victorian morrocan tiles hearth

Christmas Dining Room

Posted on by Susan Earlam

Hello there- you lovely lot!

I’ve been a bit quiet as you may have noticed susanearlam.com has a new look. What do you think? I’d love any feedback, if you cant read the font or something isn’t working (or you just love it) then I’d love to know!

We’ve finally got our decorations up now for Christmas and I thought it was the perfect time to show you our Dining room which we have been working on over the last couple of months.

I’ve also made much more of an effort in here with the decorations too so lets take a look.

candlesticks and skulls on shelf as mantle

As per usual I’m loving mixing old with new. I’ve decorated our makeshift mantle (yes thats a shelf from Ikea) with some cute white ceramic decorations and those little tree domes actually light up. Both from Homesense.

The candlesticks in this shot are vintage and a gift from a friend who knows me well. The skull is a money box from Urban Outfitters (years ago).

We’ve repainted in here using Valspar “Boardwalk Sashay” which is a lilac grey, but seems to look more pink at different times of the day. We’ve used Valspar a lot now and other than the white we’ve used in other parts of the house, we dont use any other brand.

The Dining room faces North so never gets any true sunlight , so we wanted to reflect as much light as possible but also give it a cosy atmosphere.

tiled hearth valspar paint club boardwalk sashay

Raven foot candlesticks (possibly sold out)- Rose & Grey / Anatomical print (actually some Cavallini wrapping paper) in an Ikea frame

Speaking of cosy atmos- we ripped the gas fire out that was here. It turns out it had some faults and had been installed incorrectly, luckily we rarely used it but I urge you get get anything like this tested. Especially if its somewhere you’ve moved into and you dont know the background.

Oh yes- we ripped the awful carpet up too, thank god!! I dont know why it took us so long. It’s amazing what you just end up living with when life gets in the way. We are on the look out for a rug or maybe a few smaller rugs for that layered look.

So we had to get a plasterer to come and redo the chimney breast as it was a mess after pulling the fire out. We uhmm’d and ahh’d about what we wanted to have here instead, and as much as I’d love a Victorian cast iron fireplace, time and budget were against us.

victorian morrocan tiles hearth

I have to say though working with Tile Mountain again has been great. I think these tiles give an authentic period look, in keeping with the house, and we’ve a few left over. What can I tile next? The Marrakesh range has a few variations on these, and they come in different sized patterns too. I think they can look Victorian or North African depending on the context you use them in.

Our little grey fire is an electric stove from B&Q. Electric fires have come a long way since I was small, and for heating a room in a fast and convenient way, these are perfect.

hanging branch decor above table

I’d been pinning lots of hanging centrepieces over on Pinterest recently and was determined to make one. Here I’ve used a branch from the garden combined with some faux flowers, foliage and smaller branches. Adding lights and more white decorations along with candy canes.

It is suspended from the ceiling using two hooks, I really hope it stays in place! What do you think?

christmas hanging centre

I’ve disguised two large bookcases with those tinsel door curtains, just to give the room more of a festive feel, it also makes a great backdrop for Christmas photo booth fun with the kids.

I found so much good stuff at Homesense for Christmas, some of which is pictured, but some of which is actually Christmas gifts so I cant show them to you!

star-hanging-disguise-bookcase

The crackers, ceramic decoration, the sliced branch coasters are all Homesense. The candelabra is very old, but you can get similar ones from Homesense too. As you can see I’ve not actually set the Christmas table yet, too busy faffing with my ceiling branch!

making a christmas table

Hope you like the new look, do let me know in the comments.

Published by Susan Earlam

Writer of fiction, lifestyle and home interiors

25 thoughts on “Christmas Dining Room”

  6. The wall colour is perfect for a low-light room and I love what you’ve done with the fireplace. I’ve admired the Marakech range from Tile Mountain for a while now and they really just finish it off perfectly! xxx

    Like

  10. Everything looks lovely! That little heater is gorgeous with those tiles. Love the framed wallpaper idea, too! And your branch hangy-thingummy is fab. Yes to the new look blog – I love the logo, did you have it designed? You’re making me want a blog revamp in the new year xx

    Like

  11. Fab Sus! I love your modern gothic aesthetic – it’s really original and you pull it off really well. The fireplace looks great, I miss having a mantelpiece in our front room so might steal your idea of the shelf! xx

    Like

  12. I agree about Valspar. I am so impressed on the couple jobs I have used it on.
    Love the branch, are you planning to keep up all year?
    Those tiles. Want

    Like

  15. Really enjoyed this blog post. Your Christmas vintage candles are wonderful. It’s great to see vintage decor being used today, when so many people’s houses look identical nowadays. The homemade hanging centrepiece is also a really unique and lovely touch. Creating a unique space that is personal to you gives a really special feeling of autonomy and self expression. Happy Christmas!

    Like

I would love your input

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.