LIVING ROOM Christmas Decor🌲Natural & Cosy Holiday Ideas💫

Hi, it's Tracey. Welcome to my home here in Sussex, England, where the Christmas decorating continues. And this episode, I have a huge amount of decorating for you. We're going to be doing the staircase, the gallery landing, the hallway, the sitting room, and the snug. And it's in the snug that we are going to start the decorating. This is the corner where the Christmas tree normally lives. This year, I decided I was going to do more of a move away from the real trees. So I bought this artificial tree, my first one ever. I also bought another one to go out onto the veranda, but I decided I did want a real one. So I headed off to B&Q as they had just had a delivery and my normal garden center hadn't had anything in. Now, the prices here were really quite reasonable and they were grown in the UK. However, they were just a little bit bare, a little bit bent. And in the end, the best of the bunch was this one. But when I was driving home in the car, I thought this is going to be way too small for the kitchen. So I took the one from the snug, put the artificial into the kitchen and decided, right, the real one was going to go into the snug. Now, I always prep my trees outside. I take a saw and just manually cut probably about an inch off the bottom. I then drill in holes to enable it to drink more water. And I use a plant stand with a reservoir. Now, I always offer up the plant stand before I take it indoors just to make sure that it fits. And there we go. Now, I think this is my last year with real trees. I've had them for all of my life, but I think faux have come on so much now that it's unnecessary. I feel a little bit uncomfortable about cutting down a tree just to decorate my home with. So going forward, it's faux all the way for me. But we have this one this year. So let's get this baby lit up and sparkling. I found these on Amazon and I love the fact that they came on real already. I always say, take off the wires and put them straight onto a tube even before you start decorating to stop the tangles. But with these, you don't have to. I'm not going to add any decorations because with real trees, I love a naked tree. However, I don't like looking at that plant stand. When I did the decorations outside, I used lots of logs and books and candles to disguise a wire. Loved that design so much. I wanted to use the principle of it somewhere else and where better than at the bottom of the tree. Now, we need to do something with the top. So we're going to head off down to Shed City, my big storage shed, where I keep all sorts of little gems waiting to be used again. And I spy a couple of stars. So let's get one of those in and we've gone with a smaller one. I love the neutral color of it, but it's not really going to work with what we're doing this year. So if the color doesn't work, change it. I'm using a claret wine spray and a heat gun because it's very cold and I need it to dry quickly. I've also got some waterfall lights. Now, I used these last year. I love them so much. I thought, wouldn't it be fun to drape them over the star and add some extra twinkle? Of course, that meant another plug. How to disguise them? Pop them under a wooden box. And the wooden box I had to hand was a vintage port box. So that concludes the snug tree. Tree done. Time to decorate the rest of the room. We're going to do the coffee table, the dresser, the windows, the side table, possibly the mirror, but we'll leave that till the end, and the mantle. Don't we love to dress our mantles at Christmas? Last year, I used a horse lead rope and made a fresh garland from it. This year, I want to do something different. Now, Bear here, the apprentice furry supervisor, said, well, red is the color. You could maybe use my chicken. And Bertie, the senior furry supervisor, is still thinking about it. So I'm just going to crack on. Now, this year, I've been leaning into deep reds, natural elements, vintage, thrifted decor that I already have, and then just Christmasy-fying them. I've loved using lots of vintage books this year, coupled with old baubles and velvet ribbon, brass candlesticks, and lots of stoneware as well. I've been spraying up hydrangeas in that claret wine color, and then to add the twinkle, lots of copper fairy lights and rustic red candles. I'm using so many hydrangeas, I have to keep spraying them up in batches. I've managed to use up all of my old spray from last year, and now I'm working with this claret wine color. And it's a super simple way of getting some lovely punches of color into your decorating. These are the rustic velvet red candles I'm using this year. They were found on Amazon, and I will drop a link below in the video description. The mantle needs some greenery, and this year, I've been using lots of this oriental spruce. I took off the bottom of it just to raise the canopy, and of course, it's meant that I've got lots of clippings to work with. Now while we're down here, we're going to give the boys a bit of exercise. If you've not been here before, we've got a two acre field and a stream, and it's just doggy paradise. I've got the clippings into the snug, and I'm going to start adding them. I just think bringing in fresh greenery, particularly at this time of year, just makes everything come alive. The velvet ribbon I'm using this year was another Amazon find. Now when I'm attaching the ribbon here, I'm just using a little bit of florist's wire. For the twinkle, I am loving using these battery operated remote control lights this year. The furry supervisors tell me it's time for some coffee table styling, and I'm going to put back on a big round wooden tray that I have used for years on this coffee table because it works. It's the right size. I'm going to add a wreath that I picked up from HomeSense. My contact Karen there rang me, said we have some beautiful things in. They never went out onto the shop floor, and I hightailed it over there. I used one on the island, the big wooden island when I did the kitchen decorating, and I do like to repeat materials. It just creates that cohesive look. Now onto my tray, I'm going to add one of the copper jugs that I found at auction last Christmas. If you were with me back then, you remember I had quite a copper jug haul. For the center of the wreath, I'm going to repeat what I did in the kitchen and fill it with big pine cones. I want to carry on the natural theme with the copper jug, so as it's watertight, I'm going to fill that with greenery and then just add a faux candle. Now these LED flameless candles, I found these on Amazon. I bought quite a few, and you will see them in all of my Christmas decorating this year. They are investment pieces. Charity shop find church candle snuffer. Very handy for the vertically challenged like me. Over to my £5 charity shop side table that I revamped, and I'm going to bring out some more copper jugs. This is a set of three, the Victorian, and I found them last year at auction. Just a little bit of housekeeping. If you are enjoying this video, indeed if you enjoy the channel, please do remember to hit that thumbs up button, subscribe if you're not, turn on notifications, hit the hype button if it's in the first seven days, you know the whole checklist of things to do. Please do leave me a comment as well because I do read every single one, and I do try to respond to every single one. Every little bit of support you can give is always gratefully received. Thank you. Over to the other side of the snug now, and we'll start with the windows. This comfy jar is one of a pair. I bought it at auction, and unusually, they both came with their lids intact. Now these are the other ribbons that I'm using this year. These again were an Amazon find, and three different tones of chiffon. Really lovely ribbons, and to keep this simple, I'm just tying a knot in the three strands, and just letting them dangle, and adding a faux hydrangea head. I've done the same design at the other window, and I've also got this £25 charity shop find that I may or may not do something with. We'll come back to that later on. But first of all, I want to do this sideboard, and I'm going to do it really simply because, you know, you don't have to get all the tinsel out. You can do very simple, elegant decorating by really just pulling out some natural greenery, some fairy lights, some velvet ribbon. You can create a lovely, warm, welcoming, seasonal, classy look with very, very little expenditure or effort. And I shouldn't really be saying that because I'll be doing myself out of a job. No, you need to keep on watching my episodes and keep decorating with me. Now, I found a few of these gorgeous fur throws. Remember when I was putting this on the chair in the kitchen, and little baby bear just jumped straight on before I'd even finished styling it. It wasn't long before Bertie found his position on there as well. So this time, I'm going to have a little touch and feel of it all by myself and just enjoy the peace and quiet. As for the big mirror, I've decided there is enough going on in the room. It doesn't really need anything. The sofa where I have all the cream fabrics, all those lovely, warm textiles, they are just going to stay as they are. It's a super cosy setup. We all enjoy it, so why change it? It's a new day, and my goodness, what a glorious start to the day it is. Time for some more decorating, and little bear is getting himself into position because it is the turn of the staircase, which includes the galleried landing and the big beam chandelier that we have up there. And on top of the beam is a big hop garland that I popped up there for the autumn decorating. I also popped them up in the kitchen where last episode I Christmasy-fied them. Now, I've run out of the red eucalyptus, so I need to have a think about how I'm going to do that one in the hallway. So I think I'm going to start off with the actual staircase and round up some supplies. I've got a cypress garland here. In fact, I've got quite a few of these cypress garlands. More on that later. Bear's bringing in a contribution, and we just need to find Bertie, and there he is. My, what a mud monster. Hair and makeup for you, darling, before any decorating. Now, these cypress garlands, I found these on Amazon and I used them in the veranda decorating. I was just so grateful finally to be able to get hold of some decent quality faux in the UK. It has been so tricky to find really nice, thick, good quality garlands that you don't need to take a mortgage out to buy. And of course, my UK friends, I will drop a link below. In last January's sales, I bought these wreaths for less than half price. I bought six in total. I've already used one out on the veranda to which I added a bell that I picked up from Home Bargains. In fact, I think I got 11 bells in total. I've used two on the big wreath on the front door. I used another two in that front porch, and I'm going to use some more on the stairs. And to attach them, I'm using the floristry pins, which I'm using quite a lot of at the moment. I'm finding them really useful. Now, to attach the actual wreath to the staircase, I'm using a cable tie. I will go round at the end and take off all the little tails off the cable ties. Now, the garlands, I thought about originally swagging them, but then I thought, hang on a minute, why don't we just drop them? Just let them luxuriate down a bit different, but we like doing things a bit different here. Bear is taking it all in, and fresh from hair and makeup, here is Bertie keeping his eye on things. I've used cable ties again to attach the garlands. These are actually quite heavy, so it needed something quite solid. Now, right at the bottom of the garland, I'm bending the hook right up into the foliage so you can't see it as it drapes. To hide those cable ties, I'm using velvet. Now, you'll have seen me do this on the kitchen table for that kitchen tablescape. I love that velvet so much. I bought another length of it, just £4.99 a metre off Amazon. I used four metres on the table, and then I bought a separate three metre run because I thought it'd be really useful to do other things with it. Here, with Bear's assistance, I'm cutting width strips, if you like, and then using them. Instead of making chair bows, just chair ties. I don't really do bows. I think it's because, A, I'm not very good at them, and B, I just find them a little bit fussy for my particular taste, but each to their own. No judgment here on this channel. At the bottom of the stairs, I didn't use a cable tie. I just used the garland itself and wrapped it around. Now, I personally would like it luxuriating down onto the floor, but it might be too much temptation for little Bear, so he's doing really well. He's not really chewing anything, so I thought we'll leave it like that, and actually, I'll cut some long strips of the velvet, just to bring a pop of colour, and then just literally tag them around the top of the garlands. I took a florist pin and a length of ribbon and literally, no bows, shoved it up into the wreath base. Now, the beam chandelier and that hop garland, I was wondering if I could get away without doing anything to it. I was seeing it as gold, which tied in with the bell, but I think no. We need some of my good old staple favourite, which is Leylandi. I absolutely love using this because it holds the moisture for so long, so this will be absolutely good on top of this beam chandelier until the new year, and the great thing is, don't need any fixings, no wires, no glue, just poke it in. We need a pop of colour, so the sprayed hydrangea heads have come upstairs. This is a perfect opportunity for some dangly bits, so I'm going to get my furry balls out. I use these flock baubles on the Christmas tree and in other places in the kitchen. I use this strong fishing wire along with these hangers that came with the floating candles that and they were ideal just to pop on underneath that beam, dropping them down at different lengths. Well, the boys were exhausted after all of that, so good night's rest. Wake up again to another beautiful sunrise and time to start decorating again. This time, it's the hallway. I often feel sorry for hallways. I do think they can be neglected spaces, just a connecting area, but for me, I treat it as another room, so I like to lavish some attention on it, and the first place we're going to lavish some attention is under the stairs, because under the stairs, I've got my workbench, or if I'm feeling pretentious, I'll call it my entryway rustic console table, and the first thing to go on is my £7.50 charity shop find lantern that I did a makeover on. It was silver originally. I'm adding in a few more of those faux pillar candles. Absolutely love them. They are a good investment because you can use them all year round. This wreath was in the sales again in January from HomeSense, £3. Just leave that one with you. And of course, I've got to add the copper fairy lights because they just make the magic happen. I've brought them down into my wicker trunk full of fur cones. We're not done yet. We need some more greenery. This is the beauty about having the land. You can just go down and get what you need, and yes, I'm bringing the wheelbarrow into the house. I'm going to wash the floors anyway, so it just makes life a lot easier. Across the hallway to this sideboard now where I've already added an adhesive hook to the glass. Now, these hooks I have used several times now, and they're working a treat, but my biggest tip to you is please read the instructions. They are not designed for painted walls. They really need to be on a solid substrate like ceramic tile, metal, wood, glass. Don't stick them on painted or wallpapered walls because it will end up a hot mess when you try to remove it. Now into my four-gallon, yes, four-gallon copper jug again, auction find this time last year. It was a cracker. I'm going to add some more of the Lelandai cuttings. I'm using a similar color nail varnish to this wreath to cover up any little bits of white that are showing through. The next thing I'm going to add is a Bertie find. He brings me the best decor. Back over to the other side of the hallway and my big French boy. I love everything on here, so I'm going to keep the decor really simple. Now it's this little corner's turn, and I'm going to start off with this pot. Now in the kitchen, I used three of these garlands. I've got five in total. They're very old ones. I've colored them up over the years, and this year they've come out again in different ways. Now I'm taking two here, and I'm going to push it into this pot so all the strands dangle down, and I'm itching to get out another set of waterfall lights. Now when you buy a new set, be warned, they do wrap one of the strands around all of the other strands, so loosen that one first, and then I find the easiest way is to feed from the top to make everything unravel. This great big twig wreath was a Home Sense find some years ago. I loved it so much I bought five of them, and they're out on display all year round. More mantel styling for you now, and I love the mirrors and the frame on there, so I'm keeping them. I'm just adding a few of the green vintage books and a bust. I've already added some of those hooks, and I'm going to use them to attach an old Home Sense garland to. Now this one, I normally use it with other garlands and work it in because it's very light and wispy. This time I'm actually going to just have it on its own because it is so lovely and light and wispy. I quite like the effect of it. To spread the light love, I'm pulling across some of the Over to my little reading nook now, and I love to dress this little corner. It's a nice place to sit and read. It's also a very visual point from when you first come in the front door because your eye is drawn right the way down the hallway, so let's make a good fist of it. I'm going to use waterfall lights again, and actually pop them inside the pot and have the lights coming out over the twigs and then all the way through the display, and it looks Now this is our sitting room. It's very much our winter evening room. We don't tend to use it in the summer. It's on the side of the house that's north facing, so it can be darker, but it's beautiful on an evening and particularly at Christmas time. Huge wood burner in there, lovely to snuggle up in front of. We've got Bertie ready, so let's get started with the windowsill, and I'm purposely not using fresh greenery here. Beneath the windowsill is a big old cast iron radiator, and it chugs out huge amounts of heat, so if I put anything fresh above there, it's just going to wilt straight away. Again, I'm using the red velvet ribbon, but this time I'm just going to lay it out on top of the garland. I have these three old brown bells, and they were on the list for revamping this Christmas. I ran out of time. I'm so time poor, so they're going to be on the list for next year's Christmas DIYs, as are these three candlesticks that I'm putting in this small window here. And yes, that is scaffolding, you can see. There is always something going on behind the scenes here. There is always maintenance happening as well. Now, let's move over to the inglenook. I have already attached some of those hooks, those stick-on hooks, to the reverse of this beam. Now, why the reverse? Well, because that beam is actually a paint effect. It is a beautiful old piece of wood, but it needed so much sandblasting to get it back down. I actually did a paint effect where I used white chalk paint and dark wax, and so if I go stick on those pads, it will end up pulling the effect off. So, long-winded way of telling you why I put it on the back of the beam. I found one last bell. This is my very last bell, and a little bit of that chiffon but it needs a little bit of a revamp. This is my straw-based wreath, and I glued on lots and lots of bark, and then where there were gaps, I filled it with fresh moss. Now, it's been on display all year. The moss has very much dried back, so we need to go off hunting for some fresh moss to zhuzh it up a bit, and we have gone back down to the sheds and to the pathway, which some of my long-standing viewers will know the story of this pathway. It gets full of moss, and one year, my husband decided he'd do me, air quotes, a favour by getting rid of all the moss I could have wept. In fact, I think I did weep. Ah, got to love these menfolk. So anyway, it's all grown back now, and now I can revamp my wreath and take it in for styling. A couple of charity shop photo frames that I took all the gubbins out of, and I just use the frames because they're so lovely and ornate, and then I have a little box for the remote controls. My favourite coasters. I always mention these because I bought them in Wimbley in Texas, so just a little shout out there to my Texan friends. And you know by now I like to fill the centre of a wreath. This time, it's with hydrangea heads. Over to this corner of the sitting room now, and the fairy lights were from last year. They're still there. The basket is a charity shop find. We use it as a side table. I've popped an old wooden tray on, and the last of my copper jugs. I found one last lot of waterfall lights. Yes, I'm loving them like this. Now, before we forget, remember the pot. Still, I'm in an R-ring, but if in doubt, shove some greenery in it, love. You'll be fine. That concludes my Christmas 2025 decorating series. I'm going to put my feet up for a while now. I'd love you to have a quick tour around the house to see how it all flows together.