Welcome back to the Holiday series over at Kristen’s house!

I have decided to share a few of our main living spaces this year decorated for the holidays. You already got a peek at my Entryway and the Sunroom. I am really happy with how they turned out this year! Below is your first peek at my kitchen. I haven’t actually shared this space since we moved into the house. It isn’t my favorite room and I have troubles sharing it when I am dissatisfied with it. In my last home I took you through the entire process of how I updated my very old outdated kitchen and it turned out beautiful! (See that kitchen HERE). I miss having a kitchen the way I want it and am getting antsy to re-do it.

In this home (which we hope to stay here for a very long time) I have not touched the kitchen yet as far as a makeover goes as we are currently saving for new kitchen countertops. I hesitate to change a perfectly good kitchen when I don’t have all the design elements picked out. The kitchen is very functional, has good appliances and nice storage space, I just hate all the oak. EVERYTHING in my home is oak, all the floor, all the trim, all the doors, and ALL the cabinets. I adore the floors and wouldn’t touch them. While I love white trim, I promised my husband before we moved in that I wouldn’t paint the perfectly good wood trim. However, I do plan to paint the cabinets. I know people may think I am crazy but I just don’t love how EVERYTHING is this wood color. I would love to go lighter on the cabinets and add some lovely quartz countertop as well as some tile backsplash. But in this economy…it may be a while before that happens as I am looking at more expensive materials for this makeover as it is our ‘forever home’.

It is a nice long room with plenty of space for dining as well. I didn’t add a lot of Christmas decor in here as it doesn’t have much room for a lot. I added a couple wreaths in places, and lots of faux pine greenery around. In the kitchen I really have a hard time with too much on my countertops…I could definitely do without a toaster and microwave on the counters!

The end of the island is about the only place I have some nice decor. (Besides a tiny bit above the cabinets.) I typically keep a couple small pitchers on a breadboard and either a candle or reed diffuser here. A little bit of greenery is all I added. In the spring and summer I like to fill the pitcher with flowers from the garden. Below you can see I added a nice faux juniper garland to the chandelier. It hangs down just perfectly without being overly bushy.

Above is a view of the dining table we have here. It’s the same table we had in our old home that I had painted quite a while ago. Someday I would like to have a larger table here to accommodate the guests and family we frequently have over, but I will wait to find the perfect one. I would love to have an antique trestle style table, but before I go and spend a lot of money on something I would like the kids to be grown a little more! This super distressed look is perfect for when kids and dogs bang into it!

In the center of the table I added an antique Ironstone bowl with some flocked greenery and large etched mercury glass ornaments from our Boutique. These are the perfect size for this large bowl and really go with the rest of the Christmas decor I have in the house.

Below you can see where the sunroom entrance is off to the left. And how there is even more OAK in that entrance. I will definitely be painting that kitchen in the (hopefully!) near future. And don’t worry – I will bring you all along for that journey!

The next and final room for this year’s holiday series will be in my family living room. I haven’t shown this room since we moved in either! It has a lovely wood burning fireplace that we frequently use. I will share what project I am hoping to accomplish in there over the Christmas holiday. It’s exciting and one I am hoping to get finished up in just a day, possibly two, we will see.

Stay tuned for exciting things!