Xmas 2023

3 Dec

Thrilled this year to make the cover of Your Home magazine with our feature about beautiful Clare’s Edinburgh family home. You can follow Clare on Instagram @the_vintage_newbuild

Clare lives in her modern, loft style apartment with her husband and their three children. You enter on the bedroom level and head upstairs to a fabulous, light filled, open plan living and dining area with a separate kitchen and a study area. Their home is a wonderful place to spend Christmas and they host the wider family here.

New Years eve is usually a quiet affair when you have three young children, they enjoy a meal and a family movie, but Clare and her husband are also treated to a view of the Edinburgh Hogmanay fireworks from their living room windows!

I love her collection of ceramic houses that she brings out for Christmas to pop over sparkly electric tea lights. ‘They are a lifesaver when you have young children and pets running around, I love the glow of candlelight on a short winter day or a cosy evening, but these are so much safer’ Clare explains.

Clare is a gifted decorator and up cycler. She honestly spots the blandest pieces of dated furniture in charity shops and transforms it into gorgeous decorative storage solutions.

‘My best bargain was the pine shelving in the kitchen that I have upcycled and painted and placed above a radiator cover to look like a dresser. Painting dated furniture is a great way to salvage useful items and save them from landfill. It is fun to experiment with colour and pattern and you can rescue just about anything and bring it back to life. I have used a number of key shades over and over again for continuity.’

A self-confessed magpie, Clare admits to being quite impulsive when it comes to her décor.

‘I am very instinctive when it comes to interiors, I do not over think, I just get on with it’ Clare admits.

‘For inspiration I like to look at shop displays, I particularly like Anthropologie, their staging and styling is extra special’ she shares.

‘I am an accidental collector of Christmas treasures’ she laughs.

The children’s bedrooms are fun filled and colourful!

Over the years Clare has collected a stunning selection of decorations, usually from TK Maxx, a favourite hunting ground for Clare and all interior magpies of course!

‘We put out the stockings on Christmas Eve with the kids and leave out a mince pie and a drink for Santa. Then all open presents on Christmas Day morning. Overall, it’s informal and relaxed’ she shares.

Douglas and I love our Christmas shoots by the way, it is always such a fun day. I make very obviously home made mince pies for an authentic touch and fill the car with holly, satsumas and colourful candles!

If you feel your home comes to life around Christmas, please get in touch - we would love to see it all aglow!

Have any of you see my Substack by the way? My latest project/endeavour/way of giving myself a nervous breakdown…! I will share more in the New Year…

‘My best idea was painting the stairs, there was a dull grey carpet when we moved in, by painting them a rainbow of pretty pastels to add warmth to the very heart of our home, and to ensure it is as attractive and colourful as possible. I feel we have transformed the whole flat’ Claire shares.

‘And a gallery wall is such a fun project, start with a few favourites and build up slowly. You never need to finish it because you can always change it, they evolve over time.’

Favourite books make great decorative details! The children’s rooms are spacious and double as playrooms. Clare has avoided obvious themes, ‘I wanted their rooms to be fairly timeless, they grow up so fast’ she rues. Painting the walls to wainscot height has added character to their rooms but the contemporary identity of the apartment has been retained.