustrating room in the house for me because I know EXACTLY that I wanna do with it. We just haven’t gotten there yet. And in the meantime, aside from housing the washer, dryer and a sink, it has little function. I cleaned it up for the pictures in this post, but normally there’s coats, shoes, backpacks, hats, and laundry piled everywhere since there’s no storage or system of any kind.

Last year, the previous owners experienced a flood that affected half the house and started in the laundry room. Apparently, a pipe burst in the attic above it when we had all of those super low temperatures. They had to almost fully gut the laundry room and pool bath. So in the process, the space lost all of its original cabinetry and storage. They just put up drywall when they were putting it all back together again and called it a day. I can’t say I blame them, but it would have been FANTASTIC to have inherited some storage in the space when we purchased the house.

But, on the flip side, we have a totally blank slate to work with, which is also kind of cool.

So, here’s the plan. This space over the washer and dryer will sport some stained wood shelves that’ll extend all the way to the ceiling….

Then, this area where I stuck a random shelving unit, will be the “mudroom” space with hooks, shoe storage, etc.

I’ve been tossing around painting the sink cabinet as well, though I’d like to see how the rest of the room comes together first.

Then, comes the biggie. THE BIGGIE. The thing that I want to do most (aside from adding function).

That exterior door back there (straight ahead in the photo), which leads to our covered back patio. I wanna change that out for an exterior door with a full length window. That right there will be be a game changer. Natural light will flood the land. It will be glorious. And most importantly, it’ll make the space feel like part of our house rather than a dark, cavernous afterthought.

I can’t wait until we get going on this. We’re currently saving our pennies and planning, though we’ll likely have to wait until the other projects that are in progress right now are finished (our pool refinishing along with a few other outdoor projects and the wet-bar… I’ll post an update once we get to it, of course.). In the meantime, I’m thrilled to at least have one small project for this space under my belt. I’m a total proponent for starting small to add personality when you can’t really take on a larger project at the moment. It’s amazing how just a small mirror and hook are enough to make me smile when I enter the room now.

So, tell me, what little changes have you made that made the biggest differences in your space?