Inspire me with your decoration and table ideas please.

[sweetheart]

This year is the first year I will be playing host to both mine and dh's family so I want to make everything really special. I'm trying to think of houw to decorate our home and in particular the dining table. I have all white dishwear so I could go with pretty much anything. I was thinking silver and white but wondered if it might just look boring. We have had red and silver tree decorations in the past but dh says he is bored of that although I think red, white and silver would be a good look and we could freshen it up without spending the earth.

Any ideas would be great.

I THINK I AM GOING FOR WHITE CLOTH, BLACK RUNNER AND SILVER CHARGERS, PLACEMATS ETC

Keep the red decs and add frosted white for a scandinavian theme. Also, there is a lot of white and silver in the Christmas magazines this year. You could add in black or green accents with the white and silver, or gold.

I'm quite conventional, and stick to red and gold decs, with evergreens. Don't think you have to have the same colours throughout the house, so you could use any existing unused decs in another area. I often re-work garlands and wreaths by changing the trimmings on them, which makes them look new.

Don't over complicate the table decs. The table settings you see in the mags look fantastic, but practically they are awful as they don't allow for veg dishes, gravy, condiments, drinks etc. It's probably best to have a central dec which can be removed just before you bring these things to table, and reinstate it at pudding if you wish. Good quality paper napkins are worth having, John Lewis have nice ones.

Do you want swish table look or family made table stuff?
I go for family made table stuff and as DS is only little last year we did a paper runner with cut up Christmas card stuck on , hides table mats in centre of table and looked quite jolly. Also gave us an activity for Christmas morning while dinner was cooking. and cost next to nowt.
This year DS has made place mats for every body. A4 sugar paper, cut up cards and bits for catalogues and stickers. I'll laminate them all. If I was being style conscious I'd have restricted his colour palate, but I gave him free rein.

cherry monster - where will you be getting your silver charges from? I was thinking of something similar.

I agree about not overcomplecating the table so I was thinking table cloth, runner, chargers with napkinds and napkin rings and maybe some candles or place settings of some kind which can be removed as suggested.

My other problem is that I don't have any shelves or a fireplace in my lonuge so I'm lacking in places to actually hang decorations. The last few years we've just had the tree but it looks a bit bear and I'd like to do something to make the whole place look more festive!

oh also girly - what magazines are you speaking of - I could do with some inspiration.

Trucks.

I quite like this as an idea but it would be expensive to buy this all from new for 10 people!

www.next.co.uk/shopping/homeware/kitchen/15/4?extra=sch&n=homeware&pid=480-431&exclude=00Q00%7c00QL0 400%7c00QL00&returnurl=%2fshop%2fgattproductaffiliation%2dtableware%2d0%3fnxti%3d0%26nxtv%3d0%26isor t%3dglobalpop&bct=%26quot%3bShop%20By%20Product%26quot%3b%26nbsp%3b%26gt%3b%26nbsp%3bTableware

Sweetheart, The Christmas Magazine and Ideal Home's Complete Gude to Christmas. Lots of ideas for food, decs, things to make, gifts etc.

We also have no fireplace, but I have a sideboard which has a swag of fake fir decorated with baubles and has lights woven into it. I also hang baubles on different lengths of gold ribbon from a picture frame, you can do the same on a mirror.

If you have any large paned windows, you can use those clear suction hooks for hanging non-breakable decs directly from the glass. A vase of artificial flowers/foliage and berry sprays or bundles of gold/silver/white twigs look good in a 'boring' corner.

Even a bought artificial wreath can have battery powered LED lights woven into it, for a safe coffee table decoration. If you want to hang a wreath from an internal door,
hang it on a long ribbon looped through it, and fix this to the top of the door with a drawing pin. The door will still be able to close.

girly thanks so much for all those ideas they are fab. I visited my local garden centre today and got some ideas about using ribbon to hang baubles (perhaps from my curtain rail, tops of doors, mirror etc) and I've sorted my colour scheme (silver, white and a hint of red) so I'm very excited.

I brought charger plates candles and confetti for my dining table today to so I'm going to lay it all out and see what it looks like.

Any other ideas would be gratefully received!

Sounds really good sweetheart. I forgot to mention that those suction hooks stick well to pvcu window frames and patio window frames if you wanted to run a string of fairy lights along. You don't need to make any holes for hooks. We can't have lit candles, as the cat jumps on the table sometimes, it's not worth the risk! (Hence my fondness for battery LED fairy lights!)

I think I should set up a decorating consultancy, tell me all your woes and problems!

ohhh lovely - so where do you get these suction hooks from? I would love to have twinkling fairy lights everywhere but I'm shirt of plugs and don't really want wires hanging everywhere.

My problem is stuff I try and make myself always ends up looking naff! I usually just hang tinsel in a few places but it's just not exciting me this year!

I have seen the suction hooks at Wilkinsons and Homebase, the latter have a variety of sizes to cope with heavier lights/ garlands.

I have given up on tinsel altogether. I do make an effort with the kitchen window as it's at the front of the house, and the primary school children have something to look at on their way there. I have a lit 'snowflake' and some white fuzzy ones on suction hooks, plus a fresh fir wreath outside and a tiny yew tree in a pot that has a few baubles on it by the door.

In the lounge diner, lights are on the Christmas tree, sideboard garland, small half tree in diner end, and the battery ones in the table arrangement. This way I can hide the extension cables if not close to a socket.