INTERIORS - JOHN BIDDELL


John Charles Interiors


So what does the tastefully decorated house look like on Christmas Day? Well, probably exactly like yours and mine. Whilst the rules of good interior design don’t fly out of the window each December, they can certainly be relaxed. And as my design mentor Walter Walker, now long dead God rest him, design director of Alfred Allen used to say, “John, the day you think you’re the arbiter of good taste you might as well pack up and go home”


So . . . real or false, themed or random, uncluttered or stuffed to breaking point? I’m talking of course about the tree, and it really is up to you. There is no right or wrong answer. For many years now I’ve always had a real tree, and am happy to put up with the inconvenience of a few dropped needles in exchange for that wonderful smell of pine when you enter the room each morning. As for whether to theme it or not, well I suppose you really should, taking two or possibly three colours from your decor and majoring on them for your tree ornaments and other assorted bits and bobs around the room. But here I have to admit to being a little hypocritical. My tree is a completely random collection of ornaments and baubles of every shape, size and colour, collected over a number of years from cities and countries we’ve visited, or that I’ve bought just because I like them.


The crowning glory of which is a somewhat tousled silver and gold cardboard star that my elder daughter, who now runs my show- room, made when she was in infants school. This is much to the annoyance of my wife, who thinks I really should know better and follow her ideas of a simply themed tree. So we’ve made the perfect compromise – we have two trees, one goes in the living room while the other has pride of place in the dining room.


As for the rest of the house, you can go as mad as you like with garlands on mantelpieces, fabulous table decorations and


runners, swags up banisters, holly protruding from just about every nook and cranny, and of course mistletoe liberally dotted around and about. As I mentioned this time last year, I’m now the proud (???) owner of a five foot high singing Santa, an equally tall lantern that sprays fake snow and plays tunes, and a hanging model of a bi-plane piloted by Rudolph himself singing “Santa Claus is coming to town”.


Ah well, there’s no accounting for taste. Have a Merry Christmas, and we’ll all get our sensible design heads on again in the New Year.


In the words of Charles Dickens’ Tiny Tim . . . God bless us every one !!!


JOHN BIDDELL - JOHN CHARLES INTERIORS 349 Hagley Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B17 8DL T. 0121 420 3977 www.johncharlesinteriors.co.uk


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John Biddell - John Charles Interiors


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