Transform Your Home For Christmas!

Transform Your Home For Christmas!

Christmas for an interior designer is an absolute dream, it is a perfect excuse to spruce up our homes with glitter and twinkling lights. I even tell my husband the little white lie, that I need to go this over the top as it’s for my business!

But seriously we are in the middle of winter (unless you live somewhere lovely and tropical) and we need this festival ramp-up to lift our moods and add excitement. Watch my Instagram as I show you some of the ways I will be creating some much needed Christmas spirit.

Five Main Areas To Decorate For Christmas

Now maybe in previous years you have only concentrated on a Christmas tree, but Christmas is a time for joy and festive happiness. We need more than that solitary Christmas tree standing in the corner. I am here to tell you the five main areas to focus on when decorating your home for Christmas.

The Christmas Tree

Most of us usually have a Christmas Tree in our homes, real or fake, it really doesn’t matter, it’s all about how you decorate it.

The lights are hugely important, they are the foundation of your decor. Please, please, please choose warm white, cool white does what it says and creates a cool light. Christmas is about warmth and coziness, so your lights need to reflect this. Do not skimp on lights, ideally there should be an inner layer and outer layer on each branch to give the tree depth.

The colour palette is again a personal choice, for our living room I like to keep it traditional with red and gold. Whatever the scheme, keep it to two or three colours as this creates consistency.

Garlands are a really striking element to add to the tree, large wooden beads to delicate gold beads, all down to your preferred aesthetics.

The next important aspect to the tree decor is scale, a Christmas tree needs a variety of large and small decorations to add interest and wonderment. I start with over large bows, but you could use large baubles or pine cones.

Then add all you favourite, most treasured decorations, not forgetting to hang them at different positions on the branches again to create depth and intrigue.

Christmas Tree Two!

Now I know what you’re thinking, a second Christmas tree are you nuts! But this does not and should not be the same, elaborate feature that the main Christmas tree is. There can only be one star in the show! However, with most of us living in more than just our living rooms, a second tree just adds to the Christmas spirit.

This tree, however can be completely different to the main tree. In my home I have a huge, real traditional tree in our living room, but in our family room I have a faux snow tree, covered in just fairly lights. The branches covered in very convincing snow, creates the winter wonderland feel and is really magical for our girls.

If you are restricted on floor space, then table trees or wall mounted trees are also a gorgeous feature. If you have kids, this second tree can also provide an opportunity for them to have their own tree. I am pretty precious about my main tree but for the other tree, they take charge and hang their favourite, handmade decs.

The Entrance hall Christmas Decor!

It makes me very sad when I enter someones home in the Christmas season to be presented with a non-festive hall way.

The easiest area in your hall to add sparkle and festivities is your staircase. Garlands both real and faux, look beautiful around the banisters and then you can add anything you like. From woodland finds, to glittery baubles, it all looks fabulous interwound up your staircase.

As our home is fairly modern, I use a variety of sized pompoms going up my staircase. I use enormous to tiny in three striking Christmas colours and then add the wired (battery powered) fairly lights in between to make them all sparkle.

If you have a large hallway, this maybe the perfect place for your second tree. Alternatively oversized reindeers and other Christmas statues are so gorgeous for kids. It immediately sets the festive mood when you arrive home. If you like to keep your home traditionally decorated, there is a huge range of rattan Christmas decorations, which look beautiful with twinkling fairy lights.

If you like to entertain over the festive period, then setting up a small hall table for welcoming guests is another perfect area to add some sparkle. When we welcome neighbours to our home, I create a Prosecco table with large white ostrich feathers, it’s glamorous and fun! 

Table and Kitchen Island Festive Decorations!

I’m not just talking about decorating your table for the big day, although that is obviously very important but for all the days leading up to Christmas. Now I’m not suggesting that you cover your worktops in baubles and glitter, leaving you no space to cook, but adding a few gorgeous elements still gives you that warm Christmasy feel.

Beautiful, Christmas plants are a perfect addition to your table or island. There are so many to choose from, from Poinsettias to Christmas roses, allowing you to create a perfect festive vignette. For long tables three plants, interlined with wired fairy lights or candles looks beautiful. For islands and worktops, cluster a few plants together and you add some candles, providing an opportunity to fill your home with a perfect Christmas scent.

If you want your home to appeal to your kids, then tall glass jars filled with festive Christmas candy canes and gingerbread also looks magical, although the contents may not last that long!

If you want your home to appeal to partying adults, then setting up a festive drinks counter with gold and glitter accessories, really adds a wow factor to the festive celebrations!

Christmas Hanging Decorations.

When we take on a new project, we always remember to look at the spaces from all angles and all heights. It doesn’t matter if you have the most amazing flooring if you’ve left your ceilings completely bare. This is the same with decorating for Christmas, how a home looks from the floor to ceiling is very important. It all comes back to scale and perspective. Hanging Christmas decorations increases the sense of scale and allows your eyeline to be transported around the entire space.

Now you can hang whatever you like, wherever you like. My preference is along tall patio, sliding or folding doors. When most of us extend or renovate our homes, we often add large expanses of glass to bring in the light and connect us to our gardens and nature. This provides a brilliant opportunity at Christmas to use them in our decorating schemes.

You can string fairly lights, stars or even snowflakes across these glass expanses and the finished effect is beautiful and magical.

Alternatively a large wall also works well. For this rustic wall we added fairly lights and paper pin wheel decorations that create an incredible impact!

So there you have it, a very simple guide to bring in that much needed Christmas spirit into your home. We hope you enjoy transporting your home into a Christmas wonderland. If you would like to chat to us about working with you on a future project then please get in touch or even book a discovery call.