The Interiors Edit: Your guide to chic seasonal decorating

I never much liked wreaths. There was something very Hallmark-Home Alone about the whole thing. Artificial and garish, I didn’t see how they worked with what I considered a stylish home. That was until I made my very first wreath a few years ago with a gold hoop and dried hydrangeas I painted gold at my mother-in-law’s house. It didn’t look like anyone else’s and I loved it.

I then realised why I had struggled with wreaths for so long. They tend to come in one very prescriptive style, yet we all have such different homes and preferences.

Every year, as the children go back to school and the leaves start to crinkle underfoot, the autumn decorations come out. It’s wonderful and nostalgic and fun. But what if it was also chic? Elevated holiday styling should be less about ghosts and angels (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and more about creating a cosy atmosphere.

Cosiness is achieved with lighting, both artificial and candlelit, and the layering of materials that make us feel warm and welcomed.  It’s about slightly tweaking your usual home decor to fall in line with the natural, changing colours of the season. That way these purchases also stand the test of time better and don’t look out of place the second any particular holiday passes. 

Table lamps, candles, blankets, and (more unique) wreaths are my preferred way of autumn and winter styling to achieve that hug-like feeling when you come home.

Broadly speaking, seasonal decor preferences tend to fall in a few camps: traditional, minimalist, and modern. Traditional is classic and timeless, but refined. Minimalist is pared back, restrained in its palette, with an organic touch to keep it from feeling clinical. “Modern” is inspired by midcentury modern, as opposed to contemporary, which are the cleaner lines you are used to seeing nowadays. Modern is funkier, has warmer timber tones, more colours, and a variety of influences from the first half of the 20th century.