Live Breathe Decor

Well today is the first day of that month, and Christmas wreaths are going up on front doors (including ours) all around our neighbourhood. I have to say, it’s not just my kids who get excited about the decorations everyone puts up in and outside their houses! I love everything about Christmas; the traditional hymns, going to church and visiting the Nativity display, time with family, the cooking, shopping for and giving presents, the carols, and of course, the decorating! This year I am really into a cosy, traditional look. I haven’t actually done this at home but I have this fantasy Christmas room in my head that to be would be perfect this year. It has warm brown/grey walls (I think of the colour as milk chocolate), big comfy armchairs, maybe French in style with some dark timber frames, upholstered in white and scattered in subtly patterned velvet cushions in reds and golds. The tree in my fantasy room is huge, twinkling with lots of lights, and filling the room with that wonderful real tree smell. Shining silver trays laden with mercury glass tealights, crystal goblets and bowls of treats sit atop gleaming antique tables and squashy ottomans. Get the picture? Very cosy and enveloping, very traditional.

My favourite two magazines for Christmas spreads are Homes & Gardens (UK) and Traditional Home (did I mention this before?). This room (above) was in Homes & Gardens a few years ago (though I think this picture may be from House & Home) and I wish I had pictures of the rest of it! It had that moth-grey colour on the walls, lots of jewel colours and raspberry in the decorating mixed with greenery, and I remember coming back to it again and again that year!

I really went off red for Christmas and really in general a few years ago, but now I am loving it! It seems to me (this year at least) that no other colour quite conveys that festive feeling..

You may have seen this home in Traditional Home mag a couple of years ago (above). It was one of my favourite Christmas issues ever, and though I’ve searched through my magazine collection I can’t find it! I was obsessed with the architecture of the home and the French-style decor.