Holiday decorations remain constant in Hartford home
— When it comes to decorating a home for the holidays, change can be good. You can switch things around every single year, and add new items, too.
But if at some point you come up with a look you really love — why mess with a good thing?
That’s what happened the first time Margaret Smith decorated the home here that she and her late husband, Doug, bought in 1966.
They set a large tree in the living room directly in front of the windows, decorated the fireplace, set a holiday table in the dining room, put a small tree in the sunroom for their children to decorate, added faux candles to the second-floor windows that face the street, then sprinkled holiday accents throughout the rest of the 3,500square-foot home.
“I have put a large tree in that spot for over 50 years,” she said. “Most of the same ornaments too, and I’ve always decorated the rest of the house the same way because that’s the way we always liked it.”
But it isn’t just the look she loves, it’s the memories attached to them.
On her large tree there are ornaments from her grandma Schnitzler, from her mother, her children and her grandchildren. One ornament on the tree was purchased when her entire family was together one Christmas. That piece has the names and birthdays of each family member on a strip of paper that was tucked inside the ornament.
There are also a good number of ornaments from her aunt, the late Floretta Schnitzler.
“I have a large Army steamer trunk that was filled with ornaments that she gave me shortly after buying this house,” Smith said. “She was an Army nurse during World War II.”
When she decorates the large fireplace in her living room, she hangs five Christmas stockings on it, which were made by her sister, Sister Helen Butzler of the School Sisters of St. Francis; each bears the name of one of her children. On top of the mantel there is an array of garland, pine cones and little red reindeer, and on the fireplace wall there has always been a large wreath.
In her dining room, she sets her table in a holiday motif, then adds accents throughout the room.
On a nearby buffet she swirls garland with dried hydrangeas, pine cones and silver ribbon between two large statues that had been in her family for years.
“The statues are French, from the late 1800s, and are by an artist named Eugene Cautz,” she said.
Smith said she enjoys the same look each year because it’s a family tradition, but also because it fits the style of her home so well.
“This house — which is a brick colonial revival — is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1926 by George and Blanche Kissel, who were the owners of Kissel Car Company, which was also known as Kissel Kar Company. They would have been considered wealthy individuals in those days.
“We were told that they moved the house next door to another spot so that they could build this house. We also found paperwork showing that he (Mr. Kissel) ordered 33,000 red bricks to build this, but that he later needed to get 3,000 more.
“And Mrs. Kissel loved pink and blue. Everything in this house was pink and blue. In my daughter Laura’s bedroom there was wallpaper with pink and blue feathers on it, and there was a ribbon in the design that happened to look like the letter L.”
Smith’s home, along with three others, will be featured in this year’s Hartford Historic Home Tour from noon to 3 p.m. Dec. 9. Question: Is there a story behind the birch log in your dining room?
Smith: We were on a family trip in Michigan and found it. I had holes drilled in it and put red candles in the holes and then put garland around it. Q: What are some of the items you collect? Smith: I have a collection of Goebel angels, and some are holiday-related. I also have a collection of small bells. I keep both collections up all year. They are on shelves on either side of two large French doors between the foyer and the living room.
I also have a collection of 18 cups and saucers in the dining room. I got them from a relative. They are all English bone china.
On the windowsills in the dining room I have small bright red pieces of glassware. They’re collectibles. I got them as prizes when I played bridge. I keep them up all year.
Q: Do you decorate your staircase the same way every year? Smith: Yes. My daughter Laura helps me. We put up garland and red ribbon. Q: How would you describe the tree in your dining room?
Smith: It’s tall — about 6 feet high — and thin and has all Victorian ornaments. It also has beaded garland and gold bay leaves. Q: Is there a story to the wall hanging in your entry hall? Smith: I made it in 2003. It shows a Santa and he’s holding a bear in a bag. Q: Are there any holiday traditions you no longer participate in?
Smith: When the kids were little, each year they would get a small tree of their own. We put it in the sunroom and they would decorate it. Now I put a small tabletop tree in that room and I decorate it with Badger ornaments and red and white ornaments. My family was always involved with the Badgers.
I also used to put all green lights in a large pine tree outside. But the tree had to be cut down. Q: What is your fireplace made of?
Smith: Seasoned walnut. It has a hand-carved fruit basket on the center. We painted the wall behind it an umber (reddish-brown) color. The rest of the living room is a neutral. Q: Can you describe your sunroom?
Smith: It has original square black and white tile on the floor, large mullioned glass windows and there is decorative molding on all the walls.
When we were stripping wallpaper off the bedrooms on the second floor, we could see that those rooms also had this style of molding. We found the same molding and put it back in the bedrooms. There are also two French doors that lead into the sunroom – both from the living room.
Q: Did you update your kitchen since moving here?
Smith: Yes, in the late ’80s. It was originally a maid’s kitchen. There was a huge icebox in there and it was all encased in a cabinet. We took it out when we did the kitchen. It was painted pink. There is also a large butler’s pantry.
Q: What other changes did you make to your home?
Smith: I had a decorator — Sandy Gordon Interiors in Madison — put up wallpaper in the dining room and foyer. She used two different wallpapers in the dining room. She took the print from the wallpaper under the chair rail and used it to make drapes and had a rug made for the foyer in the same design.
Q: How is your house laid out? Smith: On the first floor there is an entry hall, large foyer with a staircase, the dining room, kitchen with butler’s pantry, laundry room, living room, sunroom and a bathroom.
The second floor has four bedrooms. The two that are facing the street are larger and the two that face the back are smaller. There is a bathroom on each side of the house between the front and back bedrooms. All the bathrooms in the house have original small square tiles.
The third floor is all finished attic space with a cedar closet and lots of crawl space.
Q: How did you furnish your home?
Smith: In pieces from the era in which the home was built. The dining room table is from the ’20s and we bought it in ’55 along with the dining room credenza and a number of other pieces. There is a rocker in the living room, and it was in pieces when we got it. I remember my dad hauling it home and he put it back together.
Do you, or does someone you know, have a cool, funky or exquisite living space that you’d like to see featured in At Home? Contact Fresh editor Nancy Stohs at (414) 224-2382 or email nstohs@journalsentinel.com .