DECK THE HALLS: HOW TO DECORATE YOUR HOME THIS CHRISTMAS
- By Ann Allan
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- 01 Dec, 2017
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This year, I’m designing our Christmas decorations with all five senses in mind.
As well as cosy textures, evocative scents, elegant looks, tinkling sounds and festive flavours, I’ll be taking a little inspiration from Nordic simplicity, where every detail is considered. But there’s also a touch of glamour: hinted at but not overwhelming.
Whether you lean towards maximalist flair or a more modern style, the final result is entirely personal. It’s all about finding a look that makes you happy. Here’s how I create a more relaxed festive feel in our home.
Modern nostalgia
Decorate meaningfully, striking a balance of grown-up elegance and festive playfulness.
As a child, I remember taking the baubles off the tree and creating my own pint-sized storybook scenes – it’s lovely to watch my daughter do the same.
Bring festive energy to simple spaces by blending contemporary style with objects that evoke memories, from heirlooms to homemade treasures.
Earthy and metallic
Deep shades give a feeling of low-key luxury, enhanced with flashes of green and the glow of candlelight. Our lounge is painted in a dark, inky blue (it’s Zoffany’s Como Blue), so the theme involves a mixture of bronze, gold, brass, silver and clear glass – right down to the baubles and wrapped gifts under the tree. For similar, try Selfridges Champagne Shine collection and John Lewis’ Winter Palace or Into the Woods collections.
Aside from the decorations themselves, add texture in the room to layer up the cosy glamour. Opt for soft textures in taupes, greys and creams, perhaps with woollen throws and deep-pile rugs.
Less fairy, more foliage
Go Scandi
More-is-more lighting
When it comes to choosing our candles, we take this very seriously. Firstly, we have to like the suppliers. We choose only brands that share our values, including a passion for products that combine beautiful looks with the finest materials and which fill your home with long-lasting fragrance.
That’s why we love Illumens: their home fragrance collections are handmade in Suffolk and are a very personal reflection of several values we hold close to our hearts, including fine fragrance and designs that express our experiences and explorations.
Take a leaf from Nigella’s book and include ropes of fairy lights – draping them over mirrors and twisting them around cut glass are simple ways to maximise the amount of light in your room. Try these Montford diamond-cut jars with decorative lids (£17.95 from Middlethorpe Interiors) for a softly festive feel.
The power of scent
Dressing the table
The spiced gravy is freezer-ready and the men in our family are already talking food. What meat will we be cooking? Not too many sprouts, I hope? And will Fraser definitely be doing those sausage stuffing balls this year? My thoughts are on the table – crisp white linen and china mixed with oversized silver chargers. My plan is to layer them up at varying heights for a statement display. We love Wedgwood’s Jasper Conran Platinum for its ability to look fresh on the breakfast table but reflect warm candlelight at dinner time.
And those amazing sausage stuffing balls? Christmas heaven. Email us and we’ll share the recipe with you. Merry Christmas!
Years ago we had a thermal survey done on our house and it showed just how much heat we were loosing from our windows, n ow no one likes to throw hard earned money away so one of the first things we did was to upgrade the insulation in the loft. To be fair, the loft is usually an area most of us wouldn't hesitate to insulate but when it comes to our windows we often forget just how hard our curtains can work for us.
Curtains are an investment and often thought of as purely decorative to compliment the rest of the interior. I have plenty of clients, friends, and family who insist on a black-out lining in the bedroom to ensure a good nights sleep but when it comes to the rooms we entertain in such as the lounge and dining room most would opt for a standard lining. Unless, of course, they have already experienced the benefits of interlined curtains...it really is one of those things...once you've had them you wouldn't want to go back. Not only do they drape beautifully, add a really sumptuous quality to what might be an inexpensive face fabric but they really do keep the draughts at bay.
We have worked on some wonderful period properties over the years and the owners are always absolutely delighted with the difference the interlined curtains have made to how warm the property feels. On a personal note, we live in a 1930's property, we have an old reclaimed front door, it is absolutely beautiful so I can't bear to change it but it cracks every year and the stained glass is a single layer. The hall used to be freezing in the winter and because it's quite open you could feel the cold air upstairs too. Installing thick interlined wool curtains in this space alone has made such a difference to the overall warmth of the house. The space no longer has a regular stream of cold air flowing through from the door, instead, it looks beautifully dressed and feels warm and comforting.
We are offering all our clients a free upgrade when they order new curtains and blinds from us from 10th January - 17th February 2019. Please don't hesitate to message me or call with any queries.
More than 40 million monthly unique users nominated best home improvement and design professionals in the UK and around the world York-based interior design business Middlethorpe Interiors has been awarded the title Best Of Customer Service on Houzz ®, the leading platform for home renovation and design.
The company was only established by owner Ann Allan in 2010 but it has swiftly made a name for itself for bringing spaces to life with sophisticated design principles, clever space solutions and lashings of personality .
Ann said: ‘As designers, we all know how important customer service is. At Middlethorpe Interiors, it is of the utmost importance and just as highly regarded as the design we deliver. Through building long lasting relationships with our clients and our support teams we have gained a reputation for being approachable, professional, reliable with a can-do attitude. I believe it was that combination that helped us win this fantastic accolade.’
Middlethorpe was chosen by the more than 40 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community, from among more than one million active home building, home improvement and design industry professionals.
The Best Of Houzz is awarded annually in three categories: Design, Customer Service and Photography.
Customer Service honours are based on several factors, including the number and quality of client reviews a professional received in 2017.
It means the team can display the coveted Best Of Houzz 2018 badge their profiles, as a sign of their commitment to excellence. These badges help homeowners identify popular and top-rated home professionals on Houzz.
‘We’re so pleased to award Best of Houzz 2018 to this incredible group of talented and customer-focused professionals, including Middlethorpe Interiors,’ said Marcus Hartwall, managing director of Houzz UK and Ireland.
‘Each of these businesses was singled out for recognition by our community of homeowners and design enthusiasts for helping to turn their home improvement dreams into reality."
We specialise in full interiors services, working with bewilderingly talented artisans, designers and trades to create spaces you’ll never want to leave.
Designers always talk about being customer-focused but in our case that doesn’t just mean devising a scheme that suits your space and tastes. It also means we’re professionals with a can-do attitude and a reputation for reliability. We’ll communicate with you in your preferred style – and we’ll be in touch as agreed between us.
You won’t get an off-the-peg interior from Middlethorpe Interiors. Our look is your look. We have enough experience under our belts to take a fresh approach to each project, according to what you’ve got in mind. And we’ve got the contacts book to make it happen, too.
With solid architectural knowhow in our skillset, we think about spaces in a different way to many interior designers. But at the other end of the scale, our experience with fabrics means we have an unrivalled understanding of texture, drape and wear that’s often missing from finished schemes.
Whether you want us to take on a fresh project or you’ve had your fingers burned by being let down by another designer, you’ll want to know what’s in store when you commission us.
Here’s how we work:
It’s taken several deep, hot baths, a few healthy square meals and a number of early nights but we’ve now recovered from our wonderful, exhausting, inspirational trip to Decorex and the London Design Festival – and we’re bringing some incredible gems back to Yorkshire.
Our priorities were to discover new suppliers of lighting, occasional furniture and carpets – and we can’t wait to show off what we’ve found for you.
Having trawled trade fair Decorex, London’s prestigious Pimlico Road and exclusive Chelsea Harbour, we’ve chosen our edit to bring back to the heart of Yorkshire.
The Middlethorpe Interiors ethos is to source carefully, based on exquisite quality and a captivating story. We’re always curious on your behalf – we want to know everything about the materials, the design story and the artisans behind every finished piece. And we were thrilled with what we uncovered.
Although we don’t follow trends, it’s vital to be aware of the what’s going on in the wider design world. The main story we came away with for upcoming seasons was around texture. From natural metal to alabaster, from rock crystal to carrara marble, inspiring blends of texture and surface design were everywhere.
Now we’ve had time to process everything we saw, here’s our round up of the highlights.
