Set the holiday scene with these 10 easy-to-implement ideas for a festive entrance from €12.
Your hall and entrance areas will set the scene for your home’s Christmas mood.
Start by banishing coats and outdoor shoes and make space for some festive fun.
Here are 10 easy ideas to implement to help you get crafting.
1. All wrapped up
Giant-sized bows on the front doors will add instant festive spirit.
These beauties, pictured from Dunnes Stores, are no longer available online but show just how impactful scaling up this form of adornment can be.
WM Trimmings on Dublin’s Capel Street sells a 50 mm wide ribbon for €4.50 per metre.
Youtubers Chica and Jo have a tutorial on how to make large bows from this size of ribbon.
2. Ding dong merrily on high
The tinkle of real bells, as opposed to the digital kind, will add a little old-fashioned romance to the room.
Wrap exterior and interior doors with these in the run-up to December 25th.
It will sound like Santa is imminent all day long. They cost €2.22 each from Sostrene Grene.
3. Start from the top down
Set the scene by drawing the eye upwards to a centrepiece hanging from the centre rose.
By using foraged branches and foliage, you can bulk out the design and intersperse with some of these Lokta Fair Trade paper hanging stars, handmade by artisans in the Kathmandu valleys of Nepal. Price €35, ex delivery, from Toast.
4. Play dress-up
This Agnetha printed velvet tree skirt is the essence of boho.
This design is by US-based Lulu and Georgia and will cost about €134, ex shipping, from the States.
An alternative is to design your own, upload the idea to Contrado, and it will deliver the print onto a polyester velvet up to 1.42 metres wide.
If the skirt diameter needs to be wider, double the order length, cut in half, and stitch or staple together.
5. Get the party lit
Meticulously hand-painted, these three wise men candlesticks are a perennial best seller at Nordic Elements.
They sell out every year.
Reminiscent of church statuary, the hand-cast resin models feature hand-embossed metal and cost €270.
6. 'Tis the season to be jolly
What better way to set the mood and catch the light than a series of disco balls suspended above the bannister.
Rice.dk sells a selection, and the 15cm pink one is available to buy from April and the Bear, €48.
7. The story of Christmas
Households that put up a crib should look at Italian firm Alessi’s Happy Eternity Baby.
Combining the artistic talents of Massimo Giacon and Marcello Jori, you buy the porcelain figures as separate units, starting with the Holy Family, including ox and donkey, €60.49; the three Magi, €58.47; the comet, €38.31; the angel, €20.16, and the star-studded crib itself, €131.07.
Available from MOHD. Prices exclude delivery.
8. Scents and sensibility
Many scented candles evoke Christmas. Noble Myhrr by Irish fragrance house Cloon Keen is one of the most beguiling.
Its blend of spicy cinnamon and cumin with base notes of sandalwood, cedar leaf, patchouli, labdanum, and vanilla burns beautifully and costs €45, ex delivery.
Noble Fir is another option for those who favour a fresher scent.
9. Pooch as welcome party
Hillarys style and product expert, Victoria Robinson, makes her pet pooch feel part of the welcome party.
On December 25th, she adds a cosy blanket and toy to her bed, the latter, she explains, “wrapped like a present, so she feels part of the fun while we open ours.”
10. Light the way
Amp up the ambience by dimming down the lights. Use candles as wayfinders all the way up the stairs.
Just don’t use real candles. Use the LED battery-operated ones that you can find in any good supermarket or hardware store.
The ones pictured are in glass lanterns from H&M Home and cost €20 and €12 for the 17 cm high and 11.2 cm high versions.
