Being Danish, but having lived in the UK for many many years, and now living and running a small B&B in beautiful Provence, France - we have always celebrated the 24th December Danish style and the 25th English style, so getting the best of both worlds! On The 1st of December our house will be ready and decorated in many delicate, often handmade, bought or made by me, decorations. Flickering candles everywhere. On the first Sunday in December, ie the 2nd Sunday in advent, in the afternoon...until often late, our house would be full of friends and family, young and old, for our traditional Danish Gløgg Party, where everybody brings a little red Wine (for har gløgg) and a little something yo eat. We would make lots if gløgg and lots og æbleskiver, the twi bring served in private or in public places all over Denmark from the 1st of December! The tree itself will always be a real one, you will never ever find an artificial in any colour in our house! We get the fresh tree inside normally on the 22nd December, and it is decorated firstly by putting the brass George Jensen star on the top (always a star never an Angel), then the strings of warm white electric lights are spread around the tree. Then the serious decorating of the tree takes place, often accompanied by us eating some of the Danish Christmas nibbles I have made and drinking some Gløgg. The tree dekorations are all in gold, white, red and green. It takes quite some time to decorate, and finsly we hang the candle holders safely and not below any decorations, as c60 live candles are lit on Christmas Eve after our traditional Danish Christmas dinner and as we sit down around the beautiful tree and just before we open most of our presents. We open the rest of our presents just a few, sometime in the morning on the 25th either before or after a very nice brunch! The live candles are all safe as the tree is fresh, and because of the design of the Danish candle tree holders, and it us soooo beautiful, and we would absolutely have it any other way! On the 6th January sadly like all good things, the decorations cone down...and Christmas is another c 11 months away, and we'll do it all over again! Hope you all have a blessed, nice and quiet Christmas, and how lucky those if us are, who can say just that, and for us this will be our first proper Christmas in la belle Provence, and our Gløgg Party has moved to just before Christmas for varietes reasons! ;)

Hello donned2004, Well you could remove all the things from the hearth.. So it has more space.. Hang the mirror and paint the chimney breast a nice colour to bring the fireplace into full focus.. If you wanted to have an even bigger recess.. you could open the fire out up to the sides of the wooden surround.. So taking out the 30's tiles.. Make sure the lintel is in place or doesn't need replacing and keep the surround it's rather nice.. Remove the current tiled hearth if you chose to open it out more.. and install a flat piece of slate.. So then you would have an open brick recess and a lovely iron basket could sit nicely inside for logs! Another idea to continue into the room.. might be to look at painting the woodwork a colour to compliment any wall colours you have.... Some lovely painted floorboards, or parquet or a natural Jute or Coir flooring if you have not already decided upon something.. : ))

We have just purchased what we hope to be our last house. It is a very big plot and we are looking to knock down and get planning for a very large house over 4 floors. (12,000 sq ft). We know what we want internally however our issue lies with the external look and feel. My wife wants classic new build, with pillar entrance, sash box windows with stone cills or surroundings (Surrey Commuter belt!). I like contempory white, modern, square, glass walls, feature cladded walls with balconies (Beverly Hills!) Our compromise is classic at the front contempory at the rear. We need help! Hopeful designjunction will help offer solutions so we can move forward.

I have an old 70's style galley kitchen n utility, updating by changing, wall n floor tiles n keeping cupboards and ancient non Meile appliances - could really do with help with kitchen design as I need lots of storage space and having new appliances would be a dream as my dishwasher is on its last legs and no space currently for a fridge- this project has been going on since last Summer with builders letting us down we are still waiting for new builders to start -if I were to win a place to come to your appliance day it would be fab and if you need a kitchen to create your magic in , it would be a dream come true . I will be fasting throughout June as it will be Ramadan but I wanted to enter even though I wouldn't be able to eat anything because the experience is too good an opportunity for me to miss so any day would be ok as I am desperate to get help especially as my budget is so limited . Thank you for considering me . I believe in serendipity and feel fortunate to have come across this just in time as today is 16th! Have I said enough to get me a place I wonder ? Lol!