Laurence decorating with his daughters Cecile (left) and Hermione (right)
Christmas is the perfect excuse to glam up your home, make sure you do it the chic way with Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen’s guide to decorating
The tree
There are some fabulously convincing fake Christmas trees out there these days but you can’t beat the traditional smell of a spruce tree, even if they a little more high maintenance. If I ever were to go for a fake tree I would go for one that really looked fake, a fantasy tree in a very unnatural colour scheme. But for those who like to keep it real, buy a tree like a Norwegian spruce, which has broad grey green leaves that are less prone to dropping in central heating and generally speaking are a better shape and look a bit bushier. They might be more expensive but they save wear and tear on the hoover, and if you stand them in water they’ll stay fresh for at least two and a half weeks.
Tone it down
I like the idea of pastels at Christmas; it can prevent the decorations from being too heavy and too dominating. I remember interviewing an expert on Feng Shui a few years ago interviewing who believed that because we use so much red and green at Christmas it disturbs the flow of the chi and caused fights in the family – nothing to do with the booze of course! In a way I suppose the idea of bringing in two strong mutually aggressive colours (don’t forget that red is the opposite of green and vice versa) can be a bit of a shock to the system for a family that spends most of the year feeling bashful in beige.
Outdoors inside
I often advise people to bring a bit of spring into their Christmas decorating
I love it when the Christmas table includes fresh cut flowers or even better, growing bulbs like hyacinths or narcissus, which can provide a sense of the great outdoors. I was very interested to see that a lot of the shops this year have decided to back quite spring-like colours as this seasonal season’s must have decorations.
Make your own
You can have a lot of fun making your own Christmas decorations. Glitter glue or a product cerne relief can both be used piped like icing – they harden to a tough raised finish and stick to just about anything. Try spraying evergreen or dry foliage like holly honesty or dried bulrushes; craft shops have a huge range of brightly coloured spray paints that work perfectly. Twisted willow sprayed an orangey red can look like coral and looks gorgeous in the corner of a room. And why not revisit paper chains? Instead of using plain strips of gummed paper, brightly coloured patterned papers or wallpapers can be cut to the right size and glued together to make the links in the chain.
Be fruitful
With feasting in mind, never forget that these days we take for granted the fact that we have exotic fruit from all around the world in our supermarkets. There are plenty of us who can remember that the highlight of the Christmas stocking was a satsuma. With this in mind I love using fruit amongst flowers as part of the Christmas decorations. There are plenty of artificial garlands you can find that have fake fruit incorporated amongst the foliage and I think it gives a Christmas scene a lovely historical lushness that really strikes a Christmassy cord. My wife, Jackie, often makes table centres with fruit and flowers which she crystallises with sugar – not only do they look sensational, they are well worth a nibble between courses!
Laurence decorating with his daughters Cecile (left) and Hermione (right)
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