CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR | A Traditional Dallas Tudor Decorated for the Holidays

Hey Homeworthy, I'm Bob and I'm Matthew. Welcome back to Casa Loma. Come on in, we can't wait to show you what we've done to the house for Christmas. This holiday season, get ready to unwrap the most magnificent holiday homes with Homeworthy's 25 Days of Christmas. For the month of December, we'll take you inside the most heartwarming houses decked out for the holidays in true festive fashion. From twinkling lights and elegantly trimmed trees to sparkling ornaments and cozy holiday charm, these homes capture the warmth, wonder and beauty that make this season so special. So join us as Homeworthy celebrates 25 Days of Christmas. The magic starts now. Raise your glass. Cheers. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. Hi, I'm Bob Gibbs. Welcome back to Casa Loma. I am a regional director for a large insurance corporation. And I'm Matthew Wilson. Welcome back. I work for an import furniture company based out of San Francisco and manage their regional showroom. We're in Dallas, Texas, and we're close to White Rock Lake, which is a large natural park in Dallas. We're about five minutes away from the lake and the area is a cluster of traditional homes of Tudors, Mediterraneans, and then the newest addition to the neighborhood are teardowns of big white modern farmhouses. So we got a lot of everything in this neighborhood. Well, welcome back to the living room entryway. I heard lots of you from your comments on the first round of my lack of entryway. Still don't have one. So we do the best with what we've got. Really, the only portion of the sitting room that we decorate is the mantle. And as you can see, that's probably enough. There's a lot going on this mantle. You'll notice as we go through the house, we use a lot of flocked greenery and trees this year. So I think I'm feeling mesothelioma coming on from the amount of flocking that I've inhaled over the past couple of weeks. But this is really, while it looks complicated and over the top, and I will admit it's over the top, it's really easy to do. So it's just one very long, very good quality blocked garland. So it gives you a lot of body to stuff things in. And really all of these are just individually wired, are poked into the greenery. And a lot of this is not even Christmas. So this is just, you know, if you go to your craft store or home store, these are just things that you'd put in faux arrangements. And I'm always one looking for something that's a little bit different, not so holiday. And I like the juxtaposition of not everything being shiny. So, you know, some frosted greenery in here, lots of glitter, lots of ornaments. And then tucked in here are quite a few. My grandmother, as I talked about a lot in the first episode, started me a collection of silver bells. And so there's about 40 Wallace and toll and different silver bells woven throughout the garland. So then we'll move into the piano porch. All right, we're back into the music room, or as I affectionately call it, the piano porch. And I'm a big fan of tabletop trees. So if you haven't tried one, you should really do yourself a favor and try one. You can get one in every room. They're half the time to decorate. I would say they take half the ornaments, but that's a big fat lie. You can see this one's loaded down. And this one I have called my Bergdorf Goodman tree, because really, with the exception of the tree itself, all of the ornaments on this tree have come from Bergdorf and are primarily Jay Strongwater, who started making ornaments, I think, about 10 or 15 years ago. And I just couldn't get enough of them. And so all of these are Jay Strongwater, with the exception of a couple of antique pieces scattered throughout. But I just love the detail, the old world kind of work that he does on his ornaments. Funny story, I had started collecting these about 15 years ago, and I was literally buying one a year, two maybe if they were on sale after the holidays. And I had my extended family over for Thanksgiving dinner, and the house was decorated for Christmas, and a different tree, but I had started this theme. And one of my cousins said, tell me about that ornament. And I said, well, it's a designer named Jane Strongwater. And she said, that looks expensive. And I said, well, they're not cheap, but the quality did the spill, and she just kept pressing and finally asked the price. I'm not going to tell you. But her response is, I could have bought a washer and dryer with that. So it's just funny that as your collections grow, I try to buy less and buy more quality. So every year, I'm buying fewer ornaments, but I just try to up the game. So that's my recommendation. Find a designer of ornaments or something that you like and just build that collection over a year. There would be no way I could go out and buy these or afford to buy these all in one fell swoop. So I just love this tree because of the whimsy of the animals and kind of the old world candles and everything that comes along with it. I just think the work he does with the beading and the high-low effect of his ornaments is just gorgeous. We live in a 1928 Tudor Revival, so it's one of the original homes to Lakewood. And our personal style is transitional, so we do like a lot of antiques, as you saw from our original episode. You'll see it in our antiques and collectibles that we use at Christmas time. So it's a little mix of everything, a little bit of modern and a little bit of old. Welcome to the dining room. With every collection, we try to reinvent it every year. This year, we opted for most of the primary spaces to be with flocked greenery. This is a beautiful flocked seven and a half foot tree from Porchview Home. Porchview Home, last year I came across them when we purchased the family room tree. And one thing with these collections is that they're very heavy. All these beautiful Polish glass ornaments have a weight to them. And for years, I always enjoyed using a fresh tree, but fresh trees don't typically give the rigidity that's needed for a collection of this size and have it decorated at this density. We paired it with a gorgeous Chinese urn that, yet again, came from the family room. We decided that the tree needed to be bigger, taller, and more extravagant. And so then it gives it a little bit of lift. It makes it not look so aggressive on the floor, but it's a really beautiful, beautiful trick to kind of to use what you have and then also finish the tree off. Years ago, especially with all these great Christopher Radco, years ago in college, I worked for a wonderful store. And we were, in those days, starlight dealers were a big thing for Christopher Radco. And we were a starlight dealer in Oklahoma City. And I really started to hone in on things that I loved. And all these great Santas, this collection is a combination of both Bob and I's collection on the flock. We have our little Mabel, our little Mintredox in here. She's not Christopher Radco, but she's pretty special. And then we've added over the years, you know, the ribbon, the poinsettias, everything that helps tie the tree to the room. I'm not a firm believer in that your tree has to match your room, but I do believe that there should be an element that coordinates the room to the tree. Hence, we added this gorgeous cinnamon and chocolate and gold ribbon, which also communicates back through all the furnishing and all of the upholstery in this room. Favorite ornament on this tree for me would be, we've got a couple of two, we've got two different ones. We've got a great Drate Strongwater Dove here, which I absolutely love. I love the colors. And then I love all these great, like this Patricia Breen Peacock Santa. She's just so beautiful. Well, I'd like to walk you through the tablescape. We're getting ready for a dinner party tomorrow night. As last time, we don't decorate to this extent and get the house ready without sharing it with friends and family. So we'll be having a seated dinner in the next couple of days. And as I told you on the first episode, I like every table to be different. So I don't like my guests to be like, oh, I've seen that before. It's getting to be challenging after a couple of years. So we'll either have to keep buying or recycle and hope their memory's not so great. So this year for the holiday table, I have this skirt made. I wanted a more tailored tablecloth that extended to the floor with the inverted box pleats in the middle. Whereas when people sit, it gives a little bit of give where the whole tablecloth is not creasing under. And then lots of comments from viewers last time about they loved the tablecloth that was on that table, but it's impracticality because of the raised pedals. And so I heard you and had one made. It's a little more practical for you. The setting of the table, again, formal. We're not casual people. So all of the silver, including the chargers, the candlesticks, and all the flatware is Wallace Grand Baroque. And then I've had these sterling silver coptic crosses for years that are scattered along the table. They're really not holiday. I bought them in Santa Fe. So they're really more casual, just decorative. I've never used them other than holiday. I think they make a nice addition to the table or a mantelpiece. So you'll see them scattered through the table. And then the settings themselves, I like to mix the china where I can, where everything is not so matchy-matchy. So we have the base. Well, this charger is not Wallace, that is Gorham. And then the dinner plate is Lennox. And then the salad plate is Fitz and Floyd St. Nicholas, which I'm not sure they make that anymore. And then this table can get a little busy quickly. And so I just went with simple archival fastoria with Goldwin glasses, and then just a little bit of shine with the ribbon throughout the table. So we like it. And then for the flowers, I wanted something a little more Della Robbia. So mixing the roses, the hydrangeas, the fruits, and the sugared fruit, just thought it kind of elevated the table a bit. And then just to add a little bit of extra fun, added wreaths to the back of the chairs. These could not be easier. These came from Hobby Lobby. I think they were $2.50 a piece. A velvet ribbon, also from Hobby Lobby, I think three rolls was $5. Couldn't be simpler. Just get you some straight pins, build your bow, and then just straight pin them into the back of the chair. They don't show, and it gives you an elevated view that's fun just for the holidays. All right, so now if you'll follow me, we'll go into the butler's pantry and then on into the kitchen. All right, so we're back in the butler's pantry, and there was a lot going on the first time he visited us in the butler's pantry. And as you can tell, if you look up at the shelves in the bar, it's gotten a little bit busier. As I said earlier, sometimes Christmas can feel like throw up on your house, and that is not always a bad thing. So I just decided with all this Amari that we have in these shelves that why not, you know, you'll see throughout the house, I like putting Christmas ornaments in bowls and vessels and things. I think it's a really easy way to get some holiday without everything being holiday. And so I just ordered these on Amazon because they're really difficult colors to find. So the gold, the blue, and the orange all kind of mimic what's going on in the Amari. I love kind of how that looks and bring it down to the bar in the same colors. And then for guests, you know, coming over, we always have a little treat for you to take on the way out. So these are the most delicious sugar cookies in the world. I wish I could tell you I made them and I would be a big fat liar. These come from Jay Ray's in Dallas. And if you have not tried her bakery, you should definitely check it out because she makes delicious things. And I'll be sending some of these home with the Homeworthy team. And then also on my marble girl, which I just love, we always just put a little sterling silver placket with a season and a ribbon, just something very simple. I see people put scarves on them and I thought about this year, but I don't like to copy people. So. So now if you'll follow me into the kitchen, I'll transfer it over to Matthew, who will talk about the Welcome to the kitchen. Bob walked you through the dining room and the butler's pantry, and now we're in the kitchen. The kitchen, especially since our addition a year and a half ago, has become more of the heart of the home because it connects not only the dining room to the family room, which we'll get to next. The kitchen, I think a lot of times presents a problem for people in decorating for the holidays. Many times counters become inundated with things and stuff. And much like we were speaking of earlier, Bob and I like to edit our collections where they seem more purposeful and they seem more confined. An incredible detail, an architectural detail that's part of the house. We typically have nothing on for the holidays. It is home to a collection of snow village houses that my grandparents started a collection for me when I was eight or nine years old. And we found that these became a beautiful little representation of our neighborhood. Although there are some styles that are not in our neighborhood. This is just a small little quiet area. We have these on at night. They're not on all the time. They're a special reminder of a lot of Christmases and a lot of houses and a lot of people that that live in them. So the final leg of the kitchen until we walk into the family room is a collection of antique finials that not only did my sister give, but we picked up here and there and we've ordered yet again. This is also a collection of a vintage Christopher Radcoe and really great antique glass ones from the 50s and the 60s. And this is a great way, another great way to have a small little spot of Christmas without it inundating this entire space. Because many times during the holidays when we entertain, the stove gets covered. This becomes really much a dessert central and people really do enjoy hanging out between the two rooms. But this is another great way we use these beautiful Lismore tealight holders as anchors for these finials. That way they stand proud and they're a nice little addition to the kitchen and a small little moment as you're just kind of walking through. You know, most families will say that holidays are the most important part of their lives, which it is on every family. But even as a small child, the holidays were always a very special spot. Before Bob and I met, I always worked to decorate my own home. And then as our lives and years have crossed and grown together, it's only expanded and become the treasure that it is, what you'll see today. And then I've been collecting or decorating since I was, had conscious thought. My mom always included us in decorating and she was a big believer of not tacky Christmas. And I don't mean to offend anyone, but she had very stylized Christmas, but included us in the decorating with very specific instructions. So she taught us well. And then I started collecting ornaments when I was about nine and have continued that collection for 51 years. We watch a lot of episodes and I find a lot of different adjectives that people use. This is my favorite. This is the most extraordinary. This is very special to me. And I think all three of those words exude this tree. This tree is 40 plus years of collecting family heirlooms, antique, new. And then of course they're hanging on again, a beautiful porch view home Christmas tree. This is a nine and a half foot one. Of course, many trees and many years, I like to add a second set of lights. I did to this one. We didn't add any additional lights to the other trees. We felt like they had adequate lighting, but this tree, I believed it needed a little more sparkle, a little more density of light. And as you'll see, these little faceted lights were added from tip to base. There's over 22 to 2,500 ornaments on this tree. They range in antique Polish, antique Czech, Christopher Radko, Patricia Breen. And if many of you know, Woolworths was credited as the first American retailer to bring all these great shiny bright ornaments originally to America. These were always treasures of Europe and F.W. Woolworth decided America needed these. And I think the first set that I ever saw, my parents had a set of 12 and they were in this great box with beat up cellophane. And there were these wonderful little reflectors and they were my favorite as a kid growing up. And so as I started and as I became an adult, I would continue to add. Then the joke happened one year, unfortunately with the pandemic, we had a joke here at the house, either at the door, whoever was ordering dinner jackets or Christmas ornaments, whichever was the volley, because I kind of went a little overboard during the pandemic buying a lot of these old vintage ornaments. You'll see a few of them, this great new one. Christopher Radko started a new company called Heartfully Yours. This is a beautiful hand painted, hand glittered and hand crystal ornament. I have about about a dozen of those, but the primary ornaments on these are either vintage, Christopher Radko and antique. Of course, last year I added, as we talk about, the collections stay the same, but we try to add something or try to make something to elevate or to make it different. These large crystal icicles we added last year, I thought the scale of that oversized icicle really gave it a lot of depth, paired with a little shorter one. Those are very inexpensive and easy to add to any tree. I think with a tree this size and with the density of what's on it, you just have to have a little bit of patience and have to understand that what you start, you have to finish. And so in this room, we set up a 10 foot church table in the middle of the room and about 35 to 40 Rubbermaid tubs come out of our attic and they all get organized on the table and one by one, ladder here, ladder there, the tree gets finished, which takes better part of a full Saturday, a Sunday afternoon. And then I work on it about, this year I worked on it about five, a little bit of five evenings during the next week. And then finally I said, uncle, that was enough. Then we topped it off with these great antique clip candles. I think they're really great. I think they're really, they add a lot of dimension and a lot of geometry where everything is not just hanging straight down and also the whimsy of everything. This octopus Bob gave me one year for Christmas. There's just, there's just something for everybody to look at. This great, I love this black nutcracker. My mom gifted that one year. There's a couple of Santas on here that Bob's mom gifted us as well. I just think, you know, a tree, a family tree should be filled with all these great memories and a little bit of whimsy. And it really, it does make the whole room sparkle. The one thing that I attribute and give a big compliment to my other half, Bob, is he is a huge proponent of change and a huge proponent of let's try something different. I personally like to set a space and live with it for a little bit. And he always pushes me outside of my comfort level that we could do this, or we could do that. And then we start thinking about it. These chairs you'll notice are different. We had an antique, antique pair of English chairs here before. They really just were very impractical, although they were covered in that wonderful period jacquard tapestry. These are much more comfortable and they actually allow people to sit in instead of perch on. These are a gorgeous cut velvet, ebonized mahogany from Taylor King. Taylor King is an American-based company out of North Carolina. They make an extraordinary upholstery line. I've used them several years over the years where I've worked, and they just, they actually help balance out a scale of the room. All right, we're on my way to the office. But as you remember, as part of this latest edition, we did the house. I had this gallery, which connected the new edition of family room to my office. So I don't have to walk outside anymore. Of course, these guys live in the family room when we don't have Christmas trees up. So they're out here temporarily. Those were inherited from my grandmother last year. And then we have a nativity scene and I am not a nativity scene fan, but I was in an estate sale and found the holy family. So Jesus, Mary and Joseph then thought, oh, that, that might be pretty somewhere at the holiday. So I bought that. And then of course discovered this is beam porcelain, which I'm not sure they make beam, but very fine porcelain and have slowly filled in the other. I like it because it's Blanc de Chine. So, you know, no color, lots of great detail. And this just as a good example, I believe of like using things for Christmas that aren't Christmas. So my mom gave me this tabernacle, oh God, 25 years ago. And I've really never had a use for it. It's a, it's big and it's an awkward size and, you know, what would you do with it? And so when I drug this out this year, I thought, oh, perfect. That can be the for this beam nativity scene. I think it works great. And then another little trick is, you know, all of this little stuff can get dark. And so just, you know, I went on Amazon and just found there's these, these tiny little spotlights, literally half an inch long mounted up in here. I think it was $6 and it just illuminates it. And so it just gives a little more importance to something. And now we'll head right into my office. Well, welcome to my office. We didn't get to see this room on the tour last time, and I feel incredibly fortunate. I work from home and of course through COVID everyone worked from home, but it is such a nice luxury to have a dedicated office. This is also somewhat separate from the house until we did the addition. It was completely separate. I walked across the yard to come to work every morning, which is fine until it's 12 or rainy or whatever it will do in Texas. So now the gallery connects the two. So I never have to leave the house to come to work. So very convenient. This I thought, I'm a big proponent, as you heard from the first episode of like continuous color in the house and like adding an accent color. So flow through of color. I broke rules in this one. I just decided this is work and it's going to be a completely different color story. So it is in my mind when I open that door, I'm coming into a new workspace. So all blue and white in here. And funny, I don't really like blue white. I didn't, now I do, until about three years ago when I started working on this room. So this was originally a bedroom for guests. And then I took it over as my office. Funny story. There used to be a bed back in this area, a table and chairs here, and then a sofa and a pair of chairs. And I had an employee over one day and we were going through some spreadsheets and some proposals we were working on. And she got up and she's a dear friend. So got up from the chair and like threw herself on the bed, spread out her laptop. And in mind, I was like, bed goes tomorrow. And it did. So reconfigured this more as office. So now if I have a team that needs to come over to discuss a project they're working on, I can set four, I can set eight. We can have lunch. We can work all day in here very comfortably. So really happy with how this room turned out. Art on the wall. I talked about this artist in the first episode and you saw her work going up the stairs. Carmen Menza. This is one of her larger installation pieces, which I just love. And then the back wall here, I was at our favorite antique store, Nick Brock in Dallas. You should go visit Nick if you've never been to a shop. It's museum quality stuff that is just mind-blowingly beautiful. And he had an installation of these Italian brackets and these faience animals. Now the pricing was well beyond God's means. And there was a reason for that, you know, very fine porcelain and much better brackets. But I thought, you know what, I can take that and I bet I can replicate that for not that much money. And I came home, got on eBay. And in two days, all of these were purchased. And in a week, they had all arrived and all went up. So, you know, you can see something and there's high, low. So, you know, even if you can't afford something in the shop, you might get an idea. So look around and take your cues from there. I'm out here a lot. Matthew can attest, you know, he'll come home. I'll be out here working. He'll cook dinner. I'll come back and work some more. So I wanted this space to have a holiday feel as well. In years past, I've always done a tree right here in front of this mirror because I sit here, laptop up, camera, you know, and catches the tree. And this year I thought, let's do something different. We've got these really great Chinese containers last year and really haven't found the right place for them as of yet. So, you know, why not stick a Christmas tree in them? And even better, why not stick two Christmas trees in them? So for balance in this room, I did two Christmas trees. These trees could not be easier. If you don't think you can decorate a Christmas tree, you're selling yourself short. Now I'm going to give you a tip that Matthew didn't give you his tip in his other two trips. Normally when you look at a tree, it's in front of a window or there's a light source behind it and you can see through the tree. I hate that. It makes the tree look not full. You see, especially on an artificial tree, you'll see the armature sometimes. And so we stuff these, all of our trees. So if it's a green tree, it will get stuffed with more greenery. It will get stuffed with tacky glitter tinsel because when you stuff it in there, the light just catches it behind an ornament, gives you a little twinkle. So this one has, and you'll see it in another tree, this just has batting that you would use to make quilts. And it is just stuffed in this tree. So you don't see through the tree to the back wall. So it makes them look very full for really no money. I think a bag of bunting is about $5. And then the rest of these, I'm going to give away my secret. I didn't have these trees out here. And so I just thought, well, I'm going to put up some trees this year. There are a couple of handmade ornaments on here. The rest of them are shatterproof, which is our new fancy way of saying plastic. So there's a lot of shatterproof on here. But you know, you can't help yourself. There's some J. Strongwater, some old diorama ones from Germany. So, you know, again, you can build your base out of something very inexpensive and then just layer on a couple of your more special pieces. The theme of our collection stays the same every year. It's very traditional, but every year we do something slightly different, either placement of trees, what ornaments go on what trees in what rooms. But I would call this a very traditional Christmas. And many of the things stay the same. So the family tree behind us is a little bit of J. Strongwater, lots of Christopher Radko, and then vintage German, Czech, and Polish ornaments that we collect throughout the years. So this year, you know, we did change up some trees. Some trees are exclusively one designer's ornaments, where you could see it in its totality. So we tried to group the collections this year instead of spreading it through the house. Well, welcome back to the courtyard. As you'll remember last time, none of this furniture was here. I hinted that it was on its way, but it had backordered. So we're now fully installed in the backyard. I have to say you keep coming when the landscaping is not at its best. You came in the early end of winter last time, so not much blooming. And now we're heading into winter again, so not much blooming again. But we decorate outside because during parties, this is a great spillover for people to come out, you know, make themselves at home, bring food, drink out here. So new this year to the patio, all of the patio furniture is Palachek outdoor hospitality grade. So if you've not used Palachek before, you definitely should. This is some of the best teak and woven. You see a lot of knockoffs of this now using the woven and teak, but Palachek really are the ones who brought this forward, this look forward. And I just love the teak, the woven and the concrete table. I like that juxtaposition. So everything's not so matchy matchy. And then on the back of each of these chairs, again, a simple trick, I just was at Hobby Lobby or Home Goods or one of those and found these Christmas ornaments that were like $1.50 a piece, little wooden snowflakes. And again, just with a simple straight pin, pinned them to the back. And then on the table is a collection of crystal. Most of them are old Orifors from the 50s, and I think I have about 300 of those. So you're only getting a small sampling of those. All right. And out here we have four or five trees. We'll start with the small ones. Again, outdoor trees. So again, shatterproof plastic ornaments are going to be your best friend. They will survive. They have survived the sprinkler system. We're in a weird weather pattern here in Dallas where it's 80, 30, rain, sun, and they're holding up pretty well, even in, we had 30 mile an hour winds last week and everything withheld. Now the secret is if you're going to put trees up outside, go to Home Depot, Lowe's, whatever your local garden center is, and get one of the stakes for a small tree, drive that stake deep into the ground, zip tie that tree to the stake. The tree will stand in 60 mile per hour winds. So all of these are well-staked, so they're not moving. But again, these are just filled with plastic ornaments and okay ribbon. But if you use enough of it and kind of repeat the theme, I think they look fantastic. And then we'll kind of pan over to the big trees. We have two eight foot flocked trees. I was not going to put these up this year. And my aunt called me and said she had bought a new Christmas tree on Amazon and she unboxed it. It didn't have lights on it. She was returning it. They sent her two instead of one. They wouldn't take them back. They said, just keep them. So she gave them to us and I thought, well, we'll use them outside. If they survive, they survive. They don't, they don't. And again, we just repeated this color story out here of the blue and white. So again, all of these ornaments, I hate to give my secret away. These two trees, the combined cost, the trees were free, they were a gift. And all of the ornaments for both trees combined was $42 because I bought all of them at Family Dollar because, you know, they're outside and I thought they looked great. So the garlands, everything, both of these trees was about $21 each tree to decorate. And I think they look fantastic. And at night they glow and give just an extra layer out here. And then the mirrors, of course, were here last time, but we always put lit wreaths on them. So at night, all the boxwoods, by the way, all the greenery out here at night is lit. So you get just a soft glow of white light and some green glowing back here. And so it makes a really nice ambience for folks to come out, have a drink, or if it's gotten too chaotic inside, you know, with 50 or 60 people at a party, this is an easy place to spill out. And again, with the seating area here, this is all Palachuk, which matches the dining room. So fantastic quality. I mean, the chair weighs about 100 pounds. I can't move the sofa. And then accessorizing this, again, just using a trick that I think a lot of people do is just stuff balls into bowls and put some Christmas ornaments in your arrangement, especially outside. It just makes it a little more festive. And then I just have to call out this little guy here, my grandmother, who I lost last year. I talked a lot about her in our first episode. This is absolutely nothing, but it just has so much meaning to me is I think I was seven and she was big into pottery making at that point. And so she took me with her and both of us made a little snowman and that's the one she made. And so I don't know what happened to mine. It was probably so bad they immediately killed it. But I love having that out there that reminds me. And then, of course, our giant snowman holding guard over the trees came from Horchow. I think they still make him possibly even a bigger. And then we'll be adding. We didn't quite get through to the lights. He'll also have lights strung around him. So we're really pleased with how this courtyard came out and like how this blue and white theme lends itself to a holiday party. And then the last thing that we have out here, you know, I talked about before this Victorian iron plant stand that we had just gotten the last time you were out here. I think it was full of cactus before. So for the holidays, I thought, let's just see if we can make it look like a poinsettia Christmas tree. So that's my attempt at it. I don't think it really quite accomplished it, but it looks OK. So we're super pleased with the backyard. All right. So welcome to one of our guest bedrooms. You didn't get to see this room in the first episode, so I'm glad you all are back to catch this one. This room is a problem for Bob. When I moved into this house, this was the primary bedroom and looked very different. I had a different aesthetic then. The problem is these are 100 year old plaster walls and this room particularly cracked every year. And so every year, plasters came out, scraped all the crumbling off, re-plastered. Next year happened again. It's the hot and cold. And so I thought, I'm through with that. And so I did something that is very out of fashion, which is upholster the walls. So this is fabric on the walls. And I wrapped the entire room in this, I think, great chinoiserie gold and tan fabric and really wrapped everything. So the settee is in the same fabric, the cornice over the bed, had custom bedding made out of it, and then just added in some matelassé and, you know, some Schumacher silk and wool just to kind of, you know, give it a little extra oomph. But I really like the glow of this room. I talked about how much I like gold in my first episode. So this is definitely our gold bedroom. And this is by far the most grandma room we have. And I don't mean that in a negative way. This is a lot of grandma's things. And so really all of the figures you see are the porcelain. I would say everything in this room has come from a member of Bob or Matthew's family. And so, you know, this is a, I'm not sentimental about things, but I do come into this room and it does remind me of, you know, where it came from and where she bought it and how she felt about it. So then, you know, about two years ago, I guess it was in COVID when we had lots of time on our hands, we decided every room should have a Christmas tree. And so this room has a Christmas tree too. So when I was thinking about the tree for this room, obviously I like gold. There's a lot of gold in here. So why not just layer on more? So this is a gold tinsel tree. I talked about tacky Christmas earlier. I might classify a gold tacky tree as gold tinsel to be tacky. Again, what do you do with it to kind of cut down on that? I think you either go hard and go tackier or you try to dial it back. And I think I went hard at it. I didn't give this conscious thought, but there's a lot of ornaments on here and they're a mix. Most of these ornaments are German kugels. So they're very heavy. They're colors that don't read particularly Christmassy. So you get this salmon and this gold and then lots of gold ornaments and some chocolate browns and just a handful of figural ornaments to tie it all together. But I really like how this gives the room some life that it's consciously talking to the space in the room. I don't think your Christmas trees have to match the room. This one definitely does. And I'm pretty proud of it. And then I took the extra step. And if you go down, all of my packages match my tree. So I think that's, you know, if you want to do something just a little more elevated, you know, you can do that with your packages. You know, it's interesting. Inspiration comes from a lot of different directions, regardless whether it's your everyday collections, whether it's holiday, what inspires each individual is very personal. With our collections that we have, they all stem from childhood. They've grown into something a lot more extravagant, but also to the inspiration from all these beautiful trees are a lot of memories and a lot of family connections and a lot of time gone by and a lot of beautiful memories. We start, normal Christmas starts the day of Thanksgiving or the evening of Thanksgiving and normally takes about a week to go up. With Homeworthy coming, I'm going to say it took us about three weeks this time. We started early, like everyone in America. I think everyone in America needed Christmas this year because lights are up, trees are up, way before Thanksgiving. So we didn't feel so badly. But I think we started November the 7th this year and we finished last night on December the 2nd. So yeah, a couple of weeks. To answer what's the best part about the decorating experience in the home is the process. We both are very process oriented. We both like to cut off more than what we think we can and we just, we divide and we get it done. And when all the boxes go back to the attic and everything is clean and everything is ready for company and you can walk around or many nights, I'll sit here in the family room long after Bob's gone to bed and just sit and look at the tree and the joy that it brings us. But also we decorate the outside of our house and our neighbors stop us repeatedly or leave notes on the door in the mailbox about how much joy it brings the neighborhood. And that personally, I think is, you know, is more rewarding than any of the extravagance of it all. Welcome to our second guest bedroom. And the previous room Bob commented about the first guest bedroom was the primary when he first moved into the house. And this room occupied our den. We had a great L-shaped sectional in here. We had the TV over in the bookcase. There was a couple lounge chairs, a great oversized coffee table. And this is where Bob and Matthew spent the weekend. This is where we spent the evenings watching TV. This is where we welcomed our little baby girl Mabel home. Anytime there was anything, this is where we gathered. The room had light on three sides, big beautiful windows, and it always was just a great space where you could look out on the backyard, watch some TV, and have a disconnect from the main world on the front of the street. After the addition was completed, this room was then redesigned back into a bedroom as it would have been in the 20s. We decided to do this wonderful Palachuk canopy bed. This really gave a layer of casual quality to the room and then paired with these great reproduction French chests. This again is another opportunity where the bed can get a little pricey, but these chests are front gate. They're very reasonable. We did continue the same thing on the walls and the draperies as we did in the first guest bedroom. The walls are entirely upholstered with matching linen draperies with great hem tape and a great fixed panel with these great bamboo shades. The one thing that we enjoy about the upholstered walls is that it gives a layer of privacy and it gives a layer of peace and quiet. Although the density of the plaster helps, adding a layer of batting and adding a layer of fabric to a room, it really becomes kind of a cocoon, which is great, which is really great. The artwork over the bed is a favorite of Bob's. We found a home for it there, which is a really, really, really beautiful piece. And then behind me, we can pan over, there's two beautiful watercolors. These are pieces that he painted many, many years ago. His own hand, these great majolica plates are from his grandmother's estate once she passed. And then of course, one of our beloved Dachshunds at the bottom, who's gone, who's gone to live on, kind of rounds out this wall, which I think is a great, great collage and a great way to display similar colorways of art in a very, very structured way. One of my favorite things years ago, I worked for a lighting company and I used to, I would love to go on a haunt. These little sandstone mid-century lamps I found over at the local Salvation Army. If you are afraid of doing any of that, quit being afraid and go. These originally had bad walnut stems and these horrible onion skin shades. I think they were half of half. They were ridiculous. I think I bought the pair, told them to keep the shades and I bought the bases and then I took them to the workshop, had them take off the wooden stem, had them out acrylic and these great custom foil and silk shades were made. And in fairness, they stayed in a closet for easily five or six years because I never really had the spot for them. And then when we redesigned this space, they just found the right home and they just are a really beautiful, beautiful way. The cast, that foil shade casts the light up and down, which is I think very serene and very, very, very calming. As we round the room, the bookcase is original but before it was only a two bay. The third bay before the addition was an enormous window that mirrored the ones over here on the other side. And this collection on the bookcase is of these great quill boxes. They're quill and ivory. We've got a great collection of bronzes and great Buddhas. They're just, it's just a great way and as you can see, all the different pieces have their own personality. But one of Bob's tricks that I really like is that he wraps all the book jackets in a similar paper. That way, if they're not books of any notoriety, you don't really need to show the spine and you really need to quantify how busy all of the little collection is by something that's a grounding element. And I really like that, really like that trick. And that's what we have on this whole wall. Yet again, we decided we needed another tree in another bedroom. But much to Bob's credit, a tabletop tree is a great way to introduce a tree without it being so committal and so aggressive and consuming so much of a space. And this is an enormous collection of antique Madonnas and Italian carved figurines and beautiful Zardozian crosses. So this is all a very, very religiously themed tree topped with that enormous J. Strongwater glass finial. Then one other thing that's very special to Bob, this nativity, his grandmother had an enormous collection of Fontanini. And in one of her powder rooms, she had a whole wall full of brackets that covered the entire wall. And that's how she had all of her Fontanini displayed. That way she can enjoy it year round. It was not a seasonal item. It was something of her daily life. And when you went into that powder room, you saw this enormous collection. And when we had to pare down the estate, we walked through and we chose things that we knew that we might want to use for the holidays in remembrance of her. And then lastly, a great pair to anchor the great Palachuk bed are these beautiful Palachuk spa chairs in a beautiful Asian cut velvet with a linen ground. I think the cut velvet really elevates the woven quality. Many people think that woven furniture cannot be executed in a very refined way, that it's all super casual and it's only reserved for sunrooms. But I think when you do add a luxe fabric or a great trim or you pair it with other things that are a little more dressy, it really, it really elevates. And now we're going to walk through the house and we're going to go upstairs to the primary. I think Bob's up there with our little girl. Hi, welcome back to our primary bedroom. Not much has changed since you were here. Added, you know, some sparkly pillows for holiday. Matthew likes sitabouts and we have great rows. And I'm being facetious. We don't fight about this. It's a joke. So over on his nightstand, you'll see he has a tree from his grandmother and a couple of German Santas. And I actually do like those. But he loves to sit about and we joke about like how many were allowed or how many he's allowed. And this year on top of the armoire, these used to be just scattered throughout the house, these little houses and trees. And so this year as a courtesy to my OCD, he decided to group them together. And I'm thrilled that they really make a statement, tell the story up there. And then on my side, you'll see it's very plain. It's a bowl of balls, which is a trick I think works universally in every room. And then just a little German figure who's new. I'll talk about that artist in just a moment. So very simple because, you know, as I talked about last time, this being our primary bedroom, my goal is for it to be very warm, very layered, very tonal, but luxurious. So you accomplish that through, you know, a different number of textures and shine on fabrics. You know, you get a real heavy linen that gives you a different layer and then the trims that you use on your chairs, pillows and drapes. New addition to the room this year is we have not had a tree in the primary bedroom before. And this year I thought we're going to do it. Number one, I knew Homeworthy was coming back, but really I had started collecting an artist who, and I consider her an artist. All she makes is ornaments. And they're all of these German, well, they're not German because she's American, but they're replicating, you know, the German and Dresden, all hand spun cotton and wool ornaments, you know, from the 1800s. And I discovered her at Bergdorf. The name of her line is Vintage by Crystal. And you can either find her if you're in New York at Bergdorf, I highly encourage going to see their holiday display. It's just magnificent. But she's also an Etsy. So now, you know, every year I'm buying a handful of them. They're not inexpensive and yet they're not unattainable. Most of them range $65 to $150 a piece. And so, and I know that's ridiculous amount for a Christmas ornament, but what are you going to do? But I just love how she does these in the traditional way. So, you know, if you look at the guy in the plane, all of this is hand spun wool. I just don't know how you do that. And then everything is handmade. The propellers work, you know, it's covered with real mica. So at night, you know, it catches the light and flints. And so all of these ornaments are Vintage by Crystal. So check her out on Etsy. Her stuff is just amazing. And then as we go up the stairs, you know, I love my little cause figures. I talked about the whimsy and joy they bring me on your first visit here. And I think Christmas should be a little bit of fun. And so this year, as I was walking up the stairs one day, I thought my little guys need something Christmasy. So as you go up, you'll see all of them have a little wreath. Again, it's a little bit over the top for Christmas, but I think it's very quiet. Not very many people have noticed it so far, but it makes me giggle every time I go up the stairs to see them all holding their wreaths. What home means to me, home is a place when the door is closed and it's just the two or three of you with the dog, with dinner. It's a place of refuge. It's a place of solace. It's a place of comfort. It's a place of safety. And I think many times people get lost in home having to be a certain aesthetic, a certain perspective, but it all really is what's your own perspective and what the perspective of your family is and embracing that. We do have a little more traditional home than what a lot was on trend currently, but that's what is comfortable and that is what we find to be appealing. And for me, I gave you my answer of what home is every day on the first episode. Home at the holiday for me is a little bit different. The house changes. It becomes even more loaded with things. And Christmas to me should be excess. I mean, if Christmas hasn't thrown up on your house, what are you doing? So we like a lot of Christmas. And to me, it adds warmth, that adds light. It's an invitation for friends and family to come in and share the house even more. And so we just, we love sharing the house with the neighborhoods and our friends, and we love doing the decorating. So it's a lot of work, but we think it pays off. And we both operate under the guise of not everything that's fixed in the house requires something of holiday. Many times you see publications, you see other friends, you see colleagues and the house doesn't quite have room to breathe because there's no room to breathe. And that is something that Bob and I both even in our, in our everyday style is that not everything has to have a personality on it. Thanks for watching. Go to homeworthy.com for exclusive content and shopping guides.