littleBIGBELL Dining Room Archives -

04 Dec

Personalised Emma Bridgewater tableware for Christmas.

I’ve been a fan of Emma Bridgewater for as long as I can remember, way before I became a blogger. I am therefore very excited to be able to style my Christmas table this year with their tableware. I’ve picked a few different designs. The base dinner plates are the Polka Dot 10.5” plates and the bowls are the Bright Stars small old bowls. The 8.5 inch plates below the bowls are in a variety of Emma Bridgewater designs. I’ve also been able to personalise these smaller plates with words to add some fun. Here’s one of the personalised plates. I tried to pick happy, motivational words, to bring joy to the Christmas table. In keeping with the Emma Bridgewater theme, I have decided to use their Christmas Brights cocktail napkins and Gold toast Christmas crackers to further decorate the dining table. The central large plate is the Emma Bridgewater Christmas brights medium oval platter. It’s the perfect size for the trimmed turkey slices and trimmings, don’t you think? Once the table was set, all that was left to do, was to decorate the fireplace. I decided on some pink honeycomb balls and gold leaves.

A few wrapped Christmas gifts were placed on the mantelpiece as decor. Last but not least, I have a special exclusive Christmas offer for you on the personalised Emma Bridgewater tableware.

Until Sunday 8th December 2019, if you quote PERSONAL25 at checkout, you get 25% off all personalised orders.

This is an exclusive offer for all of you, my readers only.

Hope you have enjoyed seeing my table. I will be back again soon with more festive posts. For now, I would like to wish you all a lovely week ahead.

( The Emma Bridgewater tableware were gifted. all photography and styling are by Geraldine Tan, editor of Little Big Bell. )

24 Oct

The perfect extending dining table from Adventure In Furniture.

I have been searching high and low for the perfect extending dining table for a while. Here is a first close up peek.

I previously owned a long contemporary white glass table.

Whilst it was a beautiful piece of design, there were several issues for me.

It was too heavy to move. In addition to that, it was too large, so occupied my whole dining room space.

However, despite it being large, it wasn’t large enough for Christmas, when the whole family descended at our house.

You see, Christmas has always been a major event at ours, but as years have gone by, the extended family unsurprisingly expanded.

Armed with a long list of wants for my new table, the search was on. Here’s my list, the extending dining table had to be:

1. Small enough to create a sense of space in the room.

2. Able to accommodate up to 12 people for the Christmas family meal.

3. A beautiful piece of design with natural wood and a white surface, against which colours can pop.

4. Easy to move around.

5. A classic piece of design that will last the test of time.

6. Sustainable in its design. After much searching, I’m pleased to say that I came across Adventures In Furniture at the Grand Designs fair in London.

I couldn’t believe that they had the dining table that ticked all the boxes of my requirements.

Adventures in Furniture is a London based, family owned business that makes sustainably designed furniture, with 2 stores in Islington and Chiswick. Here it is, my extending dining table of dreams. Introducing you to the Zurich Fenix oak extending dining table.

It’s 160cm x 90cm. It has two 50cm leaves below which can extend the table to 210cm and 260cm. There are small castors on the legs of the table, which allows for the table to be extended out or moved easily.

With one hand you can just lift the butterfly leaf up in one swift and easy motion. Here’s how the table looks fully extended. It can now fit 12 people for Christmas. Yay! It’s such an elegant dining table don’t you think? I absolutely love it. Love its slender, rounded and tapered legs that fit flush to the corners too. You can have a solid wood top or select from a variety of colourful Fenix for the surface. I went for the white Fenix as it would be a great backdrop for food photography.

In case, you’re wondering what Fenix is, it’s an acrylic resin that is fixed with nano particles which makes it super tactile but also easy to clean.

You get a special cleaning sponge that can remove the toughest of stains such as Sharpie permanent ink marks. That’s great for me, as we sometimes work at the dining table. Hope you have enjoyed seeing my new table. I can’t wait to take more photos of it soon as we celebrate various events at home.

Do take a look at Adventures In Furniture for their variety of furniture. Their choice of extending dining tables is huge, and you can custom make a few features to your liking too.

( All photography are by Little Big Bell. I sought out the brand for this collaboration. The table was a gift).

09 Oct

How to decorate a Christmas table with pastel colours.

This post is about how to decorate a Christmas table with pastel colours.

Yes you read it rightly.

It may only be October, and whilst everyone is preparing for Halloween, I’ve decided to work on my Christmas table.

Better be prepared than never right?

I’ve gone for a fun Glamour look, filled with pastel colours.

I found some amazing pieces from Littlewoods online to help me create this look. Firstly, I wanted a dinner set that looked elegant and festive, but could later reuse for other occasions.

This 18 piece gold band dinner set by Waterside from Littlewoods online fitted the bill. The white of the plates were a perfect blank canvas to style against.

White is good, because it’s an easy backdrop if you are using a variety of colours or different themes.

The gold rims give the table a festive glamour feel.

I’ve enhanced the place settings with patterned pink napkins, baubles, crackers and gold cutlery. These pastel coloured Polka wine glasses by LSA International, also from Littlewoods online, really add that pop of pastel and fun to the table.

The glasses come in a set of 4 with pink, yellow, blue and mint. Here’s my other favourite find, iridescent baubles from Littlewoods online.

I’ve suspended them from the chandelier to create a festive snowdrops effect. Finally, here’s my fireplace painted in Graham and Brown’s Penelope eggshell paint.

I just adore that shade of pink. Do you like it?

I’ve adorned my fireplace with a pretty Silver grey and white berry garland, also from Littlewoods online.

That silvery grey is absolutely gorgeous, and really makes it look like a frosty Wintery day, but thank goodness without the cold.

I’ve suspended some baubles from the garland to add colour. So here it is, my Christmas dining table with the suspended baubles and garland.

Incidentally, if you are wondering about the other decor, the 3 colour circle wall mirror and Pink tassel floor lamp are also from Littlewoods online.

I think you now know where I like to shop. Hope you’ve enjoyed the simple tips on how to decorate a Christmas table. It really was so easy to do.

If you want to create the same, without the stress of thinking up a scheme this Christmas, then do shop my finds from Littlewoods online.

I will be back soon with more festive posts. Now that I’ve started, there’s no stopping.

Have a lovely day all. x

( All styling and photography are by Geraldine Tan, editor of Little Big Bell. The products from Littlewoods are gifted but this is not a sponsored blog post, I merely wanted to write this myself to show you how to decorate a Christmas table in pastel hues.)

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