Natural Festive Decorations by the Pros: How to Get the Look at Home
Welcome to the BLOG
Hi, I’m Sandra,
If you're in awe of stunning interiors and crazy about home decor, you’re in the right place. As an interior writer with a background in styling and photography for leading magazines around the globe, as well as an avid home renovator, I am here to help all you interior enthusiasts to style and decorate your home with ease and confidence, like a pro.
On this blog, I’ll be sharing inspiring tours of beautifully styled spaces, along with insightful articles packed with advice, tips, and ideas for home styling and decoration. Having styled countless different homes, I am able to introduce you to a wide variety of interior styles and aesthetics, rather than focusing on a single look. Today’s post goes behind the scenes with the florists in action decorating 5 star style at Chewton Glen hotel, with natural, foraged-style festive decorations, combined with a more traditional look.
FORAGED STYLE MEETS TRADITIONAL FESTIVE DECORATIONS
Photos: Sandra van Aalst
This stunning natural festive arrangement brings a more rustic charm to seasonal decorating and has been created by a florist with a fabulous eye. Emma, owner of Arcade Flowers, invited me behind the scenes to see how she and her team create all the Christmas installations at Chewton Glen Hotel, a luxury 5-star Relais & Chateaux hotel situated in the New Forest which is in the south of England. Watching Emma decorating in a less structured way reaffirmed my love for natural festive styling. Check out my recent blog post which features my own natural decorations. In contrast to the foraged displays, Emma also decorated several Christmas trees dotted around the hotel in a more traditional style, with velvet red baubles and glass droplets, but also featuring natural elements, like cinnamon sticks and dried orange slices. From the more classic festive palette of red and green to the foraged installations, read on to find out how you can create hotel-style festive decorations in your own home.
FORAGED-STYLE FESTIVE DISPLAYS
Wild, textural and richly layered, these stunning installations show that you don’t need glitter and shine to make an impact during the festive season. Just a few branches and natural elements put together, like the arrangements above, can look super stylish. The displays pictured here are created from an interesting mix with large dried hydrangea heads in faded pinks, bronzed bracken, sprigs of fir, branches with berries and pine cones, combined with dried oranges and just the odd bauble in either glass or copper.
Emma has cleverly styled each arrangement in an unstructured way, which gives the display a sense of movement. She started by placing the evergreen foliage, branches and bracken, using wire to attach them to a metal archway. The arrangement on the right, however, is just hanging from a hook, so Emma put this together on the table, layering the bracken on top of the fir, then poking in hydrangea heads and a few well-placed glass baubles to add just a touch of glamour.
You could create a display like this yourself on a table, then hang it from a hook on the wall or ceiling. Alternatively, you can use a tension rod, which you can buy from Amazon, and place in a doorway or from one wall to another, working around it like Emma has on the metal arches. A stair banister also works really well. Read on for the list of exactly what you need to make an arrangement.
GET THE LOOK AT HOME
Below is a list of all the foliage and various elements Emma has used in her natural foraged displays. You don’t have to have every item as you can improvise with branches, alternative greenery and pine cones. If you don’t have access to dried or preserved flowers, you can use fresh flowers by placing them in a water tube, which you can purchase from Amazon. You can tuck the water tube into the foliage to disguise it.
LIST OF ELEMENTS
DRIED HYDRANGEA HEADS
BRACKEN OR FERN THAT, BY DYING BACK, HAS NATURALLY BRONZED
RED FRESH HELLEBORES
EVERGREEN FIR OR EUCALYPTUS
DRIED SLICED AND WHOLE CLEMENTINES
BRANCHES OF RED BERRIES OR ROSE HIP
PINECONES
OLD MAN’S BEARD
GLASS OR BRONZE BAUBLES
FAIRY LIGHTS
STRING OR FLORIST’S WIRE
DRYING ORANGES
Emma has repeatedly used dried oranges as decorations in different ways throughout the hotel, including on the Christmas trees. Sliced and bunched together or whole, dried oranges are such a natural way to add colour and that festive feel to a display. You can add them to your gift wrap, use them as part of your table decorations or hang them on the tree. Follow the instructions below to create your own dried orange decorations.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
Small oranges, tangerines or clementines and a sharp knife.
Oven, warming drawer or dehydrator.
FOR ORANGES WITH SCORING
Use a sharp knife to cut vertical lines around the orange, so they look like the oranges pictured here. Gently cut even lines from top to bottom, like segments through the peel. Try not to cut into the flesh. The peel will pull back slightly as it dries, creating that striped pattern you can see in the image here. You don’t need to remove the flesh as this will shrink and dry up once the orange is in the oven.
FOR SLICED ORANGES
Slice your oranges or clementines into thin slices of around 5 mm. Blot gently with a paper towel to soak up any excess juice.
THE DRYING PROCESS
Place your oranges or slices on a baking tray in the oven on a low heat of around 100°C / 200°F for 3 to 4 hours. Alternatively, you can dry them out in a dehydrator or warming drawer. To help them dry evenly, turn them every hour. If you are drying whole oranges, they may need a bit longer. To tell if they are fully dried, they should no longer be sticky. Leave them to cool.
FINAL TOUCHES
Turn your dried orange slices into natural garlands. Use a needle and thread to attach them to each other, then tie with ribbon.
ADD A SNOWY TEXTURE WITH OLD MAN’S BEARD
In the display on the left, and in the box in the picture on the right, are the dried flowers of clematis vitalba, known more commonly as old man's beard. It grows wild and is often seen in the hedgerows. Its flowers, when dry, form cloud-like, fluffy clumps, and with its snowy texture, contrast beautifully against the deep green of foliage. Hang it bunched together, as in the arrangement above, to lighten up a display.
RUSTIC MEETS REFINED ON THE CHRISTMAS TREE
In contrast to the natural, foraged style displays, this Christmas tree leans more towards classic festive elegance. Emma has decorated it in a timeless palette with rich red, antique gold, and warm copper baubles, sitting alongside organic elements. Emma has mixed textures such as plush velvet and metallics for sheen, and teamed these with handmade, traditional touches like dried orange slices and cinnamon. She has also woven in bundles of cinnamon sticks tied with ribbon, which she hangs just like baubles. When decorating your tree, it’s about getting the balance of your festive ingredients right so that it feels luxurious yet also homemade, and always elevated by fairy lights.
FESTIVE GARLANDS
A festive garland can be used to decorate all sorts of areas in your home: draped across the mantelpiece, winding along a stair banister, surrounding a doorway or, like the one Emma has created pictured here, around an archway. To keep the scheme cohesive with the Christmas trees and foraged decorations, Emma has tucked in dried orange slices tied with velvet ribbons, combined with red and bronze baubles. The overall look is festive, yet still natural and subtle.
You can now buy ready-made real and faux fir garlands. Once you have your garland, start by adding fairy lights for that festive sparkle. Some imitation garlands come with fairy lights already attached. Battery-operated lights are best for garlands, so wherever you place it, you don’t have to worry about having a socket close by. Finally, add your baubles, dried oranges and other ornaments of your choice, securing these with wire, string, or by tying the decoration with ribbon directly onto the branches.
STYLISHLY WRAPPED GIFTS
Presents wrapped so stylishly, like the ones pictured here, are a key part of the festive décor. From earthy-toned printed wrapping paper to velvet and satin ribbons, Emma and her team have made the wrapped gifts look tactile and festive. Around the tree on the right, they have wrapped different sized boxes all in the same white paper with red, green and burnt orange ribbon. Each present then has a touch of greenery, such as a sprig of fir or holly. For your own gifts, you could also use mistletoe or ivy. Emma has then attached either a dried orange slice or a cinnamon stick for that extra layer of detail.
To add stylish gifts to your tree, wrap gifts in advance in different size boxes for variety to give that luxurious feel. Alternatively, if you haven’t done your Christmas shopping, you can, like hotels and shops, wrap a few empty boxes as festive props. Once you’ve wrapped your boxes, go that extra mile like the pros with that little added detail on each gift that makes everything feel more special. The little touches, like the addition of a single bauble dangling from the ribbon, a small pine cone, a piece of holly or a couple of dried orange slices, will ensure your gifts look as good as the rest of your decorations.
MAGICAL CHRISTMAS TREES
To give you the full picture, I just had to show you the magical scene of Chewton Glen at the entrance, taken by my niece, who is also a photographer and who thoroughly enjoyed her visit to the hotel. Here is Fleur looking up at the biggest tree in the hotel, which starts on the ground floor and its top, with the star, reaches the first floor.
LET’S SUM UP
Whether it was the foraged hanging arrangements, tree decorations, or beautifully wrapped gifts, hopefully the decorations at Chewton Glen Hotel give you ideas to bring into your own home and are a reminder that, with a few natural elements and thoughtful details, you can create something truly special this season.
