Decorating your house for Christmas, in three simple steps

Christmas comes but once a year – and yet every time it seems to creep up on you. This time, though, could be your chance to get the edge on the festive celebrations; and with a recent study suggesting that putting Christmas decorations up early can improve your mood, what more do you need? Still, decorating your house for Christmas is a creative endeavour, and it can be difficult to dream up new ideas. In this post, we’ll have a look at three steps to decorating your home in time for the holidays and the various ways in which you can employ them.

Choosing your tree(s)

There are many shapes and sizes of Christmas tree for you to choose from, as well as the decision of whether or not to purchase a live tree at all. Your selection will depend on the placement of the tree – or indeed trees, in your home. The dimensions and décor of a given space can make a world of difference with regards to how your tree looks. More traditional, mid-century living spaces would benefit from a live Christmas tree, and larger spaces could fit a well-sized Balsam Fir. If your living room is more contemporary in style, you might want to consider a smaller Scotch Pine – which comes with the added benefit of longer-lasting needles.

If you’re intending to go for a live Christmas tree in your living room this season, follow these steps to make sure you get the longest-lasting tree you can: firstly, take a needle and try to bend it between your fingers. A fresh pine’s needle would bend, whereas a fresh fir needle would snap. Now, tug on one of the branches, and see how many needles fall off. If many do, the tree isn’t fresh and may lose its vibrancy before the big day!

Interior decorations

Your first step when it comes to decorating inside for Christmas should be to remove any visible clutter. This is a great opportunity for a clear-out, after which you’ll be left with the perfect canvas for your creative vision. Start with tinsel across door frames and over to light fittings and consider using fairy lights as an alternative to secondary lighting for an extra festive twist.

Lights can add a unique festive touch to any home, and custom neon signs are a great option. Not only do they serve as a visual centrepiece, but they also embody the warmth and joy of Christmas. Furthermore, today’s custom neon sign services are efficient and convenient, with a quick turnaround from design to finished product, making it easy to illuminate your home in time for Christmas.

Custom neon signs can be created in the shape of classic Christmas elements like Santa Claus, elk, and snowflakes, and hung on your living room wall. This will add a touch of flair to your Christmas interior, creating a warm and memorable home this Christmas.

An inexpensive way to decorate your living space is to utilise your Christmas cards; there are many solutions for displaying Christmas cards prominently, whether you prop them up on a mantelpiece or windowsill, or create a garland out of twine and small pegs to hang over your fireplace.

Exterior decorations

Lastly, you come to the outside of your home. What you do here is hugely dependent on the kind of space you have available. With a full front garden at your disposal, you have an excellent opportunity to introduce Christmas-tree-style decorations to your garden trees and install Christmas dioramas on the grass. If you don’t have a garden, you can still exercise your creativity with a doorstep nativity scene or even a mini lighting-display above your front door.

Inflatables are an easy and outstanding way to decorate the outdoors of the house for Christmas as well. They come in all shapes and sizes, from Santa Claus to reindeer, and can be custom-made to unrepeatable specifications. What’s more, unique custom-made inflatables are easy to set up and take down, making them a great option for busy home-owners. Inflatables are also a great way to add some festive cheer to your yard or garden, and they can be enjoyed by both young and old. Whether you’re looking for a traditional Santa Claus or something more unique, inflatables are an ideal way to decorate your home for Christmas.

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Designer Desire: Anthony Burrill

In this week’s Auction Alert post, one of the lots we featured was a poster by Anthony Burrill. When I did a little research about him, I discovered that he hails from Littleborough – literally down the road from where we used to live in Todmorden!

Now based down south in rural Kent, Burrill (b. 1969) is a graphic artist known for his bold, typographic works. He attended Leeds Polytechnic and gained a masters from the London College of Art.

I’m not a great fan of the increasingly popular ‘inspirational quote’ type of wall art – but Burrill’s work is something else altogether. It’s clever in its design; powerful and intelligent without the schmaltziness.

I try to say the most, with the least and connect with people through words…

I absolutely love his striking public art piece in Leeds city centre, alongside the River Aire (shown at the top of the montage above); it’s a massive 88^ft high, a gable end emblazoned with his “YOU&ME ME&YOU. Have a watch of this bit of film where he talks about the 2020 project.

YOU&ME and ME&YOU from MANIAC on Vimeo.

Buy his work at Jealous, Nelly Duff, Print Club London and on Burrill’s own website.

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Additional image credit:
Chris Spencer-Payne

Price points: Compact sofa beds

One of our downstairs rooms, originally the parlour, isn’t working for us quite as it should. Its function now is more akin to a library or snug. Currently, we have it furnished with bookshelves, specimen table, industrial drawers and two antique leather sofas.

We want to make it a more adaptable and comfortable space in which to spend time. We’ve been looking at the range of grey compact sofa beds available to buy. It’s probably the smallest room in the house, so getting a sofa / occasional double bed in there is a hard ask.

The room, wall-to-wall, measures about 429cm x 193cm. That means that if you extend the sofa out to form the bed along the length of the room – as would seem obvious from the dimensions – it would block both of the doors in/out of the room. Therefore, the sofa bed will have to pull out from the opposite direction – i.e. either 90º clockwise or anticlockwise. Consequently, the length of the bed can’t extend further than the aforementioned 193cm.

As you can see from the measurements we’ve included for each of the models, two of the three compact sofa beds that we’ve featured today extend beyond that ‘magic 193’. The Kip version is a mere centimetre out, with the ALGO, it’s a whole 5cm. I’d think that the mattress of the former could easily be wedged in snugly; the latter… perhaps not. Besides, as we have a guest double bedroom, whatever sofa bed we decide on will only be used as a bed on the rare occasion that we have more than two people staying overnight.

Freya folding sofa bed, grey: £250.00, Homebase
Sofa: (h)80cm x (w)120cm x (d)90cm
Bed: (h)42cm x (w)120cm x (l)190cm
ALGO 2-seater small double folding sofa bed with cushion, grey fabric: £319.99, Daals
Sofa: (h)88cm x (w)123cm x (d)88cm
Bed: (h)31cm x (w)123cm x (l)198cm
John Lewis & Partners Kip small double sofa bed, Riley Storm: £399.20, John Lewis
Sofa: (h)70cm x (w)120cm x (d)84cm
Bed: (h)70cm x (w)120cm x (l)194cm

shop compact sofa beds

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Prices & links correct at time of publication.

John Lewis & Partners Kip small double sofa bed, Riley Storm
£399.20

ALGO 2-seater small double folding sofa bed with cushion, grey fabric
£319.99