Impress your guests with a Christmas ball bowl

Like most families, we go crazy in our house, adding new ones to an already growing collection every year. But the problem with hoarding so many trinkets is that you inevitably run out of space to display them on your tree.

So what to do about the deductible? You make a virtue of it, at least, by creating this season’s must-have table decoration: the stunningly opulent Christmas ball bowl.

As a professional tablescaper, I love this simple way to create a statement display that’s dramatic enough to take center stage on your festive dining table. These cheerful-looking bowls can also be transformed into cheerful focal points throughout the house, on coffee and hallway tables, as well as on windowsills and shelves.

To make a Christmas ball bowl, simply stack a bowl with decorative balls, but follow a few golden rules.

The first is that you should stick with traditional round baubles (although some finial ornaments with tapered ends can look nice in shallow bowls).

I’m afraid the new shapes that are proving so popular this year – Liberty’s bestseller is a handbag with a marmalade sandwich, a reference to Elizabeth II’s Paddington sketch – won’t work for this scale. It will look like you packed a bunch of trinkets into a dish like a jumbled afterthought.

The next thing is that the bowl in which you display them is transparent. Just think how tempting a fruit trifle looks when you place it on the table and your guests are amazed at the sight of each delicious layer being layered through a glass bowl.

Similarly, create a festive feast for the eyes by using a glass bowl to show off each layer of your baubles from every angle. A porcelain bowl, no matter how beautiful, simply means that most of your baubles, and your efforts, will go unnoticed.

In fact, this is the perfect opportunity to pull Grandma’s cut glass bowl from the back of the cupboard – especially if it has legs, or a built-in base, that provides height, making your bauble bowl stand out from everything else. the food on your dining table. Beveled and cut glass contributes to an opulent sense of occasion.

It’s also a good idea to stick to one color palette unless a chaotic mix of brightly clashing shades appeals to you. Having a color scheme will make your bowl look more thoughtful and allow you to match the shades to the color scheme of the room it will be placed in.

Mixing colors, sizes and textures is important. Feathers, glitter and shiny wire-covered baubles, arranged with smooth and plain balls, provide balance and allow the more interesting decorations to stand out.

Try to keep the proportions of the different sizes fairly equal and distribute them evenly throughout the bowl. Everything else is allowed! I especially like to sprinkle extra statement trinkets around my bowls to make it look like they’ve been filled so generously that the contents have been spilled onto the table.

As a professional tablescaper, I love this simple way to create a statement display that’s dramatic enough to take center stage on your festive dining table.

Here are a few techniques to try…

THE SMALLNESS

If you have a hodgepodge of jewel-like trinkets, make a virtue of those clashing colors and try to create layers. Using a small bowl, place larger balls on the bottom and stick a darker shade on top. The higher you go in the bowl, the more you can mix the colors and sizes to mimic the way small layers blend together. You can even throw in some Quality Street chocolates.

VASE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Large, wide and spherical vases are my favorite vessels for Christmas baubles. But you can also use standard tall vases, first filling them with a layer of moss and then adding everlasting flowers and stems, such as willow and dried hydrangeas, before wrapping the rest of the vase with small, shiny baubles of green, red and gold. This also works well with peacock feathers.

OH SO SHALLOW

Opaque, shallow bowls make an attractive backdrop for trinkets of various shapes, such as finial styles. Add baubles that match the size of the dish. Chocolate mints provide a sweet finishing touch and make your Christmas ball bowl doubly attractive for guests!