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christmas

Tis the season to be jolly and decorate your home. But sometimes, we know you don’t just want to do the same as last year. Sometimes, it’s fun to try something different.

If you’re feeling the need to try a new trend, or begin a fresh family Christmas tradition for your home, we’ve got five of the latest decorative styles to hit the UK this 2017. Take a look and see if you see anything that could really give your home that extra Christmassy something you’ve been searching for!

“Christmas is a great time to add some sophistication to your home with the perfect Christmas decorative display,” said Pimlico estate agent, Andrew Reeves. “Or, if you want to be a little more playful, then you could go down that décor route, if you prefer. Pretty much anything goes, as long as it makes you happy and helps your Christmas a special one.”

A Peruvian twist

Add some Peruvian flair to your Christmas décor this year, with lots of animals and bright colours, pom poms and fun. It might be a little different from your typical colour co-ordinated tree and matching ornaments. But, there’s just something really fun about just choosing your favourite colours and animals to change up your usual Christmas theme.
peruvian decor

Light it up

Few of us are strangers to Christmas lights. But, how about adding some light in a slightly different way? Instead of the typical string lights with different shaped bulbs, you could opt to light up a favourite scene or corner with some hidden lighting. Illuminate favourite Christmas ornaments with some discreet lighting behind them. Light and shadow boxes are different options, too.

“Lights are always popular at Christmas, so add a new element to your lights display this year,” said Fulham estate agent, Lawsons & Daughters. “Illuminations are a traditional part of Christmas, but by presenting it in a different way, you’re sure to add some lovely touches to your home”.
decor and lights

Have a retro Christmas?

Christmas in the 70s and 80s was a shiny experience, full of tinsel. If there’s no such thing as too much tinsel for you, then you’ll be pleased to hear its making a big come back! Go tinsel crazy and drape that shiny stuff everywhere! Your nod to nostalgia will be fun for you and your family too!
retro christmas decor

Metallic magic

If you love the metallic trend that’s current interior design favourite, you’ll be pleased to hear tis ready to make an appearance at Christmas too. Metallic colours and Christmas decorations abound in 2017, so why not use it as an excuse to buy even more fabulous new decorative items? From different metallic shades for baubles, to some show stopping lighting options, you can have a very on trend Christmas with this theme.
metallic ornaments

Rustic and ribbons

For those of you who prefer something a little more rustic, there’s plenty out there for you, too. Dress your real Christmas tree up with lots of natural wooden ornaments in the shapes of hearts and stars. Then, top it all of with some bows made from gingham ribbon! It’s a lovely look that suits every kind of home regardless of the styling elsewhere.
wooden ornaments

“Whether decorating for Christmas is done with military precision or a dash of anything goes, it’s a time of year to be happy and enjoy your home,” said Proskips. “So, choose items and colours you love to ensure you love the finished Christmas decorative article, this year.”

We spend joyful time with our family and friends during holidays, but that seasonal shine can disappear quickly when we face with the consequences: house cleaning after guests leave, after removing decorations and all other traces of holidays. Restoring everything to its original state and taking your home back can be a difficult task, but we have a few smart tips that will help you.

Cleaning Up After ChristmasImage credit

Christmas tree

Carefully remove the tree, if it is not a natural, place it in its packaging. Nothing says Christmas is over like an empty corner where your Christmas tree used to be; so fill that place with a lamp or a plant. Wrap New Year’s lights around the empty paper towel tube, in order to prevent them to get tangled. Wrap the cord around the tube, and put the plug inside it. If you threw away original boxes for your Christmas tree ornaments, you can put them in used cardboard boxes. Place layers of soft paper or some other material between ornaments to avoid damage.

Cleaning Up After Christmas - Christmas treeImage credit 

Carpet or furniture stains

Check your carpets and furniture, there might be stains on them. The longer they stay, the harder it will be to remove them. If you notice stains, apply a mixture of warm water and a mild dishwashing liquid on them. Cover the stain with a paper towel and continue to spray that mixture and pat with paper on the stain until it is removed. Rinse the spot with clean water, wipe it again and let it dry.

Cleaning Up After ChristmasImage credit

Odors

Unpleasant odors are necessity after holidays. If you are a smoker or you had guests who smoke, you know how unpleasant odor cigarettes can leave. If your house smells like an ashtray, you need to do something about that. One way to remove the odors is to pour vinegar in a small bowl and place it in a less visible place, because vinegar has the power to absorb odors.

Sometimes odors are coming from the drain of the sink. When this happens, put the baking soda down the drain, and pour alcohol vinegar over it. This mixture will make foam. Leave it to react for ten minutes and pour boiling water into the drain to rinse any accumulated dirt.

Cleaning Up After ChristmasImage credit

Fingerprints on stainless steel

Home Appliances made of stainless steel shine nicely, but this material is an excellent surface for fingertips and other visible marks. To quickly clean the stains and fingertips from your stainless steel fridge or sink, use the olive oil. Apply small amount of olive oil on the clean rug and go over the fingertips and other marks, you will be surprised. It is a Christmas miracle!

Play the music

House cleaning can be tedious. You will be surprised how much faster cleaning goes if you are in a good mood. Play your favorite music (preferably one that has an energetic fast pace) and get to work.

Cleaning Up After ChristmasImage credit

Let your children help you

Kids of all ages can help with household chores. You should make a list and share all duties from picking up the toys to a garbage disposal.

When you remove all traces of holidays from your home, reward the whole family with a dinner (in a restaurant of course, cause you don’t need more cleaning) or go to the movies, it’s completely ap to you.

There’s something magical about Christmas that makes us want to create our own decorations, and when we have a specific theme in mind, we want to have decorations that match that theme perfectly. That’s why DIY Christmas decor and decorations are extremely popular right now, and we’ve rounded up 5 of the easiest DIY Christmas projects.

Frosty Mason Jar Lanterns

frosted candle votivesSource: Bored Bean

There are two ways to achieve a wonderfully festive frosted effect for your vases, candle votives, and mason jars. The first is to use faux snow and the second is to use epsom salt. Both require Mod Podge to adhere the frost to the glass. The faux snow creates more of a frosty look while the epsom salt creates more of an icy effect. Both ways look stunning and are super simple to create.

Twinkling Christmas Canvas Art

twinkling canvas artSource: Brass and Whatnots

Using LED lights to brighten up canvas art is a wildly trending DIY project right now. Why not take advantage of all the free tutorials and create your own Christmas version? You can have your twinkling canvas art say anything you want. From a meaningful line in your favorite Christmas carol to a family motto, your festive imagination is the limit.

Glitter Christmas Light Magnets

glittery Christmas light magnetsSource: A Diamond in the Stuff

In many homes, refrigerators lack the holiday spirit. Instead of having a bland fridge this year, dress it up with these incredibly easy and cute glittery Christmas light magnets. Use them to display your Christmas cards on your fridge or to keep your Christmas dinner shopping list close at hand.

Adorable Sock Snowmen

adorable sock snowmenSource: Creative Me Inspired You

When you’re looking for an irresitably adorable DIY Christmas decoration, make these super simple sock snowmen. These soft and cuddly snowmen are fantastic Christmas decorations for a kid’s room, on your mantel, or just about anywhere in your home. If you have a guest staying with you for the holidays, put one of these snowmen on a pillow so your guest will feel comfortable and welcome.

DIY Recycled Christmas Window

recycled Christmas windowSource: Shimelle

For a personalized, colorful, and creative way to display your holiday spirit, make your own Christmas window out of a recycled window frame. Use photos of your friends and family and cute out tiny trees or snowflakes from colorful scrapbook paper. Then display it on your mantel or hang it on a wall for everyone to see.

 

Article written by Kelly Mahan, also a writer for Homeyou.com, a company that connects homeowners to reliable, affordable and professional contractors for their home improvement projects. Check more on Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

It’s that jolliest time of the year again. And, as always, it’s time to decorate your home, but you think you’ve used up all your ideas last year? Luckily, we’ve got quite a few fresh ones straight from the fountain of ideas so that you can bring the true spirit of holidays and set your mood for enjoyment.

EXPERIMENT WITH COLOURS

If, like the rest of us, you can’t resist buying new baubles each Christmas, then, like the rest of us as well, you’ve made quite a significant pile of them in your attic. So, try to organise them by colours. Try something different this year – use only one colour, or combine two – for example, something you’ve never tried before, like green and brown, pink and purple, or white and red. Or, you can decide to use classic colours – green and red.

ALT IS IN

If you feel innovative, then you will agree that a Christmas tree needn’t be a real tree at all. You can make your own tree with the right resources. For example, put the lights on the wall in the shape of a Christmas tree. Another easy solution can be to arrange decorations inside your bookshelf in the shape of a tree. Or, pin them to a pinboard. Instead of baubles, you can try with big buttons. An eco-friendly solution can be to find a cardboard or some old shelf and cut it out in the shape of a tree and then decorate it, matching it with the rest of your less-is-more assembly.

WREATH

This year, you can put your Christmas wreath not only on the front door, but onto the tree as well – and let it be the only decoration you’ll have. Or, you can try to sew one from buttons and cloth. It won’t even take time, and it sure will be original!

DECORATIONS

Instead of buying new baubles – go to a park and collect pinecones. If you’re not thrilled with the idea of putting brown pinecones, you can paint them and give them a modern look. See how they will look hanging off a chandelier, curtain or a lamp. Wrap up your couch pillow or coffee table so that it looks like a present, or just put bows and ribbons to give your pillow a designer look.

LIGHTS

This year, you can dress your tree with lights only. But, make sure to use a number of lights, because you don’t want your tree to look like bare bones. Or, dress your wall with hanging lights. Make it shine! You can try dressing the handrail with lights only. But, watch out when you’re going up or down stairs – you don’t want to pull them out!

COMBINE

Another creative thing you can do is to put ornaments into a bowl and give your dining room another touch of Christmas. Or, you can put them into candlesticks and arrange them at the corner of a room. Don’t be afraid to experiment!

We hope that these few tips will indeed add some festive spirit to your home, so that you can relax and dress your finery and celebrate the upcoming holidays in a cosy atmosphere.

Christmas is just around the corner, the sheets form the little Advent calendar started falling of one by one, and everywhere you go the atmosphere is jolly with Frank Sinatra’s tunes turning into ear bugs and colorful festive decorations hanging all around.

The time has come to bring out the wrapping papers and start thinking about gifts for our loved ones, but first you have to bring a bit of that festive feeling back to your home.

With so many ideas on the internet, and inspired by your own creativity, there are so many things to choose from, a lot of which you can even make yourself, or turn it into a fun thing to do with your friends and loved ones.

A Welcoming Token

image credit: deckthehalls-christmas.blogspot.com
image credit: deckthehalls-christmas.blogspot.com

 

E beautiful wreath hung on your door will be the first thing people see once they come to your front door. Wreaths are usually made of evergreens, and thus symbolize strength.

However, it is possible to make a wreath any way you like it, and how it best fits the rest of your decorations so let your imagination run wild- get out your pine tree branches, garlands, lights and other decorations and put them into a unique combination to welcome your guests.

 

Stunning Garlands

image credit: onsuttonplace.com
image credit: onsuttonplace.com

 

Decorate the side of your staircase or the edges of your fireplace with a simple and beautiful garland made out of evergreens. Of course, you can choose whatever material you want, but the evergreens will give it a natural feeling.

Wrap some lights and red berries around it, or even hang a few ornaments, the beauty with this is that you can do it any way you like. It’s a decoration that will bring a lot of the Christmas spirit to your home without being crazy expensive.

 

 

Just a Few Twigs and Branches

image credit: save-on-crafts.com
image credit: save-on-crafts.com

 

This is one of the most simple and yet effective ways to put up small decorations in your house. Pick up some branches from outside and decorate them. They can be put in a vase like a centerpiece or laid down around some candles and other Christmas decorations.

The key is to make the branches look like they are icy. Sparsely paint your branches with white paint, glue on them and cover them transparent beads, a mixture of silver glitter and white flakes, and you can even put on a few pearls if you feel fancy.

Add a few sparkly snowflakes or a sparkly tree ornament and you have a stunning piece in no time.

 

 

Heartwarming Ornaments

image credit: etsy.com
image credit: etsy.com

 

There are so many easy, inexpensive and creative DIY tutorials for tree ornaments that it’s even hard to choose which one you want to make first. If you’re a crafty person and you want to make some of these beauties for yourself or your friends, just buy a pack of clear transparent ornaments and start decorating.

From glitter to salt and even putting cute messages in them, these will be fun to make and beautiful to look at when they start twirling around on the branches of your tree.

 

 

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow…

image credit: lovethispic.com
image credit: lovethispic.com

 

Ever since we were kids, snow globes were one of the cutest and most Christmassy things we could imagine. The constant snow twirling in the liquid inside the globe made it a wonderland for our little eyes. But beautiful decorations should not be reserved just for the young ones.

Make a little DIY project with your kids and play around making some snow globes.

It’s painfully easy and the results are stunning. You could use them as décor or for gifts!

 

 

Hang a Shining Star up on the Highest Bar…

image credit: sheknows.com
image credit: sheknows.com

 

… and have yourself a merry little Christmas night…