Christmas with Ella

3 Nov

Absolutely thrilled to open up the Christmas edition of House Beautiful magazine and find this gorgeous feature about the family home and Christmas preparations of ceramicist Ella Fletcher. Ella lives with her husband, Rory, and two young children, Daisy and Arthur, in Edinburgh and has decorated her home with tremendous style.

The colourful candles are from Tyninghame Candles.

Christmas is a chaotic family affair with visitors arriving to swell the already busy household, which also includes two cats, Fergus and Alfie and cockapoo, Dougie. Ella has admitted on her Instagram stories that her house does not always look like this!

The coffee table from Anthropologie is a favourite piece of furniture. The pretty cushion on the wing chair is by Mairi Helena, fellow creative and a regular collaborator with Ella.

We arrived on a quiet school day, last December, she had done the bulk of her routine Christmas decorating. We brought flowers, additional greenery, a few rather lovely Scandinavian decorations to add to her collection, some wonderful stars and fairy lights from Lights 4 Fun, and some richly decorated wrapped presents and set about styling up.

Ella was a huge help making paper chains, modelling, keeping control of the children and animals, and generally making us feel so welcome!

The bay window is the ideal place for the tree, of course, the whole street comes to life over the course of December as neighbours, one by one, succumb to putting them up and allow the lights to twinkle on the long dark evenings.

Her ceramics are absolutely beautiful - I could actually eat one of her plates! Her colours are inspired by the Scottish landscape and includes greens, heathers, pinks and gold. The copper cutlery is from Ikea and the decorative table runner is also by Mairi Helena.

The woodwork is painted in ‘Salvia’ from the Paint & Paper Library and the walls are painted in Calamine by Farrow & Ball, it is such a pretty colour combination. The circular seagrass rug is from La Redoute. The Ercol style chairs at the end of the table are from Hay, the wishbone-style chairs are from Dunelm.

Ella’s emerald green painted hardwood kitchen is from Nick McNally, in Edinburgh. His beautiful showroom, in Leith, is well worth a visit. The worktop is made from a warm, mid-toned granite. The glass sphere lights above the peninsula and the brass bar stools are Rockett St George, a favourite shopping destination, Ella admits!

So good to capture one of Ella’s cats on the day. Ella picked up on the colour of the eucalyptus outside the bedroom window with curtains in an apple green print by Manuel Canovas. The patchwork quilt is from Oliver Bonas and the charcoal bed linen is from H&M. The bed, upholstered in a deep indigo velvet is from Made. The rug is from La Redoute, and the walls are painted in ‘Calamine’ by Farrow & Ball.

The whole day was so joyous, it was a honour to get to know Ella and her family as I have admired her work for a long time. Christmas shoots are so much fun, we are looking, right now, for homes where the owners really enjoy going the extra mile. Your home does not have to be immaculate, we just want to see people with a really strong look, neither do you need to be a colourist, like Ella, you might be a minimalist with white walls against which a single over-sized star and a siimple piece of mistletoe has a huge amount of impact. Let me know if you or a friend has a home that comes to life in December!

I love the vibrant wallpaper in Ella’s vestibule. The graphic patterned floor tiles are from Bert & May. The green console is from Dunelm.

And of course if you want to find out more about Ella’s beautiful home, have a read of the December issue of House Beautiful. It is full of inspiration to help us all have a fun-filled, joyous Christmas. There are some fascinating houses to enjoy alongside Ella’s, including the queen of colour, interior designer, Sophie Robinson; a well known instagrammed @mymulberryhouse, crumbs, with 1M followers! A gorgeous converted barn in Ireland, a bit more pared back, with a slightly industrial feel and several others, all really interesting.

Thank you Ella cannot wait to see what you do next!