Blue Christmas

Paired with a dark but similarly distressed wood box and a quilt that boasts lighter blue hues, a vibrantly painted hutch manages to blend in well in Helen and Tom Roe’s guest bedroom. The hutch was a love-at-first-sight purchase—one that the Roes were confident they could make work despite the fact that it didn’t strictly match the more muted hues used most often in the house. “We were really drawn to the color and just the fact that it was really warm and used and really appreciated at one time,” Helen says. Above the hutch, a game board lends a dash of pattern to the wood wall.

Dressed to Impress

Helen honors the idea that Christmas brings out the child in everyone in a vignette in the upstairs loft. Vintage children’s clothing items, such as the dress hanging from a cupboard door, bring welcome softness to a display. Toys and stuffed animals (especially newer ones) appear as more of a deliberate decorative element when paired with or propped up by complementary heirloom pieces. An eye-catching checked bonnet, a simple “Say please and thank you” framed print and a distressed felt stocking complete the nostalgia-themed scene.

From A Different Angel

A distressed open-armed angel offers the cozy warmth of candles and watches over the food preparation area atop a counter that separates the kitchen from the living room. “The layout is very open, and some people don’t like that style,” Helen says. For the Roes, though, this open layout helps make individual rooms seem larger, brighter and less closed-off.

Homespun for Christmas

It’s a homespun holiday scene in the corner of the guest bedroom, with a schoolhouse-print quilt, a miniature church and a fenced-in Santa and Mrs. Claus contributing to the festive arrangement. A subtle star motif (found in an accent piece on the desk, on a plate in the wall cupboard and on a quilt on the bottom shelf of the cupboard) heightens the holiday mood. As the Roes’ refurbished floor cupboard demonstrates, removing doors or drawers from a storage unit and filling the interior space with sturdy, display-worthy shelves is an inspired way to create spaces perfect for framing smaller treasures.

Star Quality

“It’s really cute because it’s just so nice and simple,” Helen says of this second-floor guest bedroom. Serving as a simple but eye-catching wall element, a large, perfectly faded quilt carries colors found in the coverlets on the two twin beds. The “linens” theme is continued with a rug beater on the wall and a Christmas tree adorned exclusively with clothespins at the foot of one of the beds.

Making Arrangements

In this dining table grouping, the height of decorative elements decreases from the lamps inward to the candle at the center of the table. Out-of-commission kitchen elements, including a pitcher and a decorative plate, fill out the vignette and rest atop a navy, blanket-stitched table runner that grounds the grouping and adds a touch of color and whimsy.