2019 December Faulkner Lifestyle

For Christmas 2019, the Brainerd home
features the traditional colors of red and
green, with specific family items placed
throughout the home as small reminders
of years gone by. “I’m always drawn to the
traditional reds and greens because they
make me happier and I don’t grow tired
of them. I’ve tried to tone a room down to
just creams and golds, but it’s not as warm
and Christmas-like to me,” says Jessica.
Each year, Jessica will place her favorite
items in her holiday décor, and then add
to it “as the inspiration hits.” This year,
for instance, she added a Santa and Mrs.
Clause on her hearth. Family items used
in the decorating scheme include glasses
that belonged to her MaMaw, Carole
Mobbs, placed on a dining room table.
Also featured are white and pink glass
ornaments from her Great-Grandmother
Winnie Bell Snowden hanging on a tree
in daughter Cove Caroline’s room, and
a wooden deer decorated by Brent’s
mother Linda Brainerd (aka Nonnie) in
their son John Ridge’s room. Her Great-
Grandmother passed away in October at
age 100, so the ornaments are especially
meaningful this year.
More family specific items include
wooden ornaments on Cove’s tree made
by Uncle Billy McAllister; the initials over
John Ridge’s crib; and the nine-foot dining
table and coffee table, in which the legs are
made from a 300-year-old white oak tree.
“Family and tradition are so important to
me. I have old Christmas cookbooks that
my MaMaw bought for my Grandma
that I display in the kitchen along with my
MaMaw’s cookie jars that I fill with her
Christmas goodies recipes for my family,”
she said. “In my bedroom I have one of my
Great-Grandma’s old wool blankets. This
will be the first year that both my MaMaw
and Great-Grandma will not be here, but I
hope and plan to keep alive their traditions
that I hold so dear to my heart.”
New or recycled items also find their
way into Jessica’s décor. She and her
business partner, Holly Stigall, have a
store in Greenbrier called Kindred Folk
Farmhouse, and items for her home are
sometimes found during shopping trips
searching for things to sell at the store.
“Holly and I go junking and fill our
store with vintage finds that are easy for
people to use to decorate their homes.
We also sell retail décor items, and I can
pull from that,” she said.
“A lot of my personal décor is vintage
inspired. I like to take something that
someone views as junk and make it
beautiful again. I have these four-foottall
plywood Santa and Mrs. Clause
that looked like something from my
childhood. I bought them at a vintage
market for $40 for the pair and I thought
to myself, ‘what a steal and my kids are
gonna love them for years to come’. I
really like to use stems, and emphasize
that God gives us so much in nature that
we can use to make our homes beautiful
without spending a lot of money. For
instance, this year I chose to decorate a lot
with real cedar, magnolia leaves and holly
stems from outside Kindred Folk Farmhouse,
which incidentally is the home my
22 faulkner lifestyle | december 2O19