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! ;)

Time is of the essence. I would agree with the comments already made. I would also suggest the following: leave the grass, as removing it and replacing with something else will take time. Buy two large pots (the largest you can afford) in white to match the windows or black to match the front door for either side of the front door and plant up with sarcococca, daphnes and winter honeysuckle for scent right now, with trailing ivy and tete-a-tete daffodils (which you can buy in flower). Buy an additional pot, slightly smaller and place on what looks like a circular manhole cover. Plant this up with winter/spring bedding - there are lots to choose from, but keep the pot the same colour as the other two - perhaps add pale yellow wallflowers. Add a collection of pots and similar planting - the knack is to keep it simple. Add a window box for the full length of the window and plant again with ivy and tete-a-tete daffodils and pansy 'cool wave mixed' or pansy 'sorbet yellow frost'. For the left hand side of the picture plant a half-standard viburnum to balance the scene and again underplant with daffodils and pale yellow wallflowers. Once Mother's Day is out of the way you can then think about adding (depending on which way the front of the house faces) flowering shrubs such as abelia, hydrangea, roses or philadelphus to sit below the window to allow the scent to waft in to the room, and to link the left hand side to the right hand side. One thing to remember with pots in front gardens is to weigh them down so that they do not disappear overnight. If the small patch of lawn then becomes a nuisance to mow, remove it, cover the area with membrane and add decorative stone. You could start with larger stones towards the back and getting smaller towards the front, with some larger ones dotted in around pots for variety. Always keep the colour scheme simple for a stylish approach to the house - your mum is very lucky.

I would use a larger rug and would add an accent colour in accessories. Also, some additional lighting, like a table lamp next to the TV and a floor lamp in the corner next to the sofa. A pouf would be good for additional casual seating, or perhaps you have enough space for a small accent chair in front of the patio doors? http://www.made.com/charley-accent-chair-biscuit-beige

I would take it up and then paint/stain the stairs and landing. You could add a runner on the landing (Ikea?) if you wanted and you would have change from £100. Sounds like a good project for the Easter weekend. Alternatively, get someone to come in and measure and quote for the carpet you would like (John Lewis do this for free). It might be less than you think and if you know it will take X months to save to pay for it, you’ll maybe be able to put up with it until then.