City Farmhouse: Big Design on a Budget: House at Westhaven

Big Design on a Budget: House at Westhaven

By Unknown 1:26 PM City Farmhouse, City Farmhouse Franklin, Design on a budget, Franklin antiques, Westhaven

City Farmhouse - Franklin, TN - Antiques and Vintage for Urban & City Living - Westhaven Home Tour - Big Design on a Small Budget

Who doesn't love decorating for the holidays! Especially, when you get the opportunity to decorate someone else's home for a holiday tour benefiting a fabulous cause - the Hillsboro Middle School Band - of which my grandson just happens to be a member. We're so proud of him!

I was so thrilled that I was selected to decorate the home of Robin and Patrick Evans. I knew I would have “good bones” to work with since Robin has such a great eye. There was never a doubt that her home would be filled with amazing unique pieces tastefully and artfully arranged (after all, she once was a stylist for Ralph Lauren Home stores).

Robin and I thought it would be fun to design the home using elements found in nature. Not only is nature's bounty beautiful this time of year but it can also be gathered from most yards, winter gardens, along fence rows, and simply from walks in the woods. AND, it's simple to work with naturals and inexpensive too - anyone can do it, no matter what the budget.

We collected branches, greens, dried flowers, nuts, leaves, pods, and berries to create most of the designs throughout the home. Using Robin's collections of silver plate teapots, creamers (and the like), mercury glass vases, ironstone, and pottery vessels, we were able to style every room on the tour for basically no money!! How fun is that!!

In fact, we designed the entire dining room for about $10.00, which was the cost of the paperwhites and tapered candles. We made the placemats from burlap that I found crumpled up in a trash bag. I simply pulled the edges all around several times to create a fringed look. The pieces were wrinkled from being stored in the bag but we decided we loved the look and chose not to press them.

How beautiful is this house?

We wanted the tree to be natural and airy, just like it would be at its home in the woods, so we kept the ornaments light, clear and sparkly. We spent money to purchase the tree but it was minimal. To adorn the staircase I snapped some magnolia branches from a tree and Robin added pine and other greens, topped off with Christmas bells. I loved that little jingle!!

We both agreed above the fireplace in the family room would be a perfect place to create a Christmas tree made from twigs. It was so easy to construct. My friend Cindy over at Discovering Franklin wrote a blog post about it. You should go over and read about it here. Cost: $0. Yay!!