At The Picket Fence

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

How to Decorate an Entry Table

Did you know that harem style pants (a la MC Hammer) are making a comeback? Yep. The other day, in a Facebook group I’m apart of, someone shared a photo of an advertisement for an outfit that was a romper version of this ‘style’ and I couldn’t help but think that there are some trends that were so bad the first time around that they really should never make a comeback. And they actually made it even worse! I mean, can anyone actually pull of that look? Every time I see those pants they remind me of when my kids tried to walk around with fully loaded diapers.

And, it made me thankful that I am at a stage in life where I know what works for me and what doesn’t, both in my wardrobe and in my home. I wasted so many years trying to fit into a certain look or trend and I can’t even begin to explain how much freedom there is in embracing your own style.

Case in point, this table in my entry has seen many manifestations. Some of them make me cringe now when I look back at them. Because it was just trying too hard to be something it wasn’t.

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Simple and Sweet Hot Cocoa Bar

I never knew that I could love the tween years as much as I do. According to many articles I’ve read, most girls who are between the ages of 10-12 begin to have wild mood swings, throw toddler-like temper tantrums over not having the right clothes to wear, spend hours on their phones and are trying really hard to move as quickly as possible into the teen years.

This is not the case in our house. In our house, age eleven is pretty special.

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Holiday Housewalk Christmas Tour 2018

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!” ~ Charles Dickens

Welcome, dear friends, welcome! I’m so thrilled to be opening my home for a Christmas tour to you today as part of the annual Jennifer Rizzo Holiday Housewalk! You will want to start at the very beginning to soak up all of the beautiful inspiration so head over to her place and sit back and take it all in.

If you are arriving here from my friend Traci’s beautiful home, I’m so glad that you decided to continue on with the tour and I hope you feel very welcomed.

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Simple and Traditional Christmas Mantel

Many years ago, as my husband and I sat on the couch on a December evening flipping through the channels on the TV, we stumbled across the tail end of the Rick Steve’s European Christmas Special on PBS. We were immediately captivated and in those few minutes we felt like we were transported into another world. As soon as it was over I got online and ordered the DVD so that we could share it with our kids.

Watching it with them, not only did I just find it so fascinating learning about how Christmas is celebrated in various communities throughout Europe, I was also struck by something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on but that I knew spoke to my soul.

And, over the years, as we’ve watched it again and again, I finally realized just what it was that so captivated me.

Every single home was decorated so very simply, mostly with natural elements, and yet still so perfectly captured the spirit of Christmas.

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When You Can’t All Fit on the Couch Anymore

There are a million little moments throughout parenting which go by with no notice, no fanfare and yet are significant milestones deserving of being acknowledged.

I don’t remember the exact day when I carried my daughter up the stairs for the last time. Or the day when my son took his last swing between me and my husband as we walked down the street, laughing and giggling as we all shouted ‘ONE, TWO, THREE!’ and we lifted him up high in the air.

And I can’t remember exactly when my family of four stopped fitting comfortably together on our couch but, one day, we just all found ourselves squished together. And while I’m all for closeness this was a little bit too close, especially when you consider the extra odors that come with tweens/teens.

We did have extra chairs in the room, but they weren’t the kind of comfy, plunk down, cozying up kind of chairs that you really should have in a family room.

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Fall Home Tour 2018

Confession…most, if not all, of the years I have shared my fall home tour here with you, there has been quite a bit of ‘staging’ done prior to taking the photos.

Vintage suitcases trying to look casual all stacked on top of each other with pumpkins spilling out. Extra throw blankets and pillows tossed onto chairs which makes it more than evident that no one is actually supposed to sit there.

There would be tables set for parties that were never going to happen or freshly baked bread with just a few pieces sliced up to look like they were waiting for someone to walk by and grab one.

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Fall Mantel with Traditional Colors

A couple of weeks ago I began to notice how the light was changing in my house throughout the day, shifting and moving from room to room in a way that was different than it had been even just the week before. It was subtle, but it signaled the very end of one season and the very beginning of another.

I realized in that moment that while I absolutely love all of the bold, dramatic elements of Autumn, perhaps my most favorite aspects are those that are a bit less obvious.

The ones that creep up on you.

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It’s OK if You Don’t Want a Farmhouse

Did you know that if something is very expensive the kids these days refer to as being so “Gucci”? Now, it doesn’t mean that it has to be the actual Gucci brand. According to my teenage son, it’s just a way to say that something costs a ridiculous amount of money and therefore must be very special. (I’m rolling my eyes as I type this.) Another word that is used regularly around here is ‘dope’. Don’t worry, this isn’t referring to drugs. It’s just another way of saying that something is ‘cool’, a slang word which has actually managed to stand the test of time.

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French Country Home Tour

10 years. This summer we celebrated 10 years of living in this house. Somewhere (on an old camera buried in a drawer) there is a photo I took when we walked through these rooms for the first time with our realtor. I snapped a shot of an upstairs bathroom and caught in the reflection in the mirror is the image of me holding my 10 month old daughter on my hip while my son runs from room to room behind me.

Now, here we are, with a 15 year old and an 11 year old and a house that slowly became a home. And I realized recently that I’ve never shown it all to you at once. You’ve seen bits and pieces, rooms here and there, but I thought it might be fun to take you on a tour and begin at the beginning.

The other night as my husband and I were shutting down the house in preparation for going to bed, I was going from room to room turning off lamps and I couldn’t help but think about how much this house has changed.

When we purchased this home, there were no TV shows where entire homes were overhauled in a matter of days or weeks with the results being dramatically revealed to the owners. There wasn’t even Instagram with the temptation to scroll past one beautiful room after another feeling more and more discouraged that while those spaces were so impeccably decorated and up-to-date, my own rooms were solidly stuck in 1992, the year the house was built and the money it took for us to buy the house and keep our mortgage low didn’t allow a lot of extra cash for updates.

And I’m SO very thankful for that! Because, I never once thought that our house would be entirely transformed to my liking in a short period of time.

(living room)

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More Bargain Finds for the Office

Clearance. Just the word makes my heart start beating faster and my mind race with the possibility of that glorious moment when you happen upon exactly what you were looking for (and, let’s face it, sometimes things you weren’t looking for) at a price that can’t be beat.

And friends, let me tell you, when I committed to doing our office makeover with as much fiscal responsibility as I could muster, I had no idea how many amazing deals I would end up finding!

First there was the metal cart , then I used the bulk of my budget to go towards the new desk and chair BUT by leaving reviews for items I had previous purchased through Wayfair.com I was able to get credit towards these new purchases which brought down the price considerably.

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