I’m working with Apartment Guide to dress up and organize our apartment for the holidays. It’s part of the Holiday Home Organization Blogger Challenge that they’re sponsoring.

I’ve been sprucing things up over the last few days and today I’m sharing my holiday decor with you. That means you also get a mini tour of our apartment. Let the festivities begin…

SPACE SAVING CHRISTMAS TREE

Square footage is precious in our ~900 sq ft apartment, so I picked up a live tabletop tree but chose to use it on the floor flanked by two side chairs.

I placed the petite tree in front of the patio sliders so it can be enjoyed from the inside and outside. A larger tree would have jutted out into the room too much and blocked much needed natural light from the sliders.

Our Christmas decorations are in storage but I did manage to coax Handy Hubby to hunt down one Christmas tote {mainly for the Elf on a Shelf for the kids} and was able to reuse some of our past tree dressings: lights, ribbon, bead strands. The rest of the items I picked up at various craft stores.

As much as I like natural light photos, there’s just something about a glowing Christmas tree at night that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

The tree came with a small stand and watering bowl. I propped the stand up on a box inside of a metal bucket that I already had on hand. {It was previously corralling rolls of toilet paper in a closet.} I disguised the base with our traditional tree skirt from storage.

There aren’t any ornaments on the tree. Instead, I bought 10 of the glittery ornamental wands from JoAnn’s {crazy cheap!} and stuck them throughout the tree for some more shimmer.

The topper consists of a few glitter wands zip-tied together with a trio of peacock feathers. {I have plans for gift wrap that will pull the dark teal color from the peacock feathers.}

I fell in love with the feathers at the craft store. When HH saw them, the first thing he sarcastically said was, “Peacock feathers just scream Christmas.” I could have kicked him. I didn’t.

I like the way the feathers resemble the plume of tall ornamental grasses used in landscaping. Maybe it’s just me. Layne and Everett told me feathers don’t belong on a tree.

The budget {assume anything not included was available on hand}:

• tree & stand – $15 {Lowe’s}
• peacock feathers – $3 {Hobby Lobby}
• 10 glitter ornament wands – $4 {JoAnn’s}
• pack of 100 zip ties – $4 {Home Depot}

TOTAL: $26

I had big plans to create some sort of hanging tree out of wire, fabric and lights to hang from the blinds’ rod above the patio sliders. But once I realized that the wire I bought wasn’t sturdy enough to support my creation without being all lopsided and my boys frowned at me saying, “It doesn’t even look like a Christmas tree”, I returned everything and resorted to the petite live tree. Sometimes my ideas stay that way…as ideas…for a reason.

LIGHTED BREAKFAST BAR SKIRT

Previously, the breakfast bar in the apartment was just one big mess of chaos. I brought two counter stools from our old house to put at the bar but they were far too low to use for eating at the bar. In the last 3 months, we used them once. More often than not they became a dumping ground for coats, backpacks and bags, and they took up precious traffic flow space. I don’t plan on using them at the Underdog, so I donated them to Goodwill {made sure to get a tax receipt!} and got to work redefining the area.

I placed a wing chair and side table in the nook as a place to sit and put on/take off shoes. I put the kids’ school stuff on the chair the nights before school days to make mornings run a little more smoothly.

I sewed a custom skirt/tablecloth for the bar and attached it to the kitchen side of the bar with removable velcro. It serves as a dressy holiday backdrop for the seating area.

For added ambiance, I hung a string of white icicle lights behind the skirt.

I simply tapped a few nails into the underside of the breakfast countertop {making sure not to tap them in too deep to the other side!} and attached the lights with zip ties. The white lights look like little stars at night and give off a warm glow.

But the skirt is not only decorative, it’s useful too. The shorter side of the breakfast bar looks unassuming enough…

…but pull back the fabric to reveal storage.

I relocated this shoe rack from the coat closet to free up closet space for hidden holiday gifts and any guests that may come visit over the holidays. Originally, I had wanted to create a wrapping station here but I came up with a no paper/no tape gift wrap idea that I plan on using for Christmas this year instead. Hence, no glamorous wrapping station is necessary. Still, this space behind the skirt has so many possibilities: wrapping station with hanging wire baskets, boot tray, hanging storage with Command hooks, mail collecting station with hanging organizers, etc. I added a removable hook behind the wing chair and skirt to store gifts until they are wrapped. No peeking!

The budget: {assume anything not included was available on hand}

• striped fabric – $14 {JoAnn’s}
• paisley fabric – $18 {JoAnn’s with coupon}
• gold ribbon – $3 {JoAnn’s}
• velcro – $2 {JoAnn’s with coupon}
• icicle lights – $9 {Home Depot}
• trio of 3M Command hooks – $6 {Home Depot}

TOTAL: $52

My favorite part about this project is that we actually use the space but it looks less cluttered now. The kids love the glowing lights at night.

GLITTER WREATHS

Nothing says ‘Happy Holidays’ like a wreath. I found two of these gold glitter wreaths at a local craft store on sale. I suspended one wreath by green ribbon in front of canvas artwork.

The sparkle is a shimmery contrast to the matte painting. At night it looks warmer…

I hung the second wreath from a standing shelf in the living room.

I like the circular shape of the wreath against all the straight lines of the bookshelf and bins.

I suspended the wreath by a green ribbon tied directly to the top shelf of the bookcase.

It’s just the hint of Christmas cheer that the corner of the room needed. It glitters at night beneath artificial light.

The budget: {assume anything not included was available on hand}

• gold glitter wreaths – $18 each {Michael’s on sale}

TOTAL: $36

My wreaths are store bought but you could easily DIY something similar with a plain stick wreath and gold spray paint.

HOOP PENDANT SHADE

Remember the gold chandelier that hung too close to the ceiling? I hated it. Wanting a cozier, more intimate and warmer feel for the holidays, I finally did something about that chandy.

I DIYed a 24″ high fabric shade and hung it over the existing chandelier.

The new shade diffuses the light from the chandelier in a lovely way.

The oversize scale of the pendant helps connect the once too-high chandy to the dining table.

I can’t keep the light off at nighttime now.

Due to lack of time and energy, I didn’t add fabric to the bottom side of the shade.

I hung the shade from the existing chandelier’s chain with fishing line…it’s strong but virtually invisible.

The budget: {assume anything not included was available on hand}

• large embroidery hoop – $6 {Hobby Lobby}
• fishing line – $6 {Target}

TOTAL: $12

Could it be that my favorite holiday decor project is the one the cost the least? Yes! I plan to post the DIY specifics in a future post.

Keep in mind that all of these projects are completely temporary and easily removable – great for our temporary living situation. Thanks to Apartment Guide for sponsoring my holiday projects. I probably wouldn’t have put too much effort or thought into our apartment’s holiday decor otherwise. But now that it’s all done, I’m feeling pretty good about our warm and cozy interim housing. It was definitely worth all the time and effort put into it. My hope is that someone is inspired to make their home {whether permanent or temporary} an organized and inviting place for the holidays.

FYI – Apartment Guide is owned by Consumer Source, Inc. Apartment Guide partnered with bloggers such as me to participate in its “Holiday Home Organization” Blogger Challenge.  As part of that program, I received compensation.  They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about the products used for the “Holiday Home Organization” Blogger Challenge. Apartment Guide and Consumer Source believe that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Consumer Source’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.

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images:  1) Apartment Guide  all the rest) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Not sure why, but some people are anxiously awaiting pics of our apartment.  In case you missed it, here’s the floor plan…

With tons of help from some family and friends {thank you!}, this past weekend we were able to move almost all of our stuff that is making the move to the apartment.  I’m so lucky to have ties to a few strong men!  After moving a laundry washer and dryer {not to mention a bunch of other stuff} up THREE flights of stairs, those men can bring me their dirty laundry any time and I’ll wash it up for free.  We were also able to unload a bunch of furniture that’s not making the apartment/Underdog cut via Craigslist.  I had every intention of linking to our items for sale here on House*Tweaking but nearly 90% of it was gone in less than 24 hours!  I am relieved to have this whole moving process underway and am starting to see the light {although it may be fluorescent thanks to our interim housing} at the end of this whole for-sale-by-owner/moving-to-an-apartment-for-a-few-months escapade.  I’m living day to day for the next couple of weeks then hopefully we’ll have settled into a new place and new routine.

And here’s the new place where the new routine will be happening…

This is the view into the living room from the front door.  As you can see, it has vaulted ceilings and sliders leading to a balcony.  I’ve got to find some way of making those sliders childproof because I wouldn’t trust my kiddos out there for one second.  If anyone has an idea please share!

Here’s a view of the dining area and breakfast bar looking in from a corner of the living room.  We moved a pair of counter stools from our current home to the apartment just for that breakfast bar HOWEVER I should have measured first.  The stools are waaaay too low for the bar.  Oh well.  At least they weren’t heavy.  And we’ll have adequate dining space for special visitors with extremely long torsos!  Hehe.  I’m already trying to figure out an inexpensive way to improve the look of the gold dining chandy {that is hung too high} without permanently changing it.

That, my folks, is the kitchen.  The folding doors lead to the laundry room.  It may look like those floors are wood but in actuality they’re vinyl.  They look worse in real life.  I like the globe lights.

The hall leads back to the 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  Layne says it’s the perfect hall to run his monster truck down.  Shall I dare tell him I donated said monster truck that he hadn’t played with for months to Goodwill just last week?

Here is one of the two full bathrooms.  Again, vinyl wood lookalike flooring.  I only took a picture of one of the bathrooms because 1) they are twins and 2) the aforementioned strong guys were waiting to start carrying stuff in while I was snapping away.  Handy Hubby is pretty happy we were able to find an affordable apartment with 2 full baths.  He doesn’t want to share with the kids.  I could care less.  Guess who cleans the bathrooms in our family!

This is where Layne and Everett will either become close and loving brothers OR fight to the death. I appreciate everyone’s comments about their children whose bedroom sharing experiences brought them closer together.  There is hope!

And this is where you’ll find Handy Hubby and me passing out at the end of long renovation days.  There is a full bathroom en suite and a walk-in closet for plenty of storage.

So ends our apartment tour.  It’s nothing over the top but it will definitely work.  The finishes are dated but the place is clean and has good natural light.  I would like to try my hand at a few budget-friendly, temporary cosmetic improvements while we’re living in the apartment.  I mentioned something to HH about painting a few walls and he said I’m crazy.  I didn’t disagree.  I just don’t see the harm in making the place you’re living in feel a little happier with a few cheap tricks.  I also surprisingly discovered that we won’t be responsible for patching any holes smaller than a dime; we only have to prime over any walls we {I} may paint.  Hanging stuff on the walls?!  Game on.

Have you ever used budget-friendly decor or DIY to freshen up a living space even if it was temporary?  Anyone guilty of the ol’ toothpaste spackling trick to disguise holes in the walls of dorm rooms?  Me…guilty as charged.

images:  Dana Miller for House*Tweaking