Christmas at the Cottage

I’m sure many of you know we moved into our tiny little cottage earlier this when Covid hit. And I’ve been waiting all year to decorate it and do Christmas at the cottage.

Recently, I made the decision to paint the living room a soft murky pink, after contemplating it for several months. I honestly didn’t think my husband would agree. I thought the mere mention would spur a potential disagreement! Anyway, about 2 weeks ago I woke up and declared that’s what I was doing, and hoped for the best. To my surprise he didn’t put up a fight. Winning!

A day later and there was no going back. And we could not be more elated with the outcome! It actually probably helped doing it at Christmas time because the cottage looks even prettier with our tree all lit up, candles, and fireplace mantle all dressed for Christmas. It’s my favourite living room we’ve even done.

From our little cottage eat-in-kitchen, looking through to our cozy pink living room – all decorated for Christmas.

What a difference a year makes. This time last year it was extreme heat and devastating bush fires in Australia (and the Southern Highlands, where we live). This year it’s cold, there’s been lots of rain, and many nights we’ve had the fire on. So much better and gosh, it feels so incredibly festive. I’m absolutely loving it!

I recently sold our faux Balsam Hill tree as I just missed the smell of a fresh Christmas tree too much. It was a beautiful faux tree, but gee it was a pain to store and to put up. And put away! I’m so happy we’ve gone back to a real tree. Going natural and perfectly imperfect is my new vibe.

Hydrangeas from my beautiful friend Annie’s garden. Mine are slowly coming out and hopefully by Christmas day I’ll have a huge bounty of them.

The rug is a vintage one I bought at an estate auction, and I’m going to recover the ottoman soon in a patterned fabric. The garland is a mix of faux and real pine; a Pottery Barn one in the middle and then I wired in fresh pine at the sides and added a dehydrates blood orange garland. A lot of our tree decorations have been collected over time; some from Pottery Barn, the Coolroom Emporium in Robertson, and the red ribbons I did on our tree in 2013, plus a few of the kids decorations dotted in and around the tree too. The white camel ceramic candle holders were my grandma’s, and are one of the most special things I own. I think of her every time I look at them.

Our tree was cut fresh from The Christmas Tree Man, and it’s a 2.5m Monterey pine. The small is heavenly! We also decided to get a second little tree for the kitchen, which I decorated simply with dehydrated blood oranges. Our kitchen isn’t finished by the way, but slowly we’re getting there. I did an update recently which you can see here.

Wishing you all a very Merry and safe Christmas and thanks for all your support this past year. Every comment, like, email and DM is so appreciated.

Nicki xo