A Very Merry & Unique Style of Gingerbread!

Gingerbread isn’t just for eating! My favorite gingerbread is actually found on older homes! Let me show you how I decorate with it!

Welcome to my spin on decorating for the Holidays!  I call it Kim Style!

If you are coming to the blog today from my friend, Robyn’s blog , isn’t she so creative?  Her gift wrapping ideas are so unique!  I can’t wait to try them out myself!  If you haven’t seen them yet, you can find them here:5 Easy Ways to Make Your Gift Wrapping Look Special – Robyn’s French Nest (robynsfrenchnest.com)

Robyn & I along with several other ladies are part of the Thistlewood Farms VIP Mastermind group.  We have joined together over the past three days to showcase our decorating, crafting, cooking & wrapping ideas to help kickstart your creativity for the holidays!

The party started on Wednesday on our mentor and friend, KariAnne’s site.  She shared her stamped spoon project.  You can find it here: Thistlewood farms Stamped spoon napkin rings   They are so sweet!  I need to order a set of stamping tools for myself so I can make some plant markers for my pots of herbs!

The link to the next stop on the hop after me is at the bottom of this post!

What Most People Think of When they Hear the Word “Gingerbread”

What I think of

My take on the word gingerbread comes from the house I grew up in.  In architecture & design, gingerbread refers to detailed embellishment like the painted lady style of architecture that is famous in San Francisco.  It was quite prevalent in the late 1860s and 1870s in America.

The house I grew up in was build in the late 1880s.

and the first house that I bought on my own was a Sears house build in 1904.  The picture below is after the current owners painted it in a style similar to the Painted Lady style.  The exterior wasn’t nearly as cute when I owned it!

Where Did Those Big Pieces of Gingerbread Come From?

Thanks for asking!  The large triangle shaped piece of gingerbread as well as the pieces pictures in the two pictures below it were actually found in the barn at my family homestead.  After I finally made the decision to sell the family homestead, I had to get serious about cleaning out the out buildings.  You can read all about it here: Look What We Found in the Barn

When the guy helping me clean out the barn told me what he found, I almost burst into tears.  I honestly had no idea those pieces were in there.  Had I know they were, I definitely would have drug them out sooner! I am still not convinced that they came off of our house.  My Mom was a stickler about keeping things as original as possible and I am pretty sure they would have been put back if they had been taken off for some renovation project.  Regardless, they are awesome and I love them!

The three largest pieces are still in my van!  They are wrapped in a moving blanket and tied to the sliding door.  I tried to measure them without actually climbing into the van.  They are roughly 6 feet long and approximately 32 inches tall!

Now That You Know Where they Came From, Let me Show You What To Do with Them!

Let’s start with the big triangle piece. See how it is missing some spindles or spokes?

Fortunately, they were also in the barn.  Here’s what they looked like before and after I cleaned them up.

 

I am planning on hanging the big piece on the wall or putting it somewhere in our house at which time I will attempt to glue the spindles back in.  Until that time, I am using them in a dough bowl arrangement.

A Creative Way to Decorate A Dough Bowl for the Holidays

I love dough bowls and gingerbread so I decided to use them together for this arrangement.

Dough bowls come in many shapes and sizes.  I purchased this square one this Fall at a Vintage Market.  It is a reproduction.  I love the hand hewn look of the inside with the painted outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gather Additional Elements to Use

For this arrangement, I was able to shop my house meaning I walked around and gathered some elements that I thought would work together nicely.

This round ball is actually a vintage mistletoe kissing ball that my Mom had.  My Mom was a true collector, some might call her a hoarder but she wasn’t. She just liked her things.  I think she passed that trait on to her daughter!

I love this greenery.  It has a bit of sparkle to it and is accented with silver jingle bells.

A selection of pinecones including a few glitter pine cones that were left over from the flower shop days.  I was a florist for a number of years before I bought a pizzeria and went from flowers to flour!  If you are interested in learning more about my background, you can visit this post : Sprout, Grow Bloom 

Place the greenery in the dough bowl to form a base and then layer in the elements.

Finish the arrangement by adding a sparkly silver toned bow and nestle the pinecones around it.

Save This Pin For Later!

 

 

Gingerbread Snowflakes

I ordered a few pieces of gingerbread from a vendor on Etsy.  I didn’t read the description and they were much smaller than I anticipated.  That is kind of a bad habit of mine, especially when I am in a hurry.  I need to slow down and pay attention to the dimensions!  While they didn’t work for the project I had in mind, they actually were the perfect size for this 2nd dough bowl arrangement.

To make this one, I used these three candy themed snowflake ornaments.  They do have a gingerbread cookie accent if you look closely.

I had originally planned to use them in these spindles but I couldn’t get them to stand up straight and I was running out of thyme! Update: I did get them to stand up fairly straight.  Here is the link to the post: Repurposed Snowflake Spindles for the Holidays

I will try again over the weekend when I have a chance.  To make the white dough bowl arrangement, I layered some faux greenery in the bottom of the dough bowl and then added three of the small spindles and some pine cones.  I tucked the gingerbread snowflake in and I was done!

Where Else Can I Use Gingerbread in my Holiday Decorating?

By standing this piece of gingerbread on its end, it looks like angel wings!  The details about how to make the footed tray it is sitting on as well as how I put the arrangement together can be found here:  Quick & Easy Way to Make A Footed Tray. 

The lantern featured in this centerpiece is currently on our lanai. I did a quick retro refresh on the lanai earlier this week.

If you love Retro ,wrought iron and wicker, more details can be found on my Let’s Refresh The Lanai With a Retro Feel 

A Few More Ways I Use Gingerbread in My Decorating

Those two matching pieces were originally the end pieces of one of the linear pieces we found in the barn.

I asked my handyman to cut that front piece into three pieces so that I could have the matching pieces and the longer piece.

Another view of how I used the matching pieces

Here is the center piece after the sides were cut off.  It looks like angel wings, doesn’t it?

Here I have the piece sitting on top of the buffet waiting to be the backdrop for a Holiday vignette!  It is sitting on top of a long cardboard box that I have covered with tea towels.  Sorry the picture is so crooked!

Originally I was going to keep all the pieces that we found in the barn but I finally decided that I didn’t have room for all of them.  I sold the 2nd linear piece to my cousin’s granddaughter.  She turned it into a head board.   She & her husband also bought the barn wood that I had.  I “talked” about how she turned it into an accent wall here:From a Pile of Barn Wood to a Beautiful Accent Wall!

Thank you for stopping by today!

The next stop on the hop is my friend , Eryn!  She is sharing Vintage Christmas Ideas! 

For More Dough Bowl Inspiration, please refer to these posts:

How to Make an Armature for use in a Dough Bowl

Imagination & Spray Paint to the Rescue!

For More Ways to Incorporate Gingerbread (Architectural Salvage) in to your decor:

Coastal Shabby Chic Office Refreshed for The Holidays

Decorating with Architectural Salvage

For More Ways to Add a Gingerbread Accent to your Holiday Decor

How to Create a Christmas European Dish Garden with Gingerbread Accents