Katie

It’s become a bit of a family tradition to start off our festivities at Hever Castle. This year was our third visit and it’s just as special as the first. 

Hever Castle is just gorgeous on it’s own, but when it’s filled with lights & Christmas it is even more incredible! We arrived just as it was getting dark so the tree lined walk down towards the lake felt like a real winter wonderland. 

The lake joined in this year too, with a huge light show happening across it. I could have sat and watched it for hours with a cup of mulled wine and a mince pie! 

Even though we’ve been in the castle many times before, it never gets boring. The history is just amazing, walking around the rooms, seeing the furniture, paintings and artefacts that were actually around in the days of Henry VII and his wives – I love it! 

This year we were greeted with said mince pies, mulled wine, mulled apple and even hot chocolate. Which felt very decadent, walking around the castle drinking! I imagine it’s how Anne Boleyn felt….

The theme this year was Dickens, and the Christmas Carol story. The walk around the grounds meant we met lots of characters from the story, and, being interactive, we got to speak to a few as well! The walk is always so beautifully laid out, they think of everything, with the characters taking their roles very seriously, no matter who they’re speaking to, adult or child. 

After the walk we had the chance to meet the big man himself, Father Christmas! We found the grotto hidden away down the walkway, with candy canes galore and once inside we were treated to a hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream – it’s obviously freezing in the grotto! 

FC’s chief elf met us, and, luckily, found Charlie’s name on the good list, which meant we were allowed in. Charlie was able to draw a picture for Father Christmas, for him to put up in the grotto. 

You know sometimes when you visit Father Christmas and you come away feeling a little, shall we say, deflated? Not at Hever. He was, for want of a better word, magical. Charlie was in his element and came away feeling very proud that Santa had complimented him on his manners and how polite he was. He left with a board game for us all to play! 

Once we left the grotto we headed back to the lake, via the Huskies that were visiting, just to take in the views one last time. 

We all adore visiting Hever Castle for the Twilight Christmas – it signals the start of the magic for us, adults, teenagers and little kids alike. There is nothing quite like it, and I think it’s going to be a tradition for a long time to come. 

We were invited along to the Hever Castle preview this year, but all views are mine! 

We’ve been in our new home for a good 4 months now, so we’re feeling really settled and more like we actually live here, rather than ‘borrowing’ someone else’s house. Now it’a all about putting some personality into each room, especially on the walls, it’s really important to me that the house has character and feels like it belongs us. 

The walls are all gorgeous, bright white which I love, despite moving from a house where I wanted to paint every wall a dark colour. I think, because this house is so full of light, it suits the white, pared back look. It’s a complete contrast but one that we all love. Plus, we can change the character of the room just by changing the furnishings and details, a lot cheaper (and easier) than painting the walls every time we fancy a new look!

I love art, and a gallery wall has always been on my room checklist. We had a small one in the old house, but we have a separate dining room now, which felt a little bare compared to the living room, so I really wanted to fill an entire wall with images that suited us as a family. 

Desenio very kindly sent me a voucher to use so I could design our gallery wall from scratch. 

I knew I wanted black frames, I love how they pop against the white wall, and there had to be at least one large framed print as the central image, but apart from that, I was fairly open minded about what images we’d use. Desenio is amazing for inspiration, maybe even a little too amazing! It took me hours to decide. 

The best part for me, was being able to design how the gallery wall would look, with several layouts to choose from, and giving you the chance to add prints you liked, to see if they worked well.

I managed, in the end to whittle it down from the thousands Desenio have available and I chose a LOVE typography print as the largest image, because that’s what family is about. Obviously there had to be a quote in there, I didn’t want too much text as it would have been a lot of black and white on white walls, but the one that stood out to me the most was the Change your thoughts one. PMA baby!

I added a leaf print with gorgeous greens and pinks, the most beautiful Frida Kahlo one which I am obsessed with and, of course, there had to be a moon imagine in there. La Lune. I also added a New York print for the hallway and a tiny “Stay Weird” postcard sized print in bright pink for the living room.

Because you must always let your weird flag fly!

The finished result looks amazing and they fill the blank wall perfectly, it’s changed the whole feel of the dining room now, just 5 framed prints and the entire room feels complete and more us.

CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS // LA LUNE // PALM PRINT // LOVE 

FRIDA // STAY WEIRD // NEW YORK

What do you think? I have already been eyeing up some prints for the bedrooms! 

The code “LIFEDAILY” gives 25% off posters* on all of our sites between November 27th and 29th.
(Except for frames and handpicked-/collaboration posters)