9 minute read
WINTER HOSTING The tastemakers set the tone with their dining room decor
Winter’s FEAST
Colourful, abundant and eco-conscious decorations will be featuring on the Christmas tables of London’s top tastemakers, writes Arabella St John Parker
At the risk of tempting fate, entertaining at home is back and this Christmas is set to be bright and beautiful. But what will the best-dressed dining tables be wearing?
DEBORAH BASS, Interior designer
“Colour and fluid, figurative forms were everywhere at both Frieze in London, and at FIAC in Paris this year and there was barely a geometric or neutral in sight. Our Christmas will be the same: messy, colourful and abundant, in an environmentally conscious way. I’ll use pottery in clashing colours, with white linen and random objets that I’ve collected over the years, anything from miniature dogs and plastic ducks to old Capodimonte from my dad’s shop. I arrange them among vases of flowers which we have delivered from online florists, Freddie’s Flowers ( freddiesfl owers.com) and candles in little candlesticks – the Heddon sticks from Neptune (neptune.com) are adorable. I like things to be arranged randomly, asymmetrically, scattered around.”
Dinner party or buff et supper?
“We usually have a buffet-style supper but sitting down as we eat in the evening, by which time, I’m far too hungry to eat standing up. Nibbles, with Champagne and gin and tonics and sparkling water for the rest of us, are arranged on the island. The turkey, all the trimmings, and trifle – always a trifle on Christmas Day – go on the dining table; my dream table is Se London’s Temptation (se-collections.com) – it’s one to save up for and I’d have it made with bronze legs and a marble top.”
Postprandial treat?
“Each year, the children are usually fixed on a favourite character or song – one year it was the big bad wolf, another year it was ‘Sing a song of sixpence’ – and my parents-in-law will surprise them with a specially made Christmas cake decorated by a local culinary artist to match the character or song.” baseinterior.com
KATHARINE POOLEY, Interior designer
“Christmas is absolutely my favourite time of the year. As well as our own trees at home in the country, I decorate 22 trees for charity every year, so I always start planning the January before! We sit down for Christmas lunch in the dining room – we can seat ten comfortably – and I like to put a tree in there as well as one in the hall and in the drawing room. It sets the theme for the flowers on the table and the candelabra, with traditional red accents and lots of foliage, organically and thickly layered. I usually decorate the trees myself but if I’m having guests, which this year I am, I call in the help of the wonderful Neill Strain to do the dining room mantlepiece
and staircase garlands – the fragrance of greenery takes my breath away every time I come home; it’s one of my favourite things about this time of year.”
Use this Christmas, and repeat
“We recently watched the film Eating Our Way to Extinction and it had a profound effect on us; as part of our change of direction, instead of turkey, we’ll have locally caught trout, en croute, and in place of plastics we’re trying to use more and more natural materials. All the twigs and foliage will come from the garden, as will the rosemary which we add to our Seedlip gin and tonics.”
Amuse-bouche?
“I always put a Christmas present on each plate and this year, it’ll be a Pomelo star from Jo Loves, to tie in with the Scandinavian white theme in the drawing room, and a cracker – I shall save the ribbons on Sophie Allport’s Christmas Tree crackers for future use.” katharinepooley.com BIRDIE FORTESCUE, Creative director
“I can’t resist traditional Christmas decorations and colours – whether you use them altogether, or just green and white, or red and white, they’re colours that make any room look and feel warm and celebratory, elegant and yet not too formal, which is just the look I like for our long, narrow open-plan kitchendining room. The dining table is a long, 19th-century French one that seats 14 with ease, perfect for Christmas Day this year, but ideally, I’d have a circular or oval one, from the Decorative Collective (decorativecollective.com) or Lorfords (lorfordsantiques.com).
Tablescaping
“To give the room a sense of occasion, I always use a tablecloth with co-ordinating placemats and napkins, and I like to layer up the tableware using a mixture of hand-painted large plates and bowls from Romania with cabbageware pieces, clear glass for wine glasses and coloured,
DECK THE HALLS Clockwise from top left:
Birdie Fortescue’s leaf-patterened Ilex tablecloth in green, £165; Katharine Pooley’s dining table arrangement using natural foliage, and festive mantelpiece, with help from florist Neill Strain; Christmas glassware from Petersham Nurseries; A Birdie Fortescue twisted candle in rose, £24, green Romanian bowl, £19.50 and vase, £19. Previous page: table setting by Neptune
perhaps textured glass tumblers with classic silver cutlery. Flowers and foliage are essential, of course, and once the candlesticks and vases are in place, I like to arrange a thick line of berried holly along the centre of the table, adding pine cones and some of my favourite festive decorations. For flowers, I buy from my local wholesaler and do the arrangements myself. I keep them simple and low – with a narrow table, you want to be able to see your fellow guests – and love baby white or soft pink cyclamen in little glazed vases, or a huge bunch of cut hyacinths in a low, wide glass bowl.”
Party favours
Instead of presents, we take a Secret Santa approach, with a set spending limit and a challenge to be imaginative so that each person receives a small gift that has been thoughtfully chosen. birdiefortescue.co.uk
NATURAL BEAUTY Clockwise from
below: Louise Bradley favours a rustic and simple festive look with this tablescape and foliage on the mantelpiece; a bright floral display from Neill Strain, featuring tall candles
NEILL STRAIN, Creative director, luxury florist
“The festive season is the one time of year when taste can go out of the window, and you can get away with anything. Use this time to express your creative side.”
Tablescaping
“For the dining table, I like to use lots of candlelight and reflective metals to create a soft ambiance, and to complement the colour scheme in my own home, I use a palette of navy, dark green, burgundy and soft pink, with gold as my accent colour. If you prepare your table the day before, you can enjoy the grandeur before the buzz of the big day takes over.”
Use this Christmas, and repeat
“We encourage everyone to save re-useable decorations from their wreaths and garlands and we can then incorporate them into a new design the next year. We have also moved away from floral foam, which is a micro-plastic and very damaging to the planet, and we use new foams made with biodegradeable fibres.” neillstrain.com LOUISE BRADLEY, Interior designer
“Christmas is not about how much you can buy, it’s about things that you have gathered over time because you love them.”
Table décor
“I like decorations that look natural, organic and textured, with twigs and branches of larch and candlelight throughout the house. They set the scene, from front door to table, which I tend to keep simple as I like to have the food presented on the table, and always on white china. That way, the joyful colour of the food can play its part in the decoration – the red of the cranberry sauce, the green sprouts. The raw edges of my dark wood dining table add to the effect – a nibbleedged marble tabletop would look fabulous too – and is a lovely way to off-set the antique linen napkins I found at Guinevere (guinevere.co.uk); they were embroidered with my initials, so I had to buy them, and I like to roll them and tie them up with Petersham ribbon (petershamnurseries.com). Seating needs to be comfortable – I like to sit at the table chatting for hours – so I have a banquette along one side of my dining table and curve-backed chairs on the other, which I may cover with white linen loose covers this Christmas. I also suspend a wreath of larch and twigs above the table, to match the freestyle arrangement on my mantelpiece – florist John Carter (johncarterflowers.com) is a master at this.” L louisebradley.co.uk
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