Step Inside a Christmas Cabin Inspired by Generations of Style

Text by Bethany Adams

It’s safe to say Julie Anderson wasn’t expecting to end up in a log cabin, far removed from the suburban lifestyle she had been looking for—but it turned out to be a welcome surprise. “It’s just like a Hallmark movie,” says the homeowner, who happened to find the listing while house-shopping in an entirely different area. “The character is amazing.”

Built in 1978, the home is a picture of bucolic beauty, its log walls infusing the interiors with a warmth that’s the perfect counterpart to Julie’s style preferences—which she refused to tailor to the typical log cabin aesthetic. The combination of rustic and classic, represented by collected chinoiserie and majolica dishes, enthusiastically welcomes the Andersons’ Christmas décor, which consists largely of festive ribbon and realistic faux greenery.

“Last year, I actually started collecting Shiny Brite [ornaments],” says Julie, who now decorates a vintage-style tree alongside the one covered in sentimental family mementos. Overall, she’s never placed much emphasis on theming her trees, stating, “When you love something, you know it works.”

It’s an instinct she picked up from her grandmother, Jane, who helped spark her love of decorating and antiques. “She had an incredible sense of style, and she was just the classiest woman with the biggest heart,” says Julie. In 2020, she started a vintage décor business, named Roscoe and Jane after her grandmother and the charming whippet statue that now lives in her cabin. “He was my great-grandmother’s, and then he was Jane’s,” she says, “and she handed him down to me.”

Julie credits her affinity for blue-and-white china to her mother, joking, “She still won’t let me have hers.” But she’s amassed her own impressive collection, and it lives among various other styles, shapes, and colors of dishware, brightening up dark wood cabinets and shelving and adding an unexpected element to her Christmas table.

Just as Julie inherited her love of beautiful things from the generations before her, she’s making sure to pass it on to the next generation. “Every year, I’ll give my children a new ornament . . . and we’ll add it to the tree,” she says. “That way, when they are grown and they start their life and have their space . . . they automatically have tons of ornaments for their first tree.”

While Julie’s little country cabin may have come as a surprise, it’s hard to believe it wasn’t built for her, as she’s fully transformed it into a home that reflects her style and personality. “I always go with my heart,” she says of her approach to decorating. “If you love it, it always works—and it’s always in style.”