Gaius Plinius Secundus, a Roman philosopher better known as Pliny the Elder (or just Pliny to his friends) was reputed to have said “Home is where the heart is.” Some two thousand years later, I’d have to say I absolutely agree.
Whether you live in a small studio or a stately mansion, there is something infinitely nostalgic about the place we call home. It’s a place we retreat to, a sanctuary, a space we share with loved ones and fill with memories. The truly magical thing about traveling is the feeling of getting away and exploring new places and experiencing grand adventures. But there is nothing quite as magical as coming home.
F Scott Fitzgerald said;
“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realise what’s changed, is you.”
Several years ago, I took on the crazy and challenging task of renovating and building a huge extension onto our home. Crazy indeed!! It was quite a ride. Unlike most people who speak about building or renovating, I would do it again a thousand times, and more. I absolutely loved it.
The process of building a home that spoke to my soul and captured our memories and dreams was an inspiring and life affirming journey.
These are my tips for creating a beautiful space to call home :
Fill your home with things that are either incredibly useful or incredibly beautiful.
Choosing what items to not put in your home can be as challenging as choosing what to include. Over-cluttering a space or a room can make it feel chaotic and disorganised. Often I think we hang on to these items or pieces of furniture because they’re ours. Maybe they were a gift or just something we’ve had forever.
But I believe, when you create a beautiful home, you need to really decide if all of your possessions deserve a place in that home. My eldest sister, Jane always says …… if you are deciding whether to keep something in your house, ask yourself ; ‘Is it incredibly beautiful or incredibly useful?’ If the answer is no, it’s got to go!! Find a new home for it or make a donation to charity.
Coco Chanel said of fashion, “ before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory”. The same rule applies to decor around the home. Be ruthless. If you don’t adore it, remove it.
Create a home that tells a story about who you are.
Your home is maybe the best chance you have to share a little of your past with your family and friends. This may be something simple such as a collection of beautiful framed photographs on a table or mantle, or it may be an antique piece of furniture you inherited from your family that has special memories. I often choose my favourite travel photographs and print them in black and white and create a series on a wall of our home. It’s a fabulous way to cherish travel memories, and I literally smile every time I wander past them.
As a child, I grew up on a sheep and cattle station in outback Australia, so I also find myself nestling little pieces around our home and garden that speak to my outback roots. Perhaps an old rusty iron tank in the garden filled with plants, or a leather saddle, bridle and stock whip resting quietly in the dining room below a favourite painting.
I think if you can inject some subtle but special ‘found items’ that speak to your soul, you will evoke feelings of nostalgia and warmth into your home. It just feels right. And when you scamper past one of these pieces, it invariably feels like a warm hug from your past.
Find a local florist and go green.
Without a doubt one of the easiest ways to make your home feel truly beautiful is to fill it with fresh flowers or plants. I have a divine local florist called Hacienda. I absolutely love tripping down there and discovering which flowers have come into season, and choosing some to place around our home. Perhaps Peonies are in flower, and the shop is an explosion of brilliant pinks and reds, or maybe cherry blossom is in full bloom and Anneliese has huge sprays of them covering the counter in a canopy of pink brilliance. Not only do the flowers or plants you choose look beautiful amongst your decor, but they evolve and change every day so you feel like a little part of nature is in your home.
Without any doubt, my absolute favourites are long stemmed white roses, orchids, tulips, peonies, Magnolia leaves and figs. I often think to myself that if an area looks a little drab in my home, a beautiful potted white orchid placed beside a Diptyque Baies candle changes the game. (Maybe with an Ink Gin and tonic on the side!!) Or even better, fresh cut roses straight from the garden in a crystal vase – nothing is more beautiful.
Create a ‘happy place’ in your home.
Life is busy. There’s just no escaping the constant rat race. Whether you’re scurrying out the door to work, preparing the kid’s lunch boxes in a frantic state before school, or mowing the lawn and grabbing the groceries for dinner – it’s a crazy and hectic life.
My two sisters and I have a ‘happy place’ in our homes. It’s a little spot designed to make you wind down and stop, even if just for a few moments to catch your breath or maybe sip a cup of tea and quickly call a friend. We call it ‘our happy place!!’
Jane’s is an old Persian rug in front of the AGA in the kitchen with an old pillow made from woven vintage camel bags. It’s totally hippie in the best sense of the word. She often calls me from her happy place and I can almost hear the smile on her face!! It’s a few stolen moments off the treadmill of life. Mine is a bean bag – not exactly stylish in our home, but it’s ‘my happy place’. A chance to turn down the volume and escape for just a moment.
Fill your home with books.
I adore books. In my opinion there is nothing more stylish than a home filled with books. I love to collect beautiful coffee table books and stack them on side tables, book cases and ottomans around our home. They’re often about travel or design or photography and I find myself grabbing them and flicking through the pages, perhaps to inspire our next journey overseas or to reminisce about a divine gallery we explored in New York. In this ever changing digital age, books bring a nostalgic feeling of warmth from a bygone era into your home.
One of the key ways to turn a stack of books into a beautiful design vignette in your home, is by the inclusion of other items with the books, such as an old wooden decoy duck or a cut crystal bowl. Few items however work as well as beautiful vases of fresh flowers. Like books, flowers are used in design to convey a lived-in sense of authenticity that gives a grounded reality to a space, making it look more like a home and less like a staged exhibit.
Lighting in critical.
Choosing lights for your home is as important as selecting the correct bulbs. Nothing turns a house into a home more effectively than great lighting.
I love to mix old with new lighting. For example an antique chandelier hanging over a dining table creates a sense of warmth and understated elegance, while a series of new chrome and glass wall lights in a bathroom can create a more modern appeal in a clean white space.
As a general rule, I’m not a big fan of down-lights in the ceiling. I have them in each room so that if a task requires a lot of bright light they can be turned on. However, I find down-lights are too bright and I much prefer the moodiness and interest of lamps and eclectic ceiling pendants.
When you are selecting lights for your home, start with at least one or a few absolute hero pieces. These are often sourced or found items and they are interspersed through your home. For example I have two superb drum pendants over the marble kitchen bench, a divine old French chandelier in the dining room, two huge linen and leather pendants from Ralph Lauren in the sitting room hanging between the timber trusses, and an enormous chandelier made from an old oak barrel hanging in the olive garden.
Once you have chosen your hero lighting pieces, then you need to select some less significant lights to complement them. Beautiful lamps with linen shades and crystal bases are such a favourite, in addition to vintage wall sconces made from rusty iron and picture lights in chrome or brass hung above your favourites paintings. A good lighting plan is an essential part of a renovation or new build, and I like to think of lighting in layers.
Bring in a little boho chic.
I love finding really special pieces, especially while traveling. Maybe a faded, threadbare and timeworn rug you unearth in ‘Les Puces’ in Paris while you’re stuck in the pelting rain and desperately late for a lunch date with friends at Le Pre-Catalan.
After you conquer the exasperating task of getting it to Australia, and even more frustratingly getting it through customs, then you hang it somewhere like the dining room, where it evokes feelings of old world experiences, another time and another place. Imagine what it’s seen and heard, and now it adorns your beautiful home providing endless hours of chit-chat during dinners and endless giggles as you reminisce about that rainy day in the Paris flea market.
Treasures collected while traveling tell your story in a beautiful and evocative way. So my advice is to travel and trawl through flea markets, bazaars and stalls. Hang vintage bags on the back of chairs, French wicker baskets in your larder, and old cashmere throws on your couches. Adorn your walls with vintage silk scarves and textiles. Creating a beautiful home is all about telling your story.
Collect something beautiful.
Creating a beautiful collection is a divine way to add style and individuality to your home. I would never call myself a collector. I guess the name makes me think of stamp collecting or people who pin beautiful butterflies on boards. Horrid!!
But I have recently discovered that I have a few collections on the go!! I seem to have a strange obsession with bleached animal skulls, leather saddles, long leather equestrian boots, silver meat covers and top hats !! Yep – it’s true. These items appear around my home in little collections. It’s kind of unusual but rather divine, and makes me happy.
Don’t forget, you’re creating a home for you, so don’t worry about what other people think. If you absolutely love it and it makes you happy, then it belongs in your home and makes it more enchanting and beautiful for its presence.
Add texture and natural elements to your home.
While colour and pattern definitely make a statement in a home, I personally prefer to add textures and tactile elements while adopting a more neutral colour palette. Adding layers of texture to a room appeals to the senses, both visual and tactile.
Some of my favourite design elements include wallpapers, floor rugs, animal hides, leather ottomans, cashmere throws, wicker chairs, marble bench tops, paneled walls, stone fireplaces with weathered French oak mantles, hardwood floors and divine fabric cushions and curtains in complementary neutrals. Different textural elements make a room feel warm and inviting, they draw you in to touch and experience the space in a more involved manner. They create a sense of comfort and coziness – all the elements of a beautiful home.
Of course, as with anything else when it comes to interior design, the key is to create a balance. Without enough textural elements, a space can feel cold and sterile. On the other hand, one person might love a room that’s bursting with texture, while to someone else the same room may feel busy and cluttered. It’s all about finding the balance that’s right for you.
I love a great wardrobe.
Ok, so who doesn’t. I’m a pretty big fan of a fabulous walk-in-robe that feels like a divine boutique and is hopefully stuffed with beautiful clothes and accessories. The most inspiring walk in wardrobes are those with personality. Getting dressed for the day should be an experience, not a chore.
During our home renovation and build, I converted what was originally a rather small galley style office into an additional space adjoining the master bedroom which allowed us to build a fabulous walk-in. The room is lined with purpose built dark timber paneling and includes a huge central unit with a selection of drawers and shelves and most importantly a marble bench top which allows me to display my favourite fashion accessories, books and clutch bags. It’s one of my favourite rooms in the house.
Regardless of the space you have available, I love a home with a beautiful wardrobe that oozes style and inspires you to start each day well. It’s all about planning your space, creating as much order and organised storage as possible, and injecting oodles of ‘smile in the morning’ personality into it.
Collect fabulous artwork.
Nothing is as personal as the artwork you choose to collect and display on your walls. I love a home with an eclectic mix of modern paintings, rare vintage oils, chic black and white photography and stunning old mirrors. Mixed in, of course with personal photography from our travels and old family photographs.
Some of my absolute favourite pieces are a Raphael Mazzuco photograph which hangs in the kitchen, a huge Kelsey Brooks in the great room, a fabulous photograph by Akila Berjaoui in the bedroom, a vintage Horst photograph which I have over the bathtub, a Slim Aaron’s from Porto Ercole, and a series of family photographs which are hung in the sitting room beside my much adored CJ Hendrie.
Hanging too much art work can be as distressing as too little. I love to preserve some naked walls in a home. It helps to de-clutter the mind. Don’t underestimate the power of negative space.
That said, I also adore the concept of an art wall. An eclectic and cluttered mix of photos, art works, fabrics, paper clippings and momentos. This technique has been used to great effect by Anna Spiro at Halcyon House in Cabarita, and I simply adore her use of old and new to dress walls.
Don’t underestimate the beauty of a simple garden.
I love a beautiful garden. In fact, I think it’s probably my favourite part of any home.
One of the most spectacular gardens is at Stonefields in Victoria, Paul Bangay’s magnificent 16 hectare private property. Widely regarded at the foremost garden designer in Australia today Paul Bangay creates gardens that exude a timeless elegance and classic simplicity.
If you don’t have Paul on speed dial, then I believe the next best option is to create a garden based almost exclusively on a magnificent lawn and stunning hedges. The simplicity of these two elements creates an elegant beautiful green space that enhances any home.
You can easily add to a simple garden over the years, with the addition of feature trees such as Magnolias or birch trees, wisteria covered arbours, superb pots, or interesting collectible garden seats or art works. Both my sisters are incredibly talented gardeners and I adore spending time in the beautiful spaces they create. Though, without question, their advice to me is always the same, ‘tend your lawn and your hedges like your life depends on it, and you will have the foundation of a stunning garden’. ( Must dash now to water the pots!!)
Fireplaces change the game.
I’m not sure whether it’s because I grew up spending my childhood winters’ nights snuggled up in front of an open timber fire, but I adore an open fireplace in a home. The smell of burning wood, the crackling sound, the delicious warmth and the golden hues all speak to my soul and create a sense of warmth and comfort in the home.
Surround yourself with really clever people.
There are a plethora of amazing and fabulous resources that you can turn to if you’re renovating or re-working your home. Surrounding yourself with talented and clever people only enhances your experience and helps ensure that any money you invest is wisely spent in achieving the very most you can from the little patch of turf you call home.
During our build and renovation I relied heavily on the expert guidance of our talented architect Derek Trebilcock, the timeless and elegant advice of Robyn McKendry (Magnolia), and the practical guidance of our incredible builders Ryan Hansford and Nick Roberts. I can’t tell you how much I believe that getting the right people in your corner, working your vision can really help you to achieve amazing things. We were lucky to have about a million other trades and skilled artisans on our site over several years – there’s way too many to name, but suffice to say, get great advice and use all the resources at your fingertips. In the long run, your home will be a standing testament to the team you put together.
Before you begin, ask yourself some questions.
- Where in your home do you feel the happiest?
- What do you find beautiful?
- What was your childhood home like?
- What’s your greatest extravagance?
- What’s your favourite thing in your home?
- What is your idea of perfect home happiness?
Life isn’t about finding your dream home, it’s about creating one.
