Classic Christmas Home Tour 2024 {Kitchen & Mud Room}

I’m really trying to plug through this Christmas tour! I have so many things to share with you this month and not enough days left to do it. :-) Today we will visit the kitchen and mud room.

Like most of you, the kitchen is the heart of our home. We spend more time in here than in any other room of the house so I love to make it merry and festive with greenery, ribbons, a coffee and cocoa bar, and our Christmas china.

I am still so in love with the renovation we did a few years ago to level out the island and peninsula and brighten up the cabinets and backsplash. Just look at this view from the sofa in the den! The line of sight between these two rooms makes me SO happy when we are all gathered together doing life here.

A festive bowl of fruit and a candle look pretty from all sides here on the peninsula, and are short enough to keep things wide open between the two rooms.

Like in the rest of our living spaces, I love to frame pictures of our family from Christmases past, keep little bowls of candy and treats around, and replace my everyday decor with holiday items. I store all of our holiday decor in large plastic tubs in the basement and attic. When I take the Christmas things out, I fill them back up with everyday things that I won’t be using. It would be WAY to much stuff to have it all out.

At the sink, I have a few holiday dishtowels for this time of year and my favorite hand and dish soap from Williams Sonoma. It smells divine!

This little corner gets a Happy Everything frame, decorative plates and some festive candy. A red cookbook is a nice addition, straight off my shelf but just out of sight here.

Since I’ve moved the coffee station to the bar we added earlier this year, this counter gets sweet treats – a huge hit with the teens. I’m using my Byrd’s cookie jar, my grandma O’s vintage chip jar and other festive items from my collection.

A few more decorative towels hang from the oven. My boys, of course, do not understand the use for a “decorative” towel so these are often wadded up, used as pot holders, or found cleaning up some mess. They wash and iron well. :-)

I use the island space more than any other in the kitchen, so the little tree is perfect to still have room for dinner prep and all the other activities that happen here.

I have replaced all of our everyday china on display with our Christmas china. The pattern is the classic Spode Christmas Tree. Most of our collection was given to us when we were getting married, but Mother and Daddy-O usually add a serving piece for us each year.

I use the opposite little counter for cookbooks during most of the year, and decorative items over the holidays. The mailbox is Magnolia Home, the Happy Tappers are a favorite item since my boys were babies (they reintroduced them at Hallmark this year!), and the countdown sign was a gift from a friend years ago.

Our kitchen project this year traded the dining table for a beverage bar.

In the space between the island and the beverage bar I had a custom table made from wood reclaimed from on old Georgia manse. The height falls between table height and counter height. I love how it gives us another multi purpose surface. On an everyday basis I use it to display something pretty and seasonal and when entertaining it has been used as a gift table, bar table and food buffet! The candy cane runner is from this season at Target.

Here you can see the storage and counter space the addition gave us.

On the left side is our coffee and hot cocoa bar. The drawer below holds mugs and the fridge has cream and creamers.

The right side has a cute beverage dispenser (last year wal mart), straws and napkins. The drawer below here has all of my cocktail and beverage supplies.

And, finally, here’s a peek of the kitchen from the mudroom!

Speaking of the mudroom, I added the Elf door hanger to the garage door again this year and it is pretty merry to come home to since this is our most used entryway. The JOY boxwood garland was from Target after Christmas a few years ago. I used to sell pet bowls in my shop and these are Elsa’s from her first Christmas. I now use them as two food bowl and just a plain white water bowl.