I always decorate our dining room for New Year’s Eve whether we are entertaining or not. It makes such a difference and the main focus is on dressing the dining room table. I normally go for something quite sparkly this time of the year but it also needs to be functional. Metallics have been a key trend for 2014 and gold is such a clever colour because you can use it all year round (same with silver). I usually try to buy items that can be used through out the year. This way you make so much more use out of them.
We have been doing quite a bit of entertaining in December and below is a recent table setting. It’s all about gold as you can see because this year it has really become one of my favourite colours. I think it’s nice to mix things up so I’ve used white/black dinner plates and some silver accessories. Iittala Taika and Teema plates go so well together and are great for entertaining. Of course I had to use my Iittala Essence white wine glasses which are still going strong after many years of frequent use. I must say that we have only broken one glass in this particular range which is pretty impressive considering our track record!
I don’t usually use a white table cloth for casual dinner parties. If it’s a birthday, christening or some other formal occasion then I would probably use one. Also, our black dining table is beautiful so it’s a great opportunity to show it off (although it does show finger prints very easily!) The coasters are from Laura Ashley and the placemats are from M&S. I have also placed a silver vase that I found in a charity shop for 2 pounds on the table and I personally love this setting. I have managed to find some great items in second hand shops recently and I will featuring these on the blog shortly. I try to mix these with more high end goods and you really won’t be able to tell the difference.
I love using my Chilewich Manhattan Tray when I am entertaining. It’s great for serving drinks and holds a ton! I have teamed it up with Chilewich Mod placemat in brass and a beautiful scented candle from Lalique. I have been trying to get hold of Chilewich Dahlia coasters in brass colour but they currently are out of stock in the UK. Apparently Selfridges and Harrods will be carrying them next spring.
I also love these mini Christmas crackers. The crackers and napkins are both from Bentalls. I find that Black and gold look very dramatic together. A hint of silver brings real elegance to the setting in my opinion.
I love mixing metallics. There are different opinions on this but I actually think that gold and silver can really compliment each other. Using just one metallic colour can sometimes look a bit too boring and predictable anyway. In fact, one of the biggest trends of 2014 has been mixing metallics. I personally prefer the warmer tones of gold such as copper, brass and bronze which seem to work incredibly well with our black furniture. I find that gold looks better in candle/dim artificial light although my pictures were taken in daylight so that all the details are present.
I also love decorating with pussy willows. I use them during Easter, Christmas and pretty much all year round. They are very easy to find here and look elegant. The grey colour compliments our monochrome themed decor and they last ages too! The large Christmas cracker is from Laura Ashley. They had beautiful gold accessories this year which are on sale at the moment.
We got this fabulous ‘nut cracker’ (above) from the Nuremberg Christmas market few weeks ago. You can read more about my trip to Nuremberg here. He looks pretty happy standing on our wine glass cabinet and I really think he brings a bit of fun to our dining room. I had different colours to choose from but I felt the blue one looked best. Blue is another colour that has been growing on me lately. I’ll be writing more about it in my future posts…
Our traditions on New Year’s Eve includes eating well, watching the fireworks from the TV in our living room (yes we are lazy and old) and drinking champagne. We also have started doing a Finnish tradition called molybdomancy where you tell the fortunes of New Year by melting tin (actually lead). You can read more about it on Wikipedia. It’s so much fun to make predictions based on the shapes, although people don’t really take them seriously.
There are many exciting posts coming up in 2015! I was invited to Heals SS15 Press Show recently and I cannot wait to share some of the new trends I spotted there. I will be also writing a lot more about our new extension project which will hopefully take place during the spring/summer period. Few people have asked me how our Magnet kitchen is holding up so I will doing another follow up review for this soon. If there’s anything else you’d like me to write/review feel free to comment or send me an email. Happy New Year to everyone and thank you for reading my blog 🙂
