Wednesday 27 November 2013

A Tartan Christmas

OK, I cheated. I was going to add tartan (that's plaid to any Americans out there) as a paragraph on my previous Retro Decorator post, because I have a strangely vivid memory of an old copy of House and Garden of my mums that showed a table festooned in green tartan for one Christmas issue. Rather irritatingly, I don't seem to have the magazine in question amongst my collection, so you'll have to use your imaginations.

The thing is, when I then went in search of tartan images for that 80s Christmas post, I soon discovered that, actually, tartan is still also quite "now", although it's definitely more red than green these days, which of course makes it an excellent accompaniment to a red and white Christmas scheme.





There's something particularly cosy and comforting about these schemes at this time of year, especially in the bedroom that makes me want to snuggle down in some flannel!


Friday 22 November 2013

The Retro Decorator - 80s Christmas

I've tried to avoid the C word for as long as I possibly could, I really have, but with little more than a month to go I've finally cracked.

It's been way too long since I did a Retro Decorator post, and I stumbled across this beauty on tumblr the other day that for me summed up what I think of when I think of 1980s Christmases:

80s Christmas
via Allthingsshabbyandbeautiful

I'm not even 100% sure it is from the 1980s, but a quick search through my magazine back catalogue couldn't come up with anything better, so we'll stick with this. However, just in case you aren't convinced, here's another reminder of the classic 1980s Christmas:





So, what will you need if you perhaps feel a desperate hankering to recreate your childhood?

1) TINSEL! And plenty of it. It seems to have fallen out of fashion in some circles, where a more pared-down, Scandinavian Christmas look of wooden decorations is de rigeur, but you can still find plenty of it around on the high street.

By Londonsista (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Which brings me on to...

2) Multi-coloured decorations. If you're buying tinsel, don't just stick to one, or maybe two colours. The 80s tree (as demonstrated so beautifully by George Michael) was a riot of different colours - the brighter, the better. That also goes for any non-tinselly stuff you may be adding:

Zellaby on Flickr
3) Foil garlands. A bit like tinsel, but for the room, rather than just the tree. Mr Fantasy Decorator still has a number of these "original" beauties that we argue over every year ("It's a family heirloom!" "It's not, it kitsch tat!" etc etc) before they get banished to the kids playroom where I hope nobody thinks I had anything to do with them. I didn't actually realise you could still buy them...:

Poundland

Finally, if you're going to enjoy an 80s Christmas, make sure you dress for the occasion, won't you? Because if there is one thing that appears to be back with a vengeance this year, it's the Christmas Jumper...


ASOS


Tuesday 12 November 2013

Painted floor love

The problem with having relatively recently painted our bathroom floor is that of course now I'm itching to do the same with the varnished floorboards in all our other rooms! As I don't think that's happening for a while, I'm drooling over other people's instead!

Whilst I'm definitely in love with the bright cleanliness of white floorboards, I couldn't help falling in love with these stripey ones in a cute children's bedroom:

House to Home

...and how funky is this red kitchen floor?



...although tempting as they are, I just love the versatility of white as a base for adding pops of colour:

via Emmeline blog

...plus they still look great in a more neutral/all-white palette:


via Pinterest


Now where did I put my paintbrush...?

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