Our time living in Rich folk’s cottage is coming to an end. Living in a 400-year-old timbered cottage has lots of benefits, but also lots of drawbacks, especially when we are both over 6 foot tall, and the ceiling and doorways are not. The Cottage really comes into its own at Christmas, we joke that it could have been used at a set in The Holiday.
Country Cottage Christmas Porch
To add to the Christmassy charm of the cottage we decided to decorate a Country Cottage Christmas Porch. We took inspiration from the natural Scandinavian style we saw in Copenhagen and translated this to an English country style.
Christmas Plants
We wanted a selection of different plants to create the display, the porch already has a couple of pyramid conifers, and we had a Christmas tree from last year in a pot that we had been growing on. We moved a couple of herbs we have growing in pots to the display, along with a small olive tree. The Olive branch is a symbol of peace so is wonderfully appropriate for our Christmas display. In addition to moving plants we already had we went to our local garden centre to get some Hyacinths, some Hellebores, a couple of Skimmia and a selection of small conifers
Christmas Foliage
A Christmas wreath is a must for us, we created ours by using a base of spruce and adding in a selection of other evergreen foliage including yew and Scott’s pine collected from the common. We also used this foliage to create a garland for the porch, using floristry wire to hold it together. We bought some mistletoe and a bough of holly, traditional Christmastime plants to add in.
Finishing Touches
Earlier this year we had a Birch tree cut down and the logs cut for our fire through winter. We thought the logs we so beautiful we used a few in our display. We also added in a basket of pine cones we have been collection whilst taking our dog for a walk. Taking inspiration from our Scandinavian trip we needed some light, so we wrapped warm white fairy lights around the garland and some of the plants, and put our a pair of lanterns to creating a welcoming glow as you walk up.
What do you think of our Country Cottage Christmas porch? We hope it makes the cottage welcoming and inviting. Is there anything you would differently, let us know in the comments section, or get in touch on social media.
