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A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham

French Country Christmas Living Room Tour

Sunday, December 22, 2019

A tour of our French country Christmas living room includes views of a massive white stone fireplace and a two-story Palladian window. The tour starts with the Christmas color scheme in the living room which began with a jewel-tone Christmas stocking and coordinating throw pillow.


French country Christmas living room tour begins with jewel tone Christmas stockings
Jewel-tone needlepoint Christmas stockings and a matching throw pillow set this year's color for Christmas decor in our French country inspired living room. The stockings and pillow came from my sister's shop in Maine more than twenty years ago. 

When I bought a purple pillow cover from our new local Pottery Barn outlet this summer, I knew it would go with the needlepoint pillow and stockings. That's when I began planning this year's Christmas decor. 

French Country Christmas Mantel With Dark Blues

Thursday, December 19, 2019


Styling a French country mantel with dark blue colors to go with jewel-tone colored needlepoint Christmas stockings took several makeovers. 

Arranging, re-arranging, adding to, taking away, repeatedly, over several days before this year's mantel came together and made my eyes clap their hands


French country mantel with dark blue color in a custom printed inspirational Christmas quote
The final design includes a custom-printed framed inspirational Christmas quote. A post is in the works to explain how to create the custom quote. 

Cardinal Christmas Table Setting

Wednesday, December 18, 2019


New placemats and napkins with rosy red cardinals and berried grapevine wreaths make a beautiful holiday table setting on our French country table in the kitchen sunspace. The berries on the linens inspired Christmas greenery on a wire mesh birdcage to go with the new table setting. 


Cardinal Christmas Table Setting new placemats and napkins
Holly sprigs with red berries, feisty red cardinals, twiggy brown branches, and grapevine wreaths with red berries and greenery make cheerful holiday placemats and napkins. 

Blue O Holy Night Shelf Decor

Tuesday, December 17, 2019


A blue handmade O Holy Night wood sign is the center of a stone kitchen shelf decorated for Christmas. Christmas cards set the scene for the three wisemen following the guiding star. 


Blue O Holy Night shelf decor has Christmas cards depicting the setting for the first Christmas
Christmas cards have beautiful scenes that tell the Christmas story and are an inexpensive way to create memorable Christmas decor. 

French Country Blue Christmas Presents

Monday, December 16, 2019


Blue gift-wrapped presents sit in a French country white pedestal urn at the end of the stone fireplace in my country home. Presents do not have to sit under the tree awaiting Christmas Day to be opened. No, presents can sit in a beautiful white urn with garland decor and be part of your holiday decorations. 


French country blue Christmas presents displayed in a white pedestal urn
Blue and white Christmas decor includes gift-wrapped packages on display. Using gift wrap paper and bags is an easy, inexpensive way to add a splash of your favorite color to your Christmas decor. 

Collect over years, and save to re-use time and time again. My family all know to save their wrappings and hand them back to me if they don't want to keep them.  A little eye rolling on occasion, but good-naturedly. 

Or, gift the presents without saving the wrappings, and collect different colored bags and paper for next year's Christmas decorations. This is an easy way to change your whole color scheme for Christmas from one year to the next. 

French Country Mirror | Decorated for Christmas

Thursday, December 12, 2019


With a snippet of fleur de lis gold and white ribbon and a small preserved boxwood wreath, you can dress up a French country white wood mirror for Christmas. 


French country mirror decorated for Christmas with a small boxwood wreath hanging from a gold and white fleur de lis ribbon
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ... everywhere you look. And one of the easiest ways to give everyday mirrors some holiday cheer is to add a small wreath hanging from a ribbon. 

Christmas Red Plaid Berry Birdcage

Tuesday, December 10, 2019


Dress up a wire mesh birdcage for Christmas with faux red berries, fresh tree clippings, preserved moss, tiny pine cones, and a cheery red plaid ribbon. Later this week read about a coordinating berry red cardinal and rustic grapevine and berry wreath on placemats and napkins for a Christmas table setting. 


Christmas red plaid berry birdcage dressed up for the holidays
A marvelous thing about this wonderful time of the year is almost everything can be dressed up for Christmas, including a wire mesh birdcage. 

French Country Christmas Event 2019

Friday, December 6, 2019



The ninth annual French Country Christmas Event is on two Saturdays, December 7 and December 14, in my backyard French country style garden shed. If you are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, take a drive into the countryside to shop in a seasonal pop-up shop filled with home and garden French-inspired decor. 

Do you love wood, metal, glass, fabric, paper, but not plastic or resin so much? Yes? So do I. 

In this age, it is harder and harder to find beautiful things made with wood instead of MDF, glass instead of resin, cotton, wool, or linen instead of polyester. But, all those natural materials are what I seek out to stock my French Country Christmas Event each year. 


Take a tour of how the garden shed is decorated for this year's Christmas event. Most of everything shown is for sale, with the exception of some display furniture. 


French Country Christmas Event 2019 buffet holds large items for sale
I love collecting beautiful, natural material things all during the year to offer as an alternative to big stores. 

Tips for Best Ever Christmas Wreath

Tuesday, December 3, 2019



Tips for the best ever Christmas wreath for your front door start with a store-bought fresh wreath. And, if you live near a Trader Joe's, you can buy a reasonably-priced fresh wreath with pine cones and fresh juniper berries. With a handful of tips you can take the already gorgeous wreath to a special one.


Like the wreath on my front door AFTER I transformed a basic fresh evergreen wreath... 


Tips for best ever Christmas wreath with stars on blue front door
There is something special about a Christmas wreath on a front door. Seeing a wreath when passing by or when visiting a home makes me smile and feel the joy of the Christmas season. For those of us who grew up reading Southern Living magazine, a Christmas wreath made using fresh greenery says Southern hospitality at its finest. 




Thank you, Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home, for gathering twenty of us together to share the beauty of Christmas Door Decor. I love giving my readers beautiful inspiration for adding special holiday decor to their front doors. Links to all the ideas are at the end of the article. 

If you just read Katie's at Let's Add Sprinkles  door ideas for the holiday, welcome! Katie always has good ideas for decorating with special touches.