With many celebrations around the world interrupted in 2020 due to the pandemic, the 2021 festive season is more important than ever. As families and friends reunite, the home will be a major hub of festivities and many people are looking to give their houses a seasonal spruce up. This year, emerging themes such as sustainability and togetherness are being blended with trends including maximalism and colour. For inspiration, who better to look to than the experts? As December gets underway, six interior designers from across the globe reveal how they’re decorating their homes for the festive period – and how to transform your own.
Marie Soliman, founder and creative director of Bergman Design House
I love Christmas! Believe it or not, I am that person that starts decorating mid-November. As we live in a loft style penthouse, we have lots of exposed metal beams which I love to use to hang a Christmas garlands with lights. We also have a big seven-foot tree next to our industrial fireplace.
My top tips for anyone planning to decorate their home this festive season is to choose a colour scheme and go for big decorations, rather than small ones, especially on the tree. When decorating the tree, print and hang lots of black and white images of friends, family and memories you treasure. This is really sweet, authentic, elegant touch and brings a smile to visitors’ faces.
This year I’m noticing the use of cork, felt and wool in shades of white and natural colours. This trend is simple and beautiful but also sustainable.
Marie Soliman, founder and creative director of Bergman Design House
This year I’m noticing the use of cork, felt and wool in shades of white and natural colours. This trend is simple and beautiful but also sustainable. Every year, we do a competition in our Bergman studio to find the best design and designers come up with wonderful ideas made of plaster, mud, timber and fabrics. Using what you have at home can be really cool idea to bond with the little ones, too.
Lauren Lozano Ziol, co-founder of SKIN
We adore using fresh plants and festive florals. I start by decorating the fireplace with garlands and colourful bulbs that match my interior decor. My Christmas tree is always done in a certain way. On Thanksgiving weekend, we go out and buy a fresh-smelling Fraser Fir tree. My husband always does the lights first, very methodically. I then do little colourful ribbons and bulbs. My bulbs are usually turquoise and green to match the fabrics in the living room.
I love setting the table for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas breakfast. Again, flowers are such a big part of the tablescape. Red poinsettias and greens are always around the room, but the flowers usually match my Versace China, which is lime green with shades of pinks and blues with gold accents. I love vintage silver and colourful cut glass glassware and decanters. Making the table as fancy as possible is how I like it.
Michelle and I love to help our clients bring their interior into the Christmas or holiday theme. For one client, we used a Hermès theme. She has many Hermès framed scarves on the walls, so we helped her buy all her family’s gifts from Hermès. We also decorated her living room fireplace in bulbs that picked up colours of the Pucci scarf that hangs on the wall above.
My top tips are to pull out your best China and accessories and make it special. Your family and loved ones will make memories from a well-thought-out tablescape.
Lauren Lozano Ziol, co-founder of SKIN
My top tips are to pull out your best China and accessories and make it special. Your family and loved ones will make memories from a well-thought-out tablescape, and it makes the meal so much more charming. Bring in accents of silver and gold – this makes a room feel rich. I think this year is all about family and going all-out as last year there were so many restrictions. Think: colour, vibrancy, maximalist design and over-the-top decorating. Having fun with colour is key.
Charu Gandhi, founder and director of Elicyon
I find there are two types of people who decorate at Christmas: those who want to create an entirely new aesthetic for the season and really go all out on beautiful colourful decorations, and then there are those whose festivities fit around their current interiors. I fall into the latter camp and prefer to add accents of Christmas rather than change the look of the rooms much. We have actually recently just refreshed our Elicyon branding, so I am going to be dressing my home this year to reflect our new brand colourways in celebration – it’s a beautiful mix of rosebud and azure, with natural hues and subtle golden flecks.
I think it’s important to dress your home relevant to the size of the space. For example, if you have a small living area, it may be more effective to dress the mantlepiece with foliage and festive decorations rather than try to squeeze a Christmas tree into the room – I find less is sometimes more in this instance. If floor space is limited, hanging wreaths on the wall or decorating existing shelving with foliage can be equally as striking and a great alternative to a tree. If you have a much larger space, a tree in a prominent position in the home can create a wow factor, such as in the entrance corridor, at the end of a hallway, or even central to the main family living space.
If floor space is limited, hanging wreaths on the wall or decorating existing shelving with foliage can be equally as striking and a great alternative to a tree.
Charu Gandhi, founder, Elicyon
Sustainability certainly seems to be on people’s minds more this year – it’s definitely something I am being much more conscious of in our household. This year, I will be making my own Christmas crackers using fabric and including personal messages and meaningful gifts, and my wrapping paper will be the new Elicyon-branded recycled paper that we have had hand commissioned by Inq Studio.
See Charu Gandhi’s guest-curated Luxx Holiday Wishlist
Francesca Muzio, co-founder of FM Architettura
I love the Christmas period and the atmosphere it brings with it, most of all because it unites my entire family and friends and gives me the opportunity to spend valued time with them.
Considering the current and extraordinary pandemic times, I want to give a meaning to my Christmas decorations. I am planning to use papyrus paper instead of conventional tree decorations. I would love to have a wish, a sentence or any thought written by my family and friends on this paper and hang these messages on the Christmas tree. I am also planning to buy a Polaroid camera and shoot pictures of all my nearest and dearest during the course of the large number of Italian lunches and dinners – as you can imagine, an Italian Christmas is a jolly and pleasant time! I would then like to use these photos as decorations and hang them everywhere, and write funny captions on the white bottom strip with coloured marker pens.
My top tips are to keep it simple, keep it real, make it as colourful as possible and importantly, involve all your family.
Francesca Muzio, co-founder of FM Architettura
My top tips are to keep it simple, keep it real, make it as colourful as possible and importantly, involve all your family. We need a relaxing and a happy Christmas, so I foresee a super-colourful array of decorations. I would avoid red, green and gold and instead use canny colours that stimulate fun, lightness and love, as well as flowers, scents and aromatic excitements. In my view, the Christmas of 2021 should brim with light and happiness.
Shalini Misra, founder of Shalini Misra Design Studio
I always consider the senses, particularly during festive seasons. Christmas is all about atmosphere and mood. Tactility is important, especially during the colder seasons, so I like to layer materials and textures. I like to embrace the longer nights and lower natural light levels by placing candles in clusters on mantlepieces and as centrepieces on coffee and dining tables – the flickering flames and warm colours create a cosy, intimate atmosphere.
Smell as a sense is important in design. I like to draw scent through my home, focusing on tones such as cinnamon or spiced orange, which instantly bring Christmas to mind. I like to place silver bowls with pine cones, holly, dried orange peel, cloves and large cinnamon sticks around the house. I also love to decorate the entrance to my home. This brings an immediate festive spirit to the house for visitors and can be enjoyed by passers-by. A wreath accented with pine cones and holly with bright red orange berries is a traditional and beautiful symbol of the Christmas period. Solar-powered twinkling fairy lights on copper wire subtly laid throughout the plants in the front and back gardens bring a warm dancing glow that can be enjoyed from inside the house.
When it comes to festive decorating at clients’ homes, I like to look at special tableware, accessories, candlesticks and heirlooms such as silverware that is brought out on special occasions. These can then be positioned around the house with festive arrangements of berries and foliage, cinnamon and cloves.
My advice is to focus on appealing to all your senses when you are deciding how to decorate and think about creating atmosphere.
Shalini Misra, founder of Shalini Misra Design Studio
The key trends I’m noticing this year are nostalgia and togetherness, maximalism, mixed metallics, DIY decorations and an emphasis on sustainability and natural luxe. My advice is to focus on appealing to all your senses when you are deciding how to decorate and think about creating atmosphere. Look at what decorative items you already have or buy decorations that you can repurpose, such as change the candles in candlesticks you already own to bring a new accent to decorate your space.
Louise Bradley, founder of Louise Bradley Design Studio
My London town house is designed in a classic contemporary style. The colour palette is neutral in soft creams and natural finishes, so the house lends itself to decorating for the festive season. I always dress the fireplace with a beautiful garland made from blue pine, natural twigs and lichen, adding very soft tiny lights for cosy evenings by the fire. I love how candles can transform spaces too, so at home at Christmas you’ll find beautifully scented candles on the coffee table.
In the garden room, I decorate the table using two unusual old wire urns that I found in an antiques market. I fill these with natural foliage and moss and use hurricane lanterns with candles to add a really Christmassy feel. For the dining table, I use a selection of handmade ceramic and porcelain tableware, with my favourite vintage monogrammed linen napkins and again the use of candles always adds a sense of occasion.
I enjoy using natural decorations; I love the traditional smell of Christmas that the pine evokes. It is gratifying to create your own traditions with treasured decorations that you enjoy year after year.
Louise Bradley, founder of Louise Bradley Design Studio
In the past two years, we have grown a new appreciation of our homes and have been taking better care of how our homes are decorated and how they make us feel. For me personally, I enjoy using natural decorations; I love the traditional smell of Christmas that the pine evokes. It is gratifying to create your own traditions with treasured decorations that you enjoy year after year. I think our festive decor this year will be richer – that doesn’t necessarily mean bolder and brighter, but simply richer with the things we love the most about this time of the year.
Effect Magazine is brought to you by Effetto