Hi All!

I thought I would share with you my top tips for getting your home ready for Christmas, I always have a spring clean of the house before putting my decorations up. This is the first step in getting ready for Christmas, then you have the joy of trying to find the Christmas decorations, mine are in the garage but in boxes but it’s still a nightmare to find and get unpacked.

The front room is arguably the most important room in the home when it comes to Christmas time. In here, you will be propping up your Christmas tree and flooding your sofa with seasonal cushions and throws. But there are some top tips and tricks you need to know to make your home more visually pleasing for the festive season. I know this is the place that as a family we spend more of our time at Christmas, watching movies with hot chocolate and festive treats.

If you decide that you want to pull out all the stops this Christmas and repaint your walls for December, I would recommend that you go with a matt colour, such as a sage green or a traditional royal blue, that will make all of your furniture pop out from the walls. However, if you’re not looking to repaint entirely — the rest of your decorating will not suffer, as there is a lot of versatility around Christmas decor.

Once your walls are ready, it’s time to decide what to put on them. You don’t want to make them too cluttered, but you definitely want to have a movie-like backdrop when it comes to taking photographs on the big day. If you want to showcase your picture-perfect family, hang different sized frames across your wall in an inconsistent pattern — if you don’t want to use multiple photographs and only want to shine the spotlight on one family portrait, make sure that it’s a big photograph to reduce the risk of it looking lost on your wall.

A pre-lit wreath with baubles can make your living room look extra special and you can be adventurous with its placement. If you want to make it a focal point, either hang it independently above your fireplace or let it stand on your mantelpiece and lean it against the wall. I love wreaths at Christmas you can get them from florists also if you want a real wreath. 

Check curtains are bound to make your living room look like more like a showroom and this is something that you need to achieve if you’re allowing the world of social media users into your living room through images that are likely to start trending! Stick with a subtle colour — nothing too bold, as this could take the attention away from other aspects of the room you’ve decorated for the jolly season.

Everybody loves cushions on the sofa, however, you can either have too little or too much. You need to find a balance and there are many factors that can influence your decision on how many you need. You need to look at the size of the cushions, the number of sofas in your room and their sizes. Make sure that the cushions you purchase have some festive features, such as snowflakes or reindeers. When it comes to colour, we recommend that you try and stay within the colour scheme of your room — match with either your walls or your curtains – and do not match your cushions with the colour of your sofa or this can make your whole room clash! I have seen some great cushions in Next recently that aren’t too expensive and that are very festive! 

Oh, Christmas tree! Oh, Christmas tree! How lovely are your branches? Putting up the Christmas tree is always an event in itself — the family comes together, you eat nice food and you put on festive tunes. When it comes to picking a tree, artificial trees tend to be the easiest. You want to avoid as much mess as possible around this period because if you don’t, everything becomes more challenging and this is something you don’t want to encounter during the holidays.

Whether you go for a green, white or black Christmas tree, there are a few methods you can take to make your tree unlike any other. Once you’ve pieced together your tree and it’s ready to decorate, remember to hang the LED twinkle lights first — spread them out evenly so that your tree can sparkle in all directions. If you did want to change the colour of your Christmas tree you can also spray the tree, I might do this with mine this year. I saw some awesome lights at the John Lewis event that would look perfect with my tree.

When it comes to baubles, go big or go home. Use a mixture of gigantic and tiny baubles to make your tree stand out to any visitor. If you’re using a white tree, do not go with silver coloured baubles and instead opt for a bright and bold colour such as reds and golds. Those using a green Christmas tree, you can’t go wrong with silver! I’m on the hunt for new Christmas bubbles, The White Company have so many lovely tree decorations and they currently have 30% off! 

To top things off, place fake parcels under your tree to give your room that ‘Santa’s Grotto’ sensation. If you have little ones, it might be a nice idea to have a children’s train track loop around the tree to make things extra special. I don’t put Christmas presents under my tree until Christmas Eve, as I have a young child that would open them if I left the presents there. 

The day we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived and whilst opening presents is most important, Christmas dinner is not far behind! From table covers to dinner sets, everything must be perfect. When it comes to the dining room, you need to make sure that everything is in the right position and that your table design is not lacking in creativity. First, position candles at opposite sides of the table and make sure that they’re in a symmetrical position. Secondly, position your tableware for each person in the right area — don’t make things too tight, people want to stretch freely after stuffing their faces without the fear of nudging someone by accident. It’s important to leave room in the centre of the table for sauces and gravy boats to reduce the amount of running backwards and forwards to the kitchen! 

*Have you started Christmas shopping? Will you be hosting the Christmas Dinner?

Lots Of Love,