Creating a Welcoming Guest Room

If you are expecting guests during the festive season, then it might be a good time to start evaluating your guest room. Is it a lovely space to spend some time or has it become a junk storage area? What will you need to do to make your guest room a welcoming space?

Photo by Annie Spatt

A few things to consider when preparing your guest room:

1. Consider if the room can be multi-functional:
Earlier this year, we set up a lovely craft cabinet in our guest room which I absolutely loved! It was a great space in which to work and housed all my creative materials. However, as soon as we had guests to stay for a few weeks I had to move the cabinet out to fit in an extra bed. It was also not really possible to go in there and work while we had guests staying in the room. So in our case, having a multi-functional guest room just doesn't work.

2. Take out things that are not useful in the space:
When I decided that our guest room was only going to be used for guests to stay there, it was easier to keep just guest room essentials in the room as well as a few stored items. In between visitors it can become a bit of a junk deposit area, but after another few hours of having to clear the space again I have made a firm decision not to just stuff things into the guest room cupboard when I don't have time to deal with them.

3. Keep it guest -ready:
If you are in a position to have a dedicated guest room, I think it is easier to keep it in a state that it is ready for guests rather than rushing around madly at the last minute like I sometimes do! That may mean having guest towels and linen clean and ready to use as well as a dedicated drawer or shelf with extra toiletries in a basket. We also have a hair drier set up and a music player that lives in the guest room. I like to add fresh flowers, a chocolate treat and water bottle at the last minute but everything else can be prepared in advance. If you would like to read my previous post, which has a list of guest room "essentials", click here.

I will also ask our guests what their experience of the guest room is like so that I can make adjustments and improvements in future.

Do you have a dedicated guest room? What are some of the essentials you feel are necessary for a pleasant stay?

Christmas Tree Decoration Tips

One of our most loved Christmas traditions is decorating  our tree. We have a collection of sentimental ornaments that I love to see each year as we listen to carols and decorate. Typically our tree has been rather a hodge podge of elements, but this year we watched some videos on YouTube to inspire us and give us some decorating tips!

Photo by Joanna Kosinka

It helps to start up with a unifying theme in mind - either a colour or feel such as "red and gold" or "Scandinavian style". Then you can use baubles in your chosen colour or theme to give a cohesive look to the tree before adding your collection of other ornaments. If you really want a stylish look, you may like to match your tree to the decor style of the rest of your house.

We used silver pine cones (instead of baubles) and silver beaded garland as well as mainly red coloured (non-breakable!)  decorations as our basic theme. I also like to try and use a gift wrapping style and colour that co-ordinates with the tree, so I typically use red ribbon bows on wrapping paper that has a red pattern of some sort on it. If you would like to read my previous post on using a gift wrapping style, click here.

Here are the steps we used this year to decorate our tree:

Step 1: Consider your tree skirt, pot or other container that the tree will stand in. Check that the bottom of the tree looks attractive.

Step 2: If you are using a fresh tree, turn the tree till it is facing the best direction and prune branches if necessary to get a good symmetrical shape. You can use secateurs to do this and cut at an angle to disguise the fresh cuts. If you are using a plastic tree, fluff out the branches and arrange them so that the tree has a good shape and looks more natural.

Step 3: If you are using fairy lights, check that they are working. Wind them around the tree in a spiral. Use lights near the inside part of the tree too to give the tree a sense of depth.

Step 4: Add garlands around the tree. These can be made of popcorn, beaded strings, hessian or anything that goes with the theme you are creating with your tree. You could also use bows instead.

Step 5: Sort your baubles into small, medium and large sizes. Hang your baubles on the tree, one colour at a time to get an even spread. Hang the large ones near the bottom of the tree, medium towards the middle and smaller at the top of the tree.

Step 6: Also sort your other decorations into sizes: small, medium and large. Use these to fill in the gaps left by the baubles again with bigger decorations at the bottom ,medium in the middle area and smallest at the top.

Step 6: Finish with a tree topper that is secured in place or hung in front of the tree top.

After following these steps, I think our tree now looks at its best and we are enjoying the festive atmosphere it creates in our home.

When do you put up your tree? What tips do you have for getting your tree to look its best? If you would like to read my earlier post about planning for Christmas, click here.