An Interior Designer's Guide to Hosting the Festive Season

Can you take us through each room of the home and how you prepare each space for your guests?

Emotional and experiential qualities are at the core of my work. Intuitively and authentically, I consider interiors through a hospitable lens, ensuring spaces are inviting and approachable, layered and tactile, comfortable and memorable.

When entertaining, I employ as many elements as possible to create an immersive experience—the house, the table setting, the meals I serve. I invite guests to move from one space to the next throughout their dining experience just as they move through the meal itself; catching the last rays of light in the courtyard with a pre-dinner drink, an interactive table setting for dinner, an intimate and relaxed setting in the lounge with coffee and fruit, and a calm and enveloping feeling in the guest room to sleep off a good evening spent with friends.

I like to have fresh flowers throughout the house, but in the entry and lounge spaces, a fuller arrangement can be dramatic and set the tone for the event. I'm also conscious of scale; where a generous arrangement is theatrical and arresting in scent and form, it can delight early on in the evening, while a more modest representation can be lighting peppered along a dining table so as not to obstruct the view of your guest.

For the table, any small effort is to be appreciated! Adding personal and unexpected touches to the usual routine can help create an atmosphere that transcends the everyday dining table and transports you to a new setting; the table is the stage. I'll often try to incorporate herbs and fresh produce to the table as the base for the meal about to be served; adding fresh elements to snack on is a wholesome experience and adds a fun informality to balance the table. A simple handwritten name card is always appreciated. Introducing new people and ensuring the conversation is lively and fun is as much the entertainment as the meal you have prepared, so I like to ensure that the person you arrived with is not necessarily the one you sit next to at the table. Naming both sides of the cards is also integral!

As in an interior, balancing all the elements is integral to let some shine and others act as a base. So too with the table—I'll combine simple plates and natural-toned napery with more colourful and embellished glassware, precious metal vases with natural timber plinths, to add a layered hierarchy to the landscape.

How do scent and sound play a role in creating an inviting space?

The best experiences tug at all your senses, and scent is especially important. Whether it reminds you of a person, travel or a time many years ago in a place far away, scent has the ability to completely transfix and transport you. I'll always have incense burning, a product of my Sri Lankan heritage no doubt! For closer to the dinner table, a lighter, fresher scent like an orange blossom or jasmine is preferable, as you want it to mingle and enhance the meal, rather than overpower it.

Paint a picture for us: What does your home look like around this time of year, who are you with?

Christmas time is a favourite for me. I have a small potted blue spruce tree in the courtyard that we bring in for the December period—it's not an overpowering scent but it's enough to create some Christmas cheer! Each year together with my partner, we host a carols party—gathered around the piano with our friends, candles and carol books and all. Jason will serve his Christmas ham, studded and glistening and sticky and sweet, and we will usually do a big grazing table. Our tree is decorated mostly with small ornaments from our travels overseas.

Growing up, what occasions do you remember as special? How did you and your family celebrate?

Growing up in a half-Catholic half-Hindu household meant that there was often something to celebrate! I'm not sure there was any one specific occasion that trumped the others, but every one would centre around a meal, and my mother would go to great efforts to create a loving and delicious affair for us all.