A Rustic Carriage House Christmas

It’s beginning to look like a rustic Carriage House Christmas!

Or, as rustic as it can get with four faux Christmas trees.

Just roll with it, folks. That’s what I do.

Speaking of rolling with things, please go along with me for a minute as I set up this story.

A year and a half ago, we repointed this fireplace in our Carriage House.

I’d venture a guess that it had been covered for well over 100 years.

Then we immediately covered it, so to speak, with a weight machine because we use this part of the Carriage House as a gym.

Not too long after that, we went to a ridiculous amount of trouble to open up the rest of the space so that we could move the weight machine, and I could finally decorate this fireplace for Christmas.

Kidding.

That’s not why we knocked down an 18-inch thick stone wall and spent four months of near daily work repointing stone walls and otherwise restoring the other half of the building.

Or was it?

Nah.

That would be over-the-top, even for us.

Right?!?!

Whatever our motivations, the Carriage House is looking very festive this year.

I fashioned a rustic star out of some sticks and grapevines from our property to hang above the fireplace.

The sticks were easy enough to fashion into a star shape, but I wanted to augment the design with grapevines twisted into intricate shapes. These vines don’t even produce a proper grape. I don’t know why I thought they’d cooperate with my Christmas craft ideas, but hope springs eternal.

Alas, the vines were not as pliable as I needed them to be, even after soaking them in a bucket of water for two days. I wanted to twist them into tight circles, but no amount of sweet talk and patience was convincing them to get with the program.

So, I did what I do best.

Fake it till you confess everything you did on your blog, baby!

I made some curly-Qs with faux vines made from raffia-wrapped wire. I DID have to wrap the wire myself. Desperate times and all that.

The result is a perfectly unique and rustic star. Say what you will about my methods and results, but it’s definitely one of a kind!

Continuing with the star theme, I made simple ornaments for the Christmas trees using tiny rusty stars and copper wire.

I also used red burlap I found for $1 at the thrift store to make a ruffle garland. Predictably, cutting into the burlap means it is shedding red threads everywhere like confetti, but since it is the holidays, I’ll allow it.

My Christmas trees are sitting in a wide variety of vessels. I want this visit to my blog to be worth your time, so I hope this is the first time you’ve seen a Christmas tree in a rusty milkcan or a not-so-rusty Dutch oven.

Sorry, I can’t cook dinner because the Christmas tree is in the Dutch oven!

If the decorating ideas fall short around here, you can always lean on me for helpful dinner advice.

What can I say?

I’m a giver.

Speaking of giving, the view outside of this Carriage House window gives me all sorts of feels. The only thing that is missing is a dusting of snow for the ultimate Christmas vibes.

Maybe we’ll get a white Christmas, maybe we won’t.

We do have a perfectly rustic Carriage House Christmas, and I’m delighted with that.

For real, though, have you ever seen a Christmas tree with a milkcan base? If so, was that Christmas tree weighted down with a bag of split peas? I’d love to know. Don’t be shy. You can comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via direct message on Instagram or Facebook.

Happy Christmas!

P.S. I really do have a bag of split peas weighing the Christmas tree down. Hahahahahaha! I didn’t even Photoshop it out. It’s hidden really well. Don’t tell anyone my decorating secrets.

P.P.S. If you want to make your own tiny star ornaments, these are the stars I used.

Thanks for hanging out with me today. If you’d like another blog post to read, try one of these.

Piano Pedal Tree Topper (If you thought a milk can tree base was weird, this will top that!)

Kraft Paper Snowflake Mantel

DIY Mini Silhouette Christmas Ornaments

*affiliate links in this blog post*