Turning home projects into a family affair during the holiday break
The holidays are usually the time of the year when I’m most active. I’m out there almost every day, shopping for gifts at the mall, meeting friends for coffee, and helping organize my office’s Secret Santa party. I live for all of it. I’m 100% “that Christmas person.”
But this year, things are different. I’ve been stuck at home for nine months and the pandemic blues are finally getting to me. Not to mention the five pounds I’ve gained by binging on my mom’s peanut butter blossom cookies. No longer being able to enjoy the perks of a full social life, I decided I had to find a way out of this funk.
I started to reflect on all that I’ve been through this year after I moved back home, and I came to a realization. If there is one thing I’ve learned during this pandemic (other than that I have a shoe addiction I have to take care of) it’s that I’ve truly enjoyed spending time with my family.
We’ve been around each other so much that I’ve gotten to know them better than ever. Mom loves arts and crafts, Dad is really into maintenance work (and musicals), and my little sister is becoming quite the cook. And I know they’ve come to love and appreciate my sense of style when it comes to sprucing up our home.
Yes, there have been moments when we’ve gotten on each other’s nerves (I promise I’ll start doing my laundry, Mom) but overall, we’ve helped each other survive this crazy year. And now that we’re reaching the end of it, I really want to make it special. So when I suggested that we combine all of our talents to give the dining room a makeover, they were completely on board.
Why the dining room?
The dining room is where our family gathers every year to enjoy Christmas dinner. Nieces and nephews run around laughing joyfully, uncles and aunts get into heated political discussions that make us all uncomfortable, and dad embarrasses my dates with his invasive lines of questioning. It’s tradition.
But there was one problem. Every time I walked into the dining room, it was like being transported to 1999. The room hadn’t been updated since I was 6! If my parents were ever to sell their home, the dining room would scare away potential homebuyers.
The way a home is staged affects its perceived value. The National Association of Realtors 2019 Home Staging report found that the dining room was one of the most common rooms to be staged when selling. As realtor.com puts it, high-end homebuyers want to have a formal place where they can host their dinner parties.
Giving the old new life
The first thing that we had to tackle was that worn out dining room table. Instead of ordering a new set, dad and I decided to give our old one a fresh look. It’s always great to consider either buying used or reviving your own furniture to help preserve the environment. The EPA states that over 80% of furniture waste ends up in landfills.
I found an amazing DIY blog with some great tips for refurbishing furniture on a budget. From sanding, priming, painting and coating wood, to reupholstering chairs, Christy from Confessions of a Serial DIYer blog broke it all down into easy steps.
We really liked how her table turned out, so we decided to also go with white. And we chose an accent fabric for the chairs. With a plan in motion, Dad and I blasted Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on our Sonos and got to work.
Neutral walls
Inspired by our dining room table idea, my little sis started working on the walls. Sometimes all a room needs is a fresh coat of paint. She decided to use an elegant neutral color so that any accent pieces we add to the room could stand out more. The classic gray she chose added a warm, sophisticated feel to the room. And, to complete the look, she painted the trim white.
Gray turned out to be an excellent choice for us. The room was already looking more modern. Benjamin Moore included several shades of gray in their bestseller list of most popular interior paint colors along with beige, white, earth tones, and other neutrals.
With that done, my little sis started working on recipes for our big dinner.
Decorations
While the rest of us were hard at work, mom was busy creating amazing centerpieces with decorative paper Christmas trees. I swear, she is so good, she should have her own Etsy shop. It was an idea she had seen on HGTV, with additional inspiration drawn from Pinterest. Some of the crafty versions over there included trees made out of felt, feathers, and coffee filters.
But a centerpiece wasn’t all Mom worked on. We received dozens of Christmas cards from friends and family who we won’t be able to see this year. Mom decided to frame some of those cards to use as art for our new walls.
If you don’t want to use frames, there are plenty of other ways to accomplish a wall Christmas card display. DIY and Lifestyle expert Monica Mangin used clipboards and even added cedar branches and berries to make it look more festive.
The gist
This year, there won’t be any nieces and nephews running around, or aunts and uncles arguing, or boyfriends hiding from dad in the backyard. It’ll just be our little quarantine pod of four. But the fact that we used our holiday break to give new life to one of our most beloved rooms really gives us a sense of pride. Just like we pulled off this project together, we pulled off this year together, and nothing can make Christmas more special than that.
