Designer James Treble went head to head against stylist Shannon Fricke in a Christmas design challenge on Ten's The Living Room. His brief? To create a vintage glamour style Christmas table using beautiful homewares from Temple & Webster.  Watch on Friday at 7.30pm to see how it all went down. We asked James for tips on how to get the look...



I love this look because: I love it as it's full and inviting, and it makes you want to sit and enjoy both the food and visual feast, with friends and family. Christmas for me is all about family, the true gift of giving and celebrating this special day. To reflect this in my Christmas table means it has to be something really special, different from any other celebration throughout the year. To achieve this, and also meet my brief, I selected traditional items such as silver, crystal glassware and gold rimmed dinner set, and filled the table with richly coloured fruits and nuts overflowing on the tables between the plates and table ware.



The key ingredients are:
Colour - The traditional red and green palette, which I tweaked to be deeper and more burgundy, adding the greenery in foliage rather than in any decorations.

Reflection - I believe Christmas is a time for reflection, so I interpreted this in the many reflective and shiny finishes I selected.

Abundance – I filled the table with stylish items, added food and decorative elements, and presented these at differing heights to create the abundant look I was going for.

Styling secret to get the look: I love reflective surfaces so I grabbed a mirror and placed this in the centre of the table. It not only reflected the shiny cake stands, glassware and candles, but also added to making the table feel full and indulgent, as it in effect doubled the amount of items I selected.  A true celebration table!



What to avoid: Although the look is very full and glamorous, I still went for a "less is more" attitude using a minimal palette. The deep burgundies and blood reds, with the crisp white worked in a traditional way, allowing all of the very reflective metallic and shiny surfaces to add the glamour and highlights.

My hand-made/personal touch: I have always hand-made decorations, I think it's a great thing to do with the family, especially the kids, and it adds value and real quality to this time of year. I have made my "Christmas Balls" Baubles, for over ten years, changing the colours and fabric each year depending on the colours I want, and I also used music paper to make some doves, the symbol of peace. I wrapped this year's presents in wallpaper, which had damask print for my theme, tied them with ribbon and red flowers, and then added hand made gift tags of fabric and card.



My favourite product: I love the candelabras as they always make a statement and candles are also symbolic of this time of year. I am also completely in love with the amazing "cow hide" wing back chair, which definitely added some distinction to my room, and worked with my amazing tree.

What I'd serve: Although I always grew up with the traditional pork with crackling, and lamb roasts with potatoes and gravy, we always had prawns too! In Australia we are so lucky to have such great seafood, and I combine this with all of the seasonal fruits I love so much: nectarines, cherries and rock melon. I must have chocolate most times of the year, but at Christmas I love coated nuts and dried fruits, and I end the meal with Mum's traditional boiled fruit cake, some pavlova, whipped cream and custard!! Mmm, I'm hungry!



My playlist would include: I'm a bit of a dag at Christmas time and don't mind all of the old carols playing throughout the day. I also include the likes of Michael Bublé, Barbara Streisand and Frank Sinatra. It's not bad to have some traditions and its also good for the kids to listen to old favorites, which they end up singing along too with even realising it!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS… can you tell?!

Love James's style? Follow him on Facebook, twitter or Instagram @designerjamestreble.