Christmas Tips

It’s nearly time to dress the tree and your home for the festive season. Homespun guru Kirstie Allsopp and decor experts share their seasonal style tips with Gabrielle Fagan

Kirstie Allsopp’s rushing around thinking about robins, baubles, tinsel and all sorts of Christmas things. While the rest of us probably end up in a last-minute rush untangling decorations and checking the fairy lights, the property and home expert has impressively already chosen her colour theme and even produced a hand-made Robin decoration.

“It’s really early I know, and not like me,” she says with an apologetic smile. “Normally, it’s well into December before I get myself organised, but I’ve been able to ‘cheat’ this year as I’ve done bits and pieces over the last few months as part of my work.”

Allsopp’s been able to steal a march on the rest of us as some of her projects for her latest Channel Four TV series, Kirstie’s Handmade Britain, have been Christmas-focused.

“I’ve always had the children’s home-made decorations and now I’m going to have my own — I’m hoping to make a few more robins if I have time. It gives the tree a lovely personal feel,” she says.

It will be a getaway Christmas for the presenter, who’s leaving London and spending the festive season in her family holiday home in Devon, with her partner, Ben Andersen, their two sons, Bay, five, and Oscar, three, and Andersen’s sons from his previous marriage, Orion 11, and Hal, eight.

“We can have an enormous real tree there, which Ben staggers home with and then puts up with me shouting instructions.

“The boys and I have a great time choosing what to go on it,” she says with a beam.

“I absolutely love decorations and put a lot of time into making the whole house look really festive. I’m certainly not a puritan about the ‘look’ — honestly, you can’t have too much colour and sparkle,” she says.

Allsopp says there’s no need to stress about seasonal decor. “It’s a time of year when you can let your imagination go wild. If you’re struggling on a colour theme, simply pick the colour which features on most of your baubles.

“There are no taste rules in my book. The only bad tree is an undecorated tree,” she says.

“I even indulged my love of decorations last year by buying some lovely new baubles and Christmas decorations for myself, and giving some away as gifts, which was really popular.”

Create a sparkling festive setting by following decor tips from Kirstie and some top interior experts.

KIRSTIE’S HOME-MADE CHRISTMAS

“My favourite theme this year is red and white, which has a country-Scandinavian feel,” says Allsopp, who demonstrates how to make decorations and garlands on a video for B&Q.

“I like the tree and the table to have the same colours, and find that lots of greenery — holly and ivy — is a calming, natural contrast to the fussy detail of decorations.

“Get a hand-made look with felt embroidered decorations or painted wooden ones, and add a traditional touch with tiny robins and reindeer.

“I also love tinsel for instant sparkle. You can wrap it along stair rails, or use it to tie a name label to each chair,” she adds.

She dresses her table with a garland of holly and ivy down the centre, entwined around large silver and glass candlesticks, and intersperses tubs of red poinsettias. White napkins embroidered with red Christmas trees are a finishing touch.

GET THE LOOK

Red Robins, from £12 each, by Indigo & Rose; Red paper bells and globes, from £1.50 each, from RE; Red Tin tealight holders with a heart detail, £2.99, from The Con

temporary Home; 2m LED Tinsel Garland, £7, from B&Q. Tesco & Sainsbury’s have a glorious selection of red and white decorations, too.

Kirstie Allsopp’s guide to making Christmas decorations and garlands are on YouTube. Search for ‘Kirstie Allsopp’ and ‘B&Q’

WHITE WONDERLAND

“White and silver, with green foliage, is my favourite theme this year,” says Chrissie Rucker, founder of The White Company.

“I like the home to look magical and use trails of greenery intertwined with baubles and fairy lights for the mantelpiece, the stair bannisters and on the hall table.

“As well as decorating the tree, this year I’m using burnished silver and vintage-style glass decorations. I thread two or three baubles on to a pretty ribbon and hang it in front of windows, mirrors and pictures, and from door and cupboard handles.

“Wreaths are so versatile and I often hang one over the dining table, or lay one flat and fill it with three big white pillar candles.”

Her table decoration is classic and simple: A runner down the centre and a parade of tealights in glass holders, mixed with varying sizes of glass candlesticks, as well as glass vases filled with white roses and hyacinths.

GET THE LOOK

Glass 2-Ball Pillar Candle Holder, £35; Frosted Leaf Wreath, £65, and Battery Operated LED Pin Lights, £15; box of four ceramic heart-shaped tealights, £18, all from The White Company. Make a statement with Marks & Spencer’s splendid silver Stag Tealight Holder, £125, available now in store and online late November; and Next’s Snowy Paper Tree, £50, will also look stunning in any contemporary home.

VERY BERRY CHRISTMAS

“This year’s hippest Christmas look is all about going bold with vibrant berry shades,” says Isobel McKenzie-Price, editorial director of Ideal Home magazine.

“Pink-toned colours like raspberry, grape, blackcurrant and magenta have been the best-selling shades in decorating for the past couple of years, so it’s no surprise that they’ve now become the hottest look for the festive season.”

Zingy raspberry and rich, plummy purples will give decorations a contemporary edge, she says, especially if they’re mixed with bronze or gold accessories to add depth.

“For impact, choose a plum or grey tree, and go for a few super-sized statement decorations, rather than a mass of tiny baubles. Mix in gold baubles with berry shades for a really jewelled vintage look.”

For a professional stylist’s effect, she advises using a selection of baubles in complementing hues, starting with paler pinks and shading up to deeper purples.

“Also, work with threes for festive drama — hang a cluster of three large baubles on a door, and display three wreaths on a plain wall.”

GET THE LOOK

John Lewis’s graphite tree, £80, and baubles from £3 each; Tesco’s Mixed Bauble Set contains 30 purple decorations, £3.50 in store; Next’s 50-piece Mixed Bauble Set, £10; Giant Classic 250mm baubles, from £9.95 each, from DZD.

Wall Panel Heater

As the temperatures drop interior designer Jamie Hempsall takes a look at some energy saving devices for your home

Winter is fast approaching and it seems we could be in for another bumper freeze. Unfortunately, it looks as though fuel prices are not set to tumble, so we should all start acting now to help save money on our fuel bills.

If you want to start making in-roads to savings without significant capital investment then you can look at some simple options to help you reduce the amount of heat escaping from your home.

As the nights draw in simply closing curtains as the temperature dips can be an effective way to help keep heat in. You can add to this impact by replacing standard curtain lining with thermal lining. This is usually a poly-cotton mix and a little dearer than standard lining, but the savings can soon add up.

If you are having new curtains made then for ultimate draught exclusion and a delightfully full appearance consider interlining your curtains.

One look and feel of interlined curtains is enough to tell you how effective these are at helping to keep your rooms nice and toasty.

For those who prefer blinds to curtains, then the softer fabric styles (such as Roman, Soft Fold and Austrian) can be made with thermal linings and interlined.

In addition, normal roller blinds can be replaced by thermal versions, which are readily available throughout the high street and on the internet.

Before painting your walls then consider adding a product call Thermalite to your emulsion. Independent tests by a Salford University lab in 2005 showed that this product could save you up to 25 per cent on your heating bills by reflecting some of the heat normally absorbed in the wall back into the room.

It can be added to all types of paint including lime and is available from Green Stamp, a company who specialise in finding eco-efficient products

While floorboards can be an attractive option (particularly in older properties) they can be incredibly draughty. The difference in a room after it has had carpet and underlay laid can be considerable, with our clients finding that a chilly and under-used room often becomes the new “go to” location.

However, if you like the visual appeal of a wooden floor, a new floor sealant called Draughtex may provide an energy efficient solution for you. Draughtex is a thermal strip that you simply fit between your floorboards.

The colour has been formulated to mimic natural shadows and is virtually invisible to the naked eye. It comes in three widths to tackle gaps up to 12mm wide – which is pretty impressive. A 40m roll suitable for gaps between 4-8mm costs £24.99 from Greenstamp (details as before).

Of course, some ideas seem to be no-brainers once you hear about them and I think that the Terrier i-temp fits this category perfectly. Pegler Yorkshire has developed this product, which could revolutionise central heating use in many homes.

The company decided to solve the issue of heating rooms that we do not need – a simple enough idea and one we could all solve by constantly turning our radiators on and off, but is this something you do on a regular basis?

They identified a typical family will heat their whole house during the morning, although they may only require heat in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen; therefore, wasting the heat in the other rooms.

In response to this, they developed the Terrier i-temp, a programmable radiator control used to replace the standard thermostatic radiator valve on each radiator.

The control allows each radiator to be individually timer controlled (so it can remain off even when the heating is on) and set to an individual temperature.

While these tips might not be as pretty as my usual ones, I feel sure the cost savings will prove attractive.

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