A colourful Christmas with Habitat
December is fast approaching…only a few days to go before we are allowed to start officially decorating our homes for the Christmas season! This time last year we were knee deep in dust as we were on a mad dash to get our house habitable in time for Christmas. The newly installed underfloor heating only got turned on on Christmas eve! This year, while not all the rooms are finished to my exacting standards, things are a lot calmer on the renovation front and so I can turn my focus to the decorations. For anyone out there who has not finished their home renovations, this is a great time of year to use everything that glitters to distract from the less aesthetic areas of your home! My motto is the more the merrier and distract the eye away from those less than perfect corners! Other than that, it’s a nice time of your to give your interior a boost, and to think of a new look for Christmas. Recently Habitat asked me to style up their new collection of Christmas decorations and here are the three looks I created for them. With lots of tips on how to turn your home around for this season and make it feel a little different too. Christmas time is all about creating an uplifting feeling so for me, it’s the perfect time to add glitz, glamour, and of course extra colour!
Modern Luxe
left to right: Cindi black hand-decorated bauble £8, Jovi gold hand decorated bauble £8, Hem set of two patterned glass baubles £15, Eldan hand decorated bauble £10, Calypso set of 2 pompom baubles £6, all Habitat.
For me, Christmas is the time we get to up our game with a little opulence and yet also cherish the humble things too. Fuse together luxury with the handmade and you have one of my favourite festive looks. My Mum always went foraging for foliage and branches to decorate the house at Christmas and I’ve kept the same tradition of twisting ivy throughout the banisters and popping a sprig of holly atop the picture frames. For a modern update hang a swathe of tied branches with string and use Command strips or existing picture hooks to secure it to the wall or suspend it over the table. Add opulence with some sprayed gold leaves and hand-embellished baubles, even some battery fairy lights for the ultimate sparkling display.
Table decor: Noir 12pc dinnerware set £95; Turini 16pc gold cutlery set £85; Newstead black & gold candle holder £25; Noelle green & gold hand decorated bauble £10; Cosmic gold 2m LED bauble garland £20, all Habitat.
Continuing the theme, snip some smaller branches and lay them down the middle of your table as a basis for a centerpiece. Weave lengths of satin ribbon and nestle a few shimmery baubles and candle sticks in-between the foliage for a striking look. Baubles aren’t just for the tree, add them to place settings by placing them in a dish or tying them to the back of the chairs.
Balthasar set of 3 baubles £12, Habitat
Spray some large leaves and sprigs of foliage gold to ramp up the opulence. These can be added to your table displays or used to decorate gifts. Gold looks particularly wow against dark colours like black and forest green and a glittering bauble adds that extra special finishing touch.
Colour pop
Eira mixed set of 3 baubles £12, Beth sequin pair of glass baubles £10; Gabriel mixed set of 3 star baubles £10; Anngarsk metallic bauble wreath £30; Comet set of 2 baubles £12, Daffey 2m wool garland £15, Roca faceted set of 6 baubles £8; Kelar hand beaded bauble £8; Arran crazy orange mini Christmas tree 3.5ft £35; Carolle set of two tassel baubles £8; Crackers set of 8 in cocktail size £6; Anngarsk bauble tree 35cm £25, all Habitat
So this is my colour palette to a tee! My advise when you are opting for a strong colour story is to begin by focusing on three hero colours first. Of course, you can have more, but by basing your colour scheme around three main colours will help to give an element of cohesion. Brightly coloured schemes are in danger of looking unsophisticated so you need an element of restrain! (I actually can’t believe I just said that!) Throughout this scheme notice how pink, turquoise and orange feature more dominantly than the other other colours. To help a scheme feel organic and edgy don’t be overly matchy and definitely don’t go matching your baubles to your décor- that would be a design crime!
While Christmas décor is mostly about the tree, you can create other little festive moments around the home. I love to create little tablescapes, where you mix a few Christmas ornaments in with your existing objects. This could be on a shelf, console or side table. My tip is to arrange in odd numbers and make sure you have a variety of heights for interest.
Scandi
from left: Polaris gold star bauble £5; Cosmos gold star decorations (set of 3) £8; Anngarsk glitter baubles (set of 4) £5; Cosmos silver star decorations (set of 3) £8; Polaris copper tree topper £12; Star burst gold decoration £4; Ewa oversized glass vase £20; Farr rug, £250, all Habitat.
If you are someone who believes less is more then updating your minimal pad with some festive decorations is a great way to ring the changes. Whenever you are holding back on colour you have to ramp up the texture so here the story is all about that lovely play between materials. I love the matt wood, marble and pottery against the soft metallic decorations in nude tones of copper blush, gold and silver. And if you don’t have room for a full on tree in your apartment, I love the idea of a mini fir tree, popped into a large glass vase. It looks super cool.
From left: Marsden white marble dinner candle holder £25; Marsden white marble and brass candle holder £30; Ivy large white marble candle holder £12; Klein brushed brass tea light candelabra £45; Ivy small white marble candle holder £10, all Habitat.
Scandinavian design often draws on a strong connection to nature and you can do this subtly at Christmas. Snip a few branches off the Christmas tree and string them up as garlands, interspersed with baubles for a quick and affordable decoration that can be hung across the mantle, inbetween pictures or down the stair case. Candlelight is so evocative of the Christmas celebration so invest in some stunning candlesticks and arrange in different heights for effect. Embellish the look with decorations, natural pine cones and nuts and you can never have too many tealights in mt view.
While I’m a big advocate for real trees and natural foliage this time of year, in small spaces or urban homes consider using small scale Christmas trees. These Arran wool wrapped trees have the most wonderful woollen texture which looks great with a few well-chosen decorations. Because they less busy than the traditional fir tree they don’t clutter up the space visually. The maximalist in me would need more than one though and I think they look great paired in threes like their own mini frosty woodland!
This blog post was part of a paid partnership with Habitat.
