What you need to know to get your home ready for the next month of Christmas season fun.
Here’s some tips to bring Christmas into your home in style.
Be organised
If you’re really traditional, you have everything up and your home Christmas. It helps to build the anticipation and excitement.
Decorative things can be collected throughout the year, like pine cones – start collecting these when you’re out in the country during the winter. You only need one bowl of pine cones to add a festive touch. And you can get it all straight from nature, which is so brilliant.
Sights and smells
I feel that it’s incredibly important to tell the Christmas story through transforming the house – my statement trick is to have intense greenery and nature en masse in the home. What we most love about Christmas is the delicious smell of real pine trees in the home. Not only striking, the smell is intoxicating, I love it. The scent takes us adults back to our childhood and we get just as excited as the little ones.
One major component in telling the Christmas story at home is to create a huge wreath – I always make everything fresh. I also like to make a stunning green installation above the fireplace that is both strikingly beautiful to the eye and perfumes the entire home with that delicious pine scent.
You will also need florist wire, the most import step is to create a really solid base. To do this, I soak sticks and twigs that have been in water so they become malleable.
Bundle
Make little bundles of twigs bound together with wire. Lay them down on a table and place in a wreath circle, then bind each bundle together (using the florist wire). Build up the shape and strengthen with more sticks and more wire. I like a heavier shape at the bottom and for it to be slightly off centre – not too perfect or groomed.
Add foliage
Then, you add your foliage, weaving pieces through the twigs and then securing with wire. For the one pictured here we used spruce, it will last if you place it up soon but will slowly drop over the coming weeks. Every now and then you could add some fresh sprigs in to freshen and brighten it up.
Keep it simple
Keep it simple with metallic decorations; I like just a few simple gold accents. And again, place these off centre or at different heights hanging from the wreath. Simplicity is everything when it comes to Christmas, you don’t need to go over the top. Pull everything back and keep it minimal so it feels really modern.
Spread the Christmas cheer all over the house!
With the leftover pieces you could make mini wreaths for your children’s bedrooms, to place by their bed or to hang on their door. Then every room has something Christmas in it, so that the whole house will smell incredible.
Another idea is to build a really striking statement of foliage around the mantelpiece. It can be really simple but when en masse and with an abundance of greenery it will be a real showstopper.
You need to anchor the branches to the base of the mantelpiece using strong twine. We used the sculptural branches of Norfolk Island pine along with some spruce – the mix of varieties works well and gives a variety of textures.
Have a happy holidays!
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