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Cwtchy Welsh Homeware for Winter 2017

November 15, 2017
Slate House Christmas Spiced Apple Soy Wax Candle

The clocks have gone back, the nights are getting darker and now is the perfect time to make your home feel cosy for Winter!

Here are 5 of the key trends that you can easily follow to update your home for the new season, and which of our Welsh-made home wares you can buy to achieve them.

Relaxed dining

Winter, and especially the festive season, is a busy time for enjoying good company and good, hearty food. Create a relaxed dining experience for you and your guests by dressing your table with soft colours and shades of grey.

Mix and match tableware, made from different materials, will add interest to your dining room.

Welsh slate tableware, such as place mats and coasters, are a timeless finishing touch for your table.

Welsh Slate Place Mats, Coasters and Wine Rack

Welsh Slate Wine Rack – £75

Welsh Slate Square Place Mats- £37.50

Welsh Slate Square Coasters- £13.50

Add a splash of colour and enjoy your favourite beverage in these beautiful ceramic goblets, handmade by David Small.David Small Ceramic Goblets and Jug

David Small Medium Jug- £24.95

David Small Goblets- £13.25 each

Serving up your food on our handmade serving platters will be create a talking point at your dinner party. We have a range of new wooden kitchenware, which is handcrafted from Welsh Oak and Sycamore in our Crynant workshop.

Slate House Welsh Oak Serving Platters

Welsh Oak Small Serving Platter- £29.95

Welsh Oak Large Serving Platter- £39.95

Back to nature

Natural materials aren’t just to be kept in the dining room this Winter. Think cosy fabrics, warm woods and textured ceramics to create a soft sanctuary for you to cwtch up in. Huggable throws made from natural fibres, such as wool, are the perfect choice to keep you cosy and comfortable, without causing you to overheat.

From off-whites to slate tones, there is a huge array of colours that you can take from nature to inspire you.

The Pantone Colour of the Year for 2017 is called Greenery, and fits in well to this trend. We think Melin Tregwynt’s St David’s Flag in Pine is the perfect match to bring a touch of nature into your home.

Melin Tregwynt St David's Throw in Pine

Melin Tregwynt St David Throw in Pine- £145

For those of you who would prefer to inject a pop of a brighter colour into your home, Tweedmill’s Green Stripe throw is a beautiful choice.

Tweedmill Green Stripe Throw

Slate House Throw in Green Stripe- £53.95

If you want to keep your colour scheme more neutral, Tweedmill’s Beehive Oatmeal and Block Check Jacob will keep you cosy and warm all year round and will suit the colour trends of seasons to come.

Tweedmill Beehive Oatmeal Throw

Block Check Jacob Throw

Slate House Throw in Beehive Oatmeal- £53.95

Slate House Throw in Block Check Jacob- £53.95

If you wanted to add a touch of luxury to your living room this Winter, these throws are made from 100% Merino wool and come in shades of cream and grey. Gorgeous!

Slate House Merino Wool Throw in Natural

Slate House Merino Wool Throw in Natural- £80

And just to let you in on a little secret, we currently have the Merino wool cushions to match on 25% off in our Swansea store!

Tartan

It doesn’t get much more Autumnal/Wintry than cwtching up under a tartan throw on a cold evening, does it?! Tartan seems to be the one pattern that will still be on trend around this time every year, and we love it! We have a huge range of different tartan throws, all of which are made for us by Tweedmill.

This Antique Buchanan throw is the ultimate Autumn throw in our range. It is made up of mustard yellow and rust orange, which are incredibly popular colours around this time of year.

Slate House Throw in Tartan Antique Buchanan- £53.95

The Muted Blue Dress Stewart throw is the combination of the ‘Back to nature’ colours and the tartan pattern and will make a super cosy addition to your home.

Muted Blue Dress Stewart Throw

Slate House Throw in Tartan Muted Blue Dress Stewart- £53.95

Colour blocking

Colour blocking is probably the easiest look to go for this year, especially if you are on a budget! Just layer up simple home accessories in on-trend colours, to create a homely, inviting vibe. Our Block Check throw range is the perfect starting point if you don’t know where you begin.

Seen everywhere in the fashion and design worlds right now, Millennial Pink is the unofficial colour of the year. Combined with greys, terracotta or Pantone’s colour of the year, you will create a home that feels youthful and timeless.

Although there is much dispute about kind of pink Millennial Pink is, we think our Block Check Dusty Pink and Raspberry throws will fit right in.

Block Check Dusty Pink Throw

Block Check Raspberry Throw

Slate House Throw in Block Check Dusty Pink- £53.95

Slate House Throw in Block Check Fuchsia- £53.95

A combination that everyone is raving about this year is grey and yellow. Although yellow interior may seem daunting, a splash of yellow amongst grey tones in your interior will make your home feel both fun and sophisticated. Melin Tregwynt’s Knot Garden throw in Gorse encapsulates this colour palette and is one of our best-sellers. We can see why!

Melin Tregwynt Knot Garden Throw in Gorse

Melin Tregwynt Throw in Knot Garden Gorse- £145

Festive feeling

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Melin Tregwynt’s Madison throw in Red is giving us all kinds of Christmassy feelings and we love it. Just imagine, curled up under this beautiful tapestry blanket, with Christmas candles flickering away whilst watching a classic Christmas film. Perfection!

Melin Tregwynt Madison Throw in Red

Melin Tregwynt Throw in Madison Red- £145

For something more subtle, Melin Tregwynt’s St David’s Silver throw suits festive colour schemes but will also suit your interior year round!

Melin Tregwynt St David Silver Throw

Melin Tregwynt Throw in St David Silver- £145

Now for our favourite thing about Winter- Scented Candles! We think that scented candles are a Winter essential to make your home feel cosy and warm. Slate House’s scented candles are handmade using soy wax and natural fragrances. Their wood wicks give off a warm glow, gentle crackling and ensure a full melt pool for a strong scent throw through your home.

We have a wide range of different fragrances to choose from. Our favourite Winter warmers are the bestselling Welsh Cake and our Christmas selection- Spiced Apple, Roast Chestnut and Holly Berry.

Slate House Christmas Soy Wax Candles

Slate House Soy Wax Wood Wick Candles- £16.95

Slate House Soy Wax Melts- £6.75

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Slate House

Redecorating Hints and Tips

July 4, 2014

Whether you’re a serial re-decorator or a DIY-dodger, at some point in your life, you’ll be faced with a tired room that needs to be updated. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bedroom, kitchen  or living room, you’ll want to create a feeling of comfort and belonging – put simply,  when you walk in, you don’t want to  feel the need to walk out again! Of course, the way in which you decorate your home is purely down to personal preference but at  Slate House, we’ve put together these redecorating hints and tips to help get you off to a good start.

Colour

Let’s begin with colour. Whether consciously or not, our brains take in huge amounts of stimulation and it’s predominantly through our eyes. Unlike dogs, we see a full colour spectrum from red right through to violet, which allows for many colour scheme opportunities, but be aware that not all colours match. If you’re unsure about complementary colours, the charts below should point you in the right direction…

Photo Credit: brandigirlblog.com

Photo Credit: brandigirlblog.com

At Slate House, we suggest that you try utilising the wheel and experimenting. You may have always disliked the colour yellow for instance, but when paired with a complementary colour, you could find that you quite like it after all!

If you’re not brave enough to go further than the tester paint pots at your local DIY shop, it really doesn’t matter as you can still experiment with colour and textures in different ways. If you think of your room room as a canvas, a white canvas is classic, clean and smooth. Your room doesn’t have to be purple or pink to be exciting. White (or light) walls and ceilings can be your starting point and from there you can add colour and texture with furniture, decorations, cushions, throws, blankets, curtains, blinds, photographs, paintings, mirrors and anything else you might want to hang and stick or screw to your walls.

White room, eclectic style

Photo Credit: http://www.jsyk.org/

Take the room pictured above as an example – in pairing a light grey colour with white, the interior designer has added depth, without the use of patterned wallpaper or bright colours. Their use of mismatched furnishings gives an eclectic, lived-in look, whilst throws , cushions and blankets give a feeling of warmth and comfort. If you were to replicate this theme, you could mix and match your furnishings depending on your mood. Indeed, there would be no need to worry when you fall in love with a particular ornament but realise that it won’t match your wallpaper!

Craving comfort?

If a room feels cold and empty, it’s probably because it lacks anything natural in it. At Slate House, we may be biased but we believe that incorporating natural materials to your scheme will add a new element to any room. Again, looking at the room above, it just wouldn’t be the same without the warm brown colour of the wood floor and stair treads. Similarly, bringing in items like Welsh wool blankets and Welsh wool cushions can transform a bedroom or living room. The beauty is that adding these doesn’t mean breaking the bank. Our Welsh wool blankets start at £18.00 – whereas vintage pieces can often set you back hundreds of pounds.

Of course, we can’t write a blog about interiors and natural homeware without mentioning Welsh slate. If you want to add age to a room, you can’t do much better than 500 million year old slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog! It’s the toughest slate in the world – so investing your money in items such as Welsh slate coasters, table mats and cheese boards is a pretty safe bet. Trivets, memo boards and Welsh language engraved hanging hearts all add interest to a room and talking points for future guests too.

Beat the Budget!

At Slate House, we’re focussed on bringing Welsh-made items to a larger audience and whilst you may think that owning a unique, handmade piece of homeware will be expensive, if you take a look at the products on our website, you will more than likely be pleasantly surprised. For every piece of Welsh slate you purchase and display in your home, you are owning a tiny piece of cultural identity. A little part of our nation’s heritage. You can’t put a price on that!

Meanwhile, if you need more inspiration for creating a perfect room but your budget is tight, think about visiting local car boot sales and flea markets. If you’re based in Wales, the monthly Carmarthen flea market us usually packed with bargains and unusual pieces. Further afield, the Malvern Flea is becoming increasingly popular and the sheer number of traders in attendance can sometimes be quite overwhelming!

We hope we’ve whet your appetite for re-vamping your interiors and if you’re interested in learning more about Slate House’s range of homeware products, do get in touch.