A folklore living room at the Ideal Home Show at Christmas

This room set is inspired by storytelling from days gone by and for me, that's easy to see. It's a room that draws on the traditional reds and greens of Christmas but with a modern slant. It combines rustic with style and screams Christmas doesn't it?  I think there's also a touch of Scandi-style for good measure too.

There are elements of this room I love, the neutral background which looks grey in my pictures is a paint colour called Celestial Blue and provides the perfect backdrop for the bright berry red sofa.

The black framed coffee table and open shelf unit were also favourites, which will no doubt shock MOH as I won't let him have a coffee table in our current living room. I don't dispute how useful the right coffee table would be, but I'm not budging on the fact that it will turn our space into an obstacle course. 

The frame of the table is simple isn't it, and it reminded me that I still need to buy some square metal tubing to repair our gazebo which suffered from pooling rain damage in the summer.  Another one for the to do list. 

I also like how the simple framed table is decorated with eucalyptus and pine.  Pine I've used to decorate our house before, but not eucalyptus and it's something that's on my list for this year.  It also reminded me I still need to buy some square metal tubing to repair our gazebo which suffered from pooling rain damage in the summer.  Another one for the to do list - and funny how you get those reminders when you least expect them isn't it?

We have a teak open shelf unit - well less open than this one - and if I'm honest when I looked at this one I was full of admiration and envy all at the same time.  The plan was for ours to look equally as stylish, but in reality it rarely is and often becomes a home for bills, important stuff and all manner of things.  Luckily we have some doors on ours so a quick tidy (aka shoving things behind the doors) can make it feel super stylish pretty quickly again. Unless you really are a no clutter kind of person I'd always recommend getting some closed space on an open unit, if you can!

No living room room set for Christmas would be complete without a tree would it? Infact I suspect many of us feel the same about our own living rooms. This year I'm contemplating having the tree in our conservatory as with six adults in our house I think the large tree may just prove one thing too many. The challenge will be of course to make our living space equally as festive without the tree, I have a plan starting to form and we'll see if I can pull it off.

The final element of this room I loved was these tiles. The pattern, their texture and how they're used on the floor and the wall to create a practical zone around the log burner.  They're ceramic but are called pressed pantina steel tiles and have that aged look that works so well here, the copper edging really does add the finishing touch.

So what do you think? Is the festive folklore style room for you?

Chevrons and vertical spaces at the Ideal Home Show

This is the last post sharing the room sets from this year's Ideal Home Show and follows on from the kitchen and dining room last week and the bedroom and bathroom the week before.  So which two rooms are left, and which features chevrons, and which makes use of its vertical spaces?

You might have guessed that one of the rooms is the living room, and you'd be right. This room set marries blues, greys, pastel pinks and copper accessories against a bold chevron patterned floor.

It's a room full of shapes too. The diagonals of the chevrons, the square and oblong cushions and the rounded table and pouffe. And there's plenty of places to put your nick-nacks; a trestle table and an inbuilt faux pastel pink shelf.

I told you it was a bold floor didn't I? 

But somehow the floor is another way to add texture to the room without overpowering the space - it just goes to show that if you go bold with your flooring, then while you don't want to add too many patterns, you don't need to be ultra safe either.

The final room set, could be classed a bit of a cheat, as it's an outside room. But it's a space that more of us would love to make better use of, weather permitting. You'll not be surprised to know that I loved the bright colours and it's a space that I feel would zing with energy. 

It's also the space that makes good use of the vertical space in a way that many of us could adopt. I like the modern slats, although now I think of it they do also remind me of the old fashioned lath and plaster too!

It was good to see that the copper trend is still strong, the longer it's here the more it grows on me. And while I've been slow to adopt this, now I think it's hard to avoid it.  I don't think this is the most practical space as where would you put all those cushions overnight?!

So there's all the room sets, there's been some great rooms and looking back I wonder why it took me so long to share them!  Of the six rooms, which was your favourite?