UK Blog Hop: Nordic Christmas Decor Ideas

I’m delighted to be taking part in the first Christmas #UKBlogHop today, which was organised by Kimberly over at Swoon Worthy, and includes over twenty bloggers all sharing their Christmas inspiration posts!  Hello to anyone who has hopped on over from Lust Living with their gorgeous Scandinavian-inspired Christmas post, which was the previous one to mine in the Blog Hop.

If you are new here, I’ve been blogging at #tidylife (formerly known as Tidy Away Today) since 2012, sharing home inspiration and design ideas, affordable home improvements, gorgeous homeware, with a little bit of lifestyle in the mix.

My post today is all about trying to capture a bit of a Nordic Christmas vibe.  In an ideal world, I’d whisk our family away to a remote and cosy wilderness cabin for Christmas in a Scandinavian forest.  Somewhere cut off (but still with excellent wifi :)) and lots of essential supplies such as chocolate, mince pies and mulled wine.  There would be oodles of chunky blankets and faux fur throws, a roaring fire and a stack of box sets to curl up with.

I’d quite happily hibernate for a fortnight, only venturing out for the odd sleigh ride or to help the kids build a snowman.

But back in the real world, I’ll just have to try and create a bit of that ‘hygge’ feeling with a few Nordic Christmas decor ideas around the place.  Disclaimer: I’ve never experienced a proper Nordic Christmas, so this is just my take on it!  Come on in…

This is the fireplace in our front room.  Unfortunately, our Christmas tree hasn’t arrived yet, so I can’t share it with you yet.  In the absence of the main tree, we’ve got a temporary mini one on the hearth, which will go in the boys’ bedroom soon:

For a cool, Scandinavian feel we’ll be decorating our tree with icy white and silver baubles; maybe with a tiny touch of red here and there.

As well as snowy white accessories, like the baubles and sheepskin rug, I feel you must have paper stars!  Large ones, small ones – either lit or unlit – and of course lots and lots of candles.

In the dining room, for Christmas dinner, I’ll be setting the table in these muted colours – mostly grey, which I love against the natural wood of the table.

Nordic Christmas style to me is quite simple and natural.  I don’t think you can go far wrong if you use earthy tones and gather foliage from the garden – holly, ivy, branches with berries, pine cones.  It’s a cheap and stylish way to decorate!  We’re using pine cones with a grey candle as our simple centrepiece this year and I discovered some lovely grey tonal tall candles for candlesticks at Marks & Spencer.

They come in a pack of 4 and are graduated shades of grey – they look so good grouped together, with that subtle ombre effect.  The grey table linen you may have seen before as we’ve recently given a set away – they’re from Katie Jane Home.

I’ve laid our faux fur throw along the dining table bench, which ideally suits the ‘Christmas at the cabin’ theme – much better than the cold, brown faux leather underneath; I’m tempted to keep it on here all the time, or even make a faux fur bench cover with elasticated edges to keep it in place.

More paper stars – this time, black and grey ones from Rose & Grey.

The crockery you can see and smoky wine glasses are all by Denby – its their utterly gorgeous Halo range.  I loved it from the moment I saw it, but now that the whole Scandi retro stoneware trend has gathered momentum, it seems even more desirable, if that’s possible.  It’s absolutely perfect, I love the organic pattern and black/taupe/grey tones.  We’ve had Denby before and love how it stays looking nice and is so hardwearing.

Our best cutlery will be allowed out of the cupboard for Christmas – just no one put it in the dishwasher, OK?!  I do not want to lose that lovely rose gold effect.  But silver cutlery would also look great with the Halo set.

Other touches you could introduce to give a Nordic flavour in your home this Christmas are: natural woven baskets, wire baskets or storage made of felt; knitted throws – the chunkier the better –  gifts wrapped in brown paper and twine, furry cushions, a stags head ornament or wall art.  Plus all things rustic, such as a wicker basket of logs or a bucket filled with baubles – and anything shaped like a star!  String lights, too.

One thing I haven’t tried before, but always fancy doing someday, is decorating a hanging branch over the dining table – maybe next year!  So what do you think of my efforts at styling our home for Christmas, to give it some Nordic flair?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour.  As mentioned, the blog post is part of a fun ‘UK blog hop for Christmas’, which means that every day this week various home interiors bloggers are sharing their Christmas inspo.  So now you’ve read my post, you can move onto the next one in the blog hop which is the fabulous Old Fashioned Susie, who is sharing a warming Christmas cocktail – yum.

And feel free to go backwards, too, to check out any posts you’ve missed!  It’s great to see all the different ideas and Christmas styles – you’re bound to pick up some tips and design ideas.  Huge thanks again to Kimberly at Swoon Worthy who put a lot of thought and effort into arranging this blog event.

So here are all the blogs taking part and their links – the posts all go live each day at 11am, so no excuses – don’t miss them!

© Copyright 2016 Antonia, All rights Reserved. Written For: Tidylife