Inspiration

Birdie's Quick Fixes For Christmas

28th November 2022

Tablescaping Tips

When it comes to decorating your house for Christmas, I find creating a memorable tablescape the most enjoyable. It is such a special time and there is so much satisfaction in dressing up your table to mark an occasion. Bring out your most loved and special tableware and glasses and add in subtle seasonal touches to make the scheme sing. Here I have carried a Japanese theme through the table settings with the trailing Peony tablecloth and Shashiko stitching of the linens. I find that the mix of the celadon greens and pinks in the tablecloth create an interesting contrast with the traditional greenery in the decoration and give the table another dimension.

Tablecloths are an easy win when it comes to dressing a table for an occasion and can quickly take your scheme from every day to elevated. Lay your tablecloth with coordinating rather than matching linens and stacks of mismatched ceramics for an interesting but harmonious look.

An abundance of seasonal foliage and candles of varying heights and colours are great centerpieces for a table all year round, but work particularly well at Christmas. Opt for berries and eucalyptus rather than holly for a more contemporary centerpiece and weave it through a scattering of candlesticks. For a smart, cohesive look, carry the colours used on your table throughout the whole room as a visual thread - colours in the table linens might reflect the paint colour on the walls and floral arrangements could pick out the tones of a key painting.

Dressing A Mantelpiece

Dressing your mantelpiece is a fun and easy win for injecting Christmas spirit into your interior. Begin by laying down a garland of eucalyptus or holly (or any foliage that you can forage from your garden!) and add berries or pine cones. Not only will this add visual impact, but it will also bring a wonderful, seasonal scent to the room. Intersperse your garland with candlesticks - adding candles to a mantle piece is something I wouldn’t do all year round and so it feels particularly special and festive at Christmas. Use candlesticks in coordinating tones and varying heights to create visual balance. There is nothing more inviting than a candlelit room so this is a quick fix for creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere for your family and friends to enjoy!

A Seasonal Sitting Room

When it comes to styling your home for Christmas, sometimes less is more - try to avoid making every room an extension of your Christmas tree! In a sitting room, the main focus I feel should be on the comfort and luxury created through sumptuous soft furnishings and low-level lighting. Soft textures, rich colours and woven textiles are perfect for this time of year and will add warmth and depth to your interior while giving your room a totally layered and interesting look. Here I have interspersed cushions in earthy-tones with velvets in bold seasonal colours. Remember to work with your existing scheme when adding in layers of print and pattern - draw out the key colours in your room and use these in varying tones and textures, combining soft hues with the occasional pop of colour. Aim for balanced asymmetry in your arrangements and don’t be afraid to mix patterns!

Sitting rooms are perhaps the most-used room in a house, particularly in the winter months, so aim to create a cocooning atmosphere where you can spend long, relaxing and peaceful evenings. Well-chosen lighting is essential to achieving this - create a warm, welcoming ambience with a combination of table lamps and wall lights rather than overhead lighting. Play with coordinating patterns in your lampshades and mix these with some neutral shades for interest.

Finally, complete your seasonal switch up with a Christmas flower arrangement on a coffee or console table. For a dramatic seasonal look, use an abundance of pine, eucalyptus, berries and thistle or for a more pared-back rustic arrangement try hazel branches or dried hydrangeas. Displays like these are great for creating a subtle festive feel whilst bringing in a touch of nature, and making use of what you’ve got in the garden!

Take a Bow

This Christmas, we’re decorating our tree with some hand-tied bows carefully wrapped around the spreading branches. For best effect, choose a wide wired ribbon that will create a good structure as too small a ribbon can look fussy. Palette-wise, you should consider how it co-ordinates with the colours of your room. A solid colour is smart but also a stripe can look wonderful against evergreen foliage.

For more festive stripes, consider adding our Striped Stool, designed in collaboration with style guru Sarah Corbett-Winder, to your sitting room. This stunning piece is not only a useful spot for placing trays of drinks and Christmas goodies but is also perfect as extra seating. For cosying up with a Christmas film, we recommend our new Striped Knitted Throw or a classic Crochet Throw for ultimate comfort!

Seasonal Simplicity

An effortless and understated way to bring festive colour and form to your tablescape is to use slices of candied oranges or apples, lemons and limes mixed up with whole spices like star anise and dried chillies. You could also cut up fir branches and combine them with pinecones and a few nuts in their shells for added texture. Simply dot these in clusters along your table as part of your Christmas tablescape. Remember to choose special table linens that will make the scene sing, like our Red Paisley Tablecloth mixed, rather than matched, with our sets of four Green Paisley Napkins and Colaba Woven Stripe Napkins.

New Traditions

We love a fresh take on a Christmas tradition, and the velvet paperchain is no exception. In fact, we might even argue that it’s an improvement on the original as we still remember how quickly the paper ones would come unstuck or get torn. This new look is all over social media this season with many creative accounts showing you how easily it is achieved, like @mother_of_pearl_handmade. Our tip would be to choose at least three different colours of velvets for that fun, Christmas look.

If you love the rich hues and soft texture of velvet, then why not introduce this textile into your room scheme? Our wonderful Paisley Embroidered Velvet Cushion comes in jewel-like shades of red, green and blue that are sure to make your sofa or bed feel extra special this winter.

Made by Hand

Every December we bake gingerbread biscuits for the Christmas tree. These edible decorations add a wonderful handmade look to your tree and you can decorate them differently every year - especially if you get family and friends to do the icing. We rely on Nigella Lawson’s recipe year after year – and suspect that you will too.

Fans of our collections will be familiar with our love for all things handmade. This season we’re especially proud of our artisan woven Paisley Hand Knotted Rug - it will elevate any room being full of colour and soft underfoot. Our set of three Mendong Trays are handmade from grasses in Java, which are then dyed and woven to cover these charming trays - the perfect set for cocktail hour!! To add an organic touch to your table choose a cluster of San Pedro Glazed Candlesticks and our hand-carved Banda Wooden Cutlery Set.

Artfully Arranged

While a fir tree may be the foundation of Christmas decorating, it is the holly, ivy and other seasonal greenery and flowers we layer throughout our home that make it feel most festive. Whether you’re creating a centrepiece for a dining table, an arrangement for a mantlepiece or something special for your hallway, think about structure and leaf shape as there are fewer flowers to work with at this time of year. We especially love the versatility of eucalyptus and the way its silvery leaves subtly scent a room. Remember that rosemary can be a wonderful addition and also has an amazing smell. Use early hyacinths to add pops of colour or a trio of amaryllis for drama. For the centre of your dining table, our Dilari Woven Seagrass Vase is the perfect size for creating a statement arrangement and our Small Maypole Vases will look charming either end of your mantlepiece. Always make a small welcoming arrangement for your guestrooms - our Small String Vases are perfect for this!

We hope you will also enjoy the run up to Christmas and getting your home ready to welcome family and friends.

Here at Birdie HQ we love a patterned wallpaper but we also appreciate how four walls of it can feel a bit much. This is where a well-chosen paint comes into its own. For this scheme we combined the small-scale geometric tile pattern of our Sintra wallpaper with the deep calming

tones of our Wissey paint. The pair work wonderfully together creating a space that feels layered and considered. A bolder style such as this sits well with plainer pieces like our Abacus Floor Lamp and a treasured antique like this French 1970s Ulphostered Armchair, helping to bring out their sculptural qualities. Just a few judicious pops of pattern like our Crewel Work Cushion and the paintings of Lucy Innes Williams are all that is needed to complete the look.

Handy hint: When choosing your paint colours remember to consider how they will look against your flooring. For a more seamless look you may want to paint your walls and skirting boards the same colour. This works well in smaller spaces where you want to maximise the sense of space. However painting the skirting boards a different colour can be useful for balancing the transition from walls to floor – and adds an extra layer of interest to your scheme.

Gallery walls

If you own a very special piece of art, why not let it lead your paint scheme? Remember, you do not require clinically white walls to show pictures at their best. All you need is a sensitive eye and some thought as to what colours speak to you in the work and how they might translate into your room. This will ensure that your décor is complimenting not competing with your art. In our dining room, a rather splendid print by Keith Haring inspired our choice of Thurne for the richly painted dado and wainscoting, while we used Burn for the walls to allow the artwork space to breathe. Thurne’s bold red colour continues as an accent in the scheme from our Pumpkin Candlesticks and Ladder Stripe Napkins to our colourful Ziggurat Kilim Rug which provides a wonderful grounding for the space.

Handy hint: When your project is complete, be sure to transfer any small paint leftovers into a jam jar. This will come in very useful for touching up any future bumps or scrapes in the paintwork – and the paint will keep better as there is less air in the jar than the original tin. Should you find that you have a lot of paint left over, consider using it to paint the inside of a cupboard or an old piece of furniture that would appreciate the boost.

Which paint colour best suits my style?

Whether you’re drawn to soft, timeless neutrals or rich, characterful hues, our new paint collection has been carefully curated to bring warmth, depth, and individuality to your home. Each shade has been thoughtfully blended in collaboration with Fenwick and Tillbrook to harmonise beautifully with our furniture, lighting, and accessories - making it easy to create a cohesive and inspiring interior.

From grounding dark tones to uplifting pale shades, these paints offer endless possibilities to refresh and transform your home. Explore the collection today and discover the perfect colour to complement your style - available exclusively from Birdie Fortescue.