On the third day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me, a Christmas-y loft space!!!

Continuing on with my "12 Days of Christmas Series" here. 

You may recall back in March I shared with you guys a picture of our loft space, completely empty. Here's a refresher:

And I never showed this room to you guys again. Mostly because it was ugly. It became the "catch-all" room for my left overs from college. As we've slowly but surely updated our home furnishings, the older/cheaper/uglier things wound up here. When people came over and asked for "the tour" this was the room I'd say "oh, don't go in there, it's not finished yet" and then I'd blush when they'd look anyway and see my orange curtains, blue rug and puppy pads. (SIDE NOTE: This is the room that our lovely dog Ruby decided needed new carpeting). That being said, DISCLAIMER: Most items pictured are re-purposed, unfinished, cheap, in desperate need of an upgrade, and/or strategically placed to disguise carpet stains. 

However, three purchases and one small furniture rearrangement spurred me into turning this under utilized and ugly room into a functioning and welcoming space for the holidays. They are, as follows:

Purchase 1) a white arm chair from Ikea (hoping to get a second matching one for Christmas to complete the set!)

Purchase 2) a FREE (so not really a purchase, but whatevs) side table. 

Purchase 3) a Thomas Kincade painting that my hubby gave me as an early Christmas gift. 

Rearrangement: The blue arm chair that normally belongs in our downstairs living room gets moved up here during the holidays to make room for our Christmas tree. 

So without further ado, and with much fanfare, I proudly present to you, for the first time ever, in the history of this blog (should I keep going? No? Ok, I'll stop)... our loft space!

You can likely figure out why this room wasn't blog worthy before now. Without the blue chair from downstairs, the little side table or the Christmas tree, it was practically empty. However, during the holidays, it is more finished looking, and is now a cozy space to sip cocoa or watch a Christmas movie (I feel a Home Alone marathon coming on). 

On the other side of the room, we have this:

You may recognize this little white table as the same one that used to be in our living room before I completed our secretary.

I have plans to DIY the heck outta that picture frame (disregard the damaged bottom corner). But for now, its a good enough home for my Christmas printable. 

Again, both this smaller tree and those stockings are remnants of my college days. I think they still help to make this space cozy. It's definitely much nicer than it was before!

This is the side table that we got for free last week that kind of catapulted me into making this room a usable space for the holidays. I used some spare ornaments to fill my garage sale bird cage, and I found a cheap frame tucked away that I used for my DIY Christmas printable. The little bow on top of the picture frame helps to distract from the fact that the frame itself is both cheap and ugly. Lastly, I just grabbed a mason jar out of my kitchen cabinet, tied some red ribbon around it, and put in some potpourri to finish off this little vignette. (SIDE NOTE: my friend Hannah helped with a lot of this creativity, so I don't really deserve all the credit). I really wish I had a lamp to put on this table, but I don't. Sad day. 

By far my favorite part of this room is my new artwork wall. I wish I had a before picture, but I didn't think to take one, sorry y'all. It was just the two shutters, looking forlorn and unfinished. That wall is way too big for just the two shutters, so truly, they looked weird. I almost did a full on collage wall using some mirrors and things I have tucked away, but Hannah convinced me to go with a simpler look. I'm so glad she did. I LOVE the way this display turned out, and my shutters frame my new Thomas Kincade painting nicely. It is nice to be able to showcase my new artwork, especially since it was a gift from my sweet hubby.

This grainy picture is a testament to my less than stellar photography skills. You're welcome. 

So there you have it! Our holiday loft space! Hopefully I'll get another white chair for Christmas (if you're reading this Reid, hint hint, wink wink!) and then I can get some new curtains (I'm thinking something neutral, and maybe with a subtle pattern), a new lamp, and do some small DIY projects to upgrade our side table and picture frame. It'll be like a whole new room! I am really happy that this room is finally coming together! 

Thanks for stopping by. Oh, and Merry Christmas!! 

Jesse 

**Update:  This space (and my photography skills) have come a long way since Christmas 2013.