Getting ready for Christmas

A few weeks ago, I imagined – fuelled by dreamworld telly and Pinterest – the run up to Christmas would be a few days of casually draping decorations around while sipping wine and listening to festive music.

Our reality has been fraught: him DIYing before and after work and me painting the living room until late. (It wasn’t anything in particular, just that everything taking longer than you think thing). It’s now the 23rd of December and there are still tools lying around everywhere and barely a bauble to be seen. In 48 hours we’ll be feeding 10 and there’s hardly any food in the house.

But, believe it or not, all is in hand.

At midnight last night we got back from a few days in Belfast when I became godmum to my beloved niece, as you may have seen if you’re following on Instagram.

We’d had the living room carpet fitted while we were away, so while every last job won’t be finished before C-Day – no doors on downstairs, for example – there will, at least, be a room for everyone to sit in and a floor covering for hosting charades and such.

It has been a long old journey since we started renovating the downstairs back in the spring. Frankly, we’re knackered, and although we can see the total transformation we’ve brought about in this house, fatigue is clouding the sense of pride and achievement a little.

We’ve had hardly any time to sit back and enjoy any of it yet, so for us that will be a priority over the Christmas break.

Once guests are gone, we want to spend some time at home, just the two of us, appreciating our fortune and admiring our handiwork. We want to enjoy a proper living space, which is back where it should be – next to the kitchen instead of on a different floor. We’ll pop in and out for snacks and drinks. We’ll get cosy under throws on our sofas, or lie diagonally across the floor if we want – because now, we can.

We’ll get our DVD player and all our favourite films and box sets out of their hiding place in the loft and work through them, starting with the full set of Friends that we bought shortly after being reminded how brilliant it was.

I’ve been dreaming of us spending (at least some of) the Christmas break in this way since the summer, and I’m thankful to John Lewis for helping my vision become a reality. They let me choose a piece from their beautiful furniture range to help me get ready for Christmas, so I picked this oak sideboard designed by Matthew Hilton which is a perfect fit in our new living room and will give us plenty of storage. (Remember this post about living room storage when I talked about being on the lookout for a sideboard?)

So here’s a sneaky peak at the living room, which I’ll show you properly when it’s fully done and I’ve had more than five minutes to think about styling.

// sideboard, John Lewis / cushions, TK Maxx / ‘Mexican’ lights, Cable and Cotton / letter ‘N’, Fab / hammered copper tray, Homer in Edinburgh / copper container, H&M / sheepskin, old / ‘Good vibes’ print, made by me //

Our Christmas plans might not sound like much to look forward to for many people but we’re so in need of some rest and relaxation – if only to help us reinstate the energy we need to take us on to the next renovation stage. 2015 is the year we overhaul the outside!

How have you been getting ready for Christmas? Have you been ‘last minute’ like me?

Do you like how the living room is looking so far?