Apart from the tree how else do you / can I decorate my living room?

[Letchlady]

Last year we moved house, and many of the old decorations from the old house just do not fit in our new house. So I'm looking out for some new decorations for Christmas.

I'm not into bling - can't abide coloured lights / tinsel / metallic decorations that hang from the ceiling - just too naff / tacky for my liking. Sorry.

Our tree is usually decorated with silver and gold decorations and I prefer something more subtle rather than your full on bling type decorations that you can get. Previously I used to put little candles around and I had some white fluff (like tinsel but fluff instead) which looked nice and I always used to do a vase filled with this fluff and baubles. But in the new house, I've no longer got lots of space to put things on, so it needs to go on the walls, dangle from the ceiling etc.

So over to you - can you please think of white / silver / gold tasteful or understated Christmas decorations that will look make my living room look and feel Christmassy, but not too tacky??

we have very high ceilings as an old house so we get a real gtree - often 8ish foot so that takes centre piece! I decorate with silver and white accessories. In addition:

Reindeer which is white - lovely - sits at the foot of the fireplace - got it from habitat which is fab for xmas ornaments etc.

vase with xmas style flowers - sometimes real and sometimes fake - most florists have something similar - again sits on the floor
i have a green garland which i twist lights around and hang this loosly over the top of the fireplace - this is gorgeous as its plain green with lights
last year we bought an antique birdcage (fairly small) and filled it with clear xmas lights which looked nice when lit up?

just checked you need from the ceiling! Theres a few shops around near me (but try habitat) that do tasteful xmas stars - large ones) that can hang - they are lovely, particularly above a door or in the hallway.

We have large windows across half our living room, and I hang those Ikea snowball lights across them, they throw off a paleblue light and look quite cool. I quite fancy the white woodland outline light they have,might treat myself this year. Tealights onhuge mirror or glass trays and white votives and tea lights everywhere.

I love a Swedish theme as I used to visit there a lot before Christmas, so it's quite minimal, white lights, red/grey felt etc. I have some white/silver sprayed birch bows that I hang by doorways.

You can theme your sofa and/or chairs? I use reindeer throws, sheepskin throws and decorate with red/grey/green cushions.

I always find sticking to a few main colours, and all white or all red lights helps too.

I love the sleek design advent lamps too.

www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/30218658/

We dont have too many decorations up in our living room, last year i made christmas bunting using red and green fabric and buttons, i like the traditional red and greens and also the sweedish style tree decorations.

bunting

You can hang a row of baubles on different lengths of fine ribbon along a wall, or hang similar in windows. If not baubles, you could hang woven twiggy stars or hearts in gold or silver. You can also do the same (but with two or three) from the top edge of a picture or mirror.

Consider taking down a picture and replacing for the festive season with a wreath or a statement Christmas ornament.

We have no fireplace, so I have put fir garlands on the top of freestanding book cases, side boards and so on. In the past I've hung tiny stockings or ornaments from cupboard handles, hung wreaths on the backs of doors, berry type garlands around the tops of door frames, tiny bunches of Christmas artificial foliage tucked behind the tops of picture frames, as well as the ideas above. (Not all at once, of course!) A good way to judge is choose a few points in the room where you would spend most of your time looking, and stick to decorating those.

Thank you for some great suggestions so far. I like the idea of the bunting, and like girly we have no fireplace, but there are some fab ideas. I might try to do something with fairy lights. Not entirely sure what yet :-)

Definitely going to try the bauble idea though :-)

Ah, in B&Q they had big old fashioned lanterns (the sort you might use in the garden on summer nights with chunky candles inside) and they had loosely bundled fairy lights inside.

One of my garlands has fairy lights on.

I like natural stuff, so usually go for big vases of holly, poinsettias, pine cones, decorated twigs etc. You can also get some quite tasteful artificial foliage garlands these days, which can be augmented with a few dainty white lights or miniature baubles, red ribbons etc.

I have made christmas cushion covers to go over our regular cushions on the sofa.

I also hang a long piece of string along the top of one wall, and hang all the cards we get from it.

I swap photos for pictures of family on past christmasses.

Candles are good. I like the big fat ones but couldn't afford them last year so instead I put a big plate (99p from Wilkos) on the fire place and filled it with red tea lights.

Collect pine cones with the kids, and dry oranges and limes in the oven to hang up.

I find a big plate of home-made mince pies on the coffee table is the icing on the cake! Along with bowl of nuts and bottle of Baileys of course....

For the living room (which is big), all I do is a massive 8 ft real tree with white an silver decrations, decorate the mantlepiece and hearth, put a wreath on the back of each of the internal doors which lead into the room (twiggy kind of wreath), and hang cards in vertical strips down from picture rail to floor which decorates some of the walls.

Simple and easy, but still makes an impact.