The interiors inspiration secret you probably don't know about
Forget Pinterest and Instagram, THIS is where I get my interiors inspiration
I realised recently that I’ve been interested in houses since I was an early teen, if not younger. Like a lot of kids I always enjoyed decorating my room and can prove it with photos of my various teen bedrooms (I moved a lot) and their stereotypical teen ‘designs’. Walls completely covered in magazine pages - The Face, Vogue, Seventeen - doodles directly on the walls (sorry mum but also thanks!), dripping candles in old wine bottles, huge collages of polaroids with friends.
I get a warm, fuzzy feeling just thinking about it. The freedom of creating a space with no restrictions and no plan. Its constant evolution, creative experimentation and self-expression. It’s a flow state I’ve probably been chasing for decades and certainly at the beginning of every design project.
But it’s only since I moved back to the area in Kent where I lived from age 10 to 17 that I have become aware of houses I see now that I first noticed back then. I don’t know if it’s ‘normal’ for kids to have favourite houses, but I did. All over town I’m reminded of homes that I clearly remember clocking back when I was 11, 13,16 on the drive or bike ride to school. And not just the obviously impressive big mansions.
There’s a tiny flint cottage down a little lane; a fairytale bungalow on a corner (maybe subconsciously inspiring the purchase of my own not yet fairty-tale like bungalow on the corner?); a sprawling and wonky tudor-style home; a Victorian manse overgrown with ivy.
Later when I moved at seventeen to live near the Hudson River in New York with a wealthy uncle, there were favourite homes I noted in the neighbourhood - the grand Italian villa next door was featured in the Scorcese film The Age of Innocence. It didn’t go unnoticed. A year later, at university in Boston I would ride my bike home at night along Commonwealth Avenue sneaking glances into the interiors of grand brick townhouses, glowing with lamplight. It seems I’ve always had my eyes peeled for an interesting piece of architecture.
It’s no surprise then that I managed to find a career that has allowed me to visit hundreds (if not thousands) of homes, for my books and for my styling and set design business. What I’ve learned is that the outside of a property rarely tells you much about the inside. And as much as I love an interesting piece of architecture, it’s the decor that gets me going.
Which leads me to today’s tip.
Where do you get your interiors inspiration these days?
Books? (hopefully!)
Magazines? Hard copies or online versions?
Instagram? Pinterest? YouTube?
I flit between using all of the above but because the content we consume online is so driven by an algorithm, very quickly we find ourselves in an ever shrinking loop of sameness.
You like blue-painted kitchens? Here’s another 100! It’s cottage style bedrooms you’re looking at today? Great, sending more your way!
My Pinterest and Instagram feeds have got me in a maddening vortex of THE SAME OLD S**T, peppered of course with ads for sports bras and anti-ageing creams because apparently they’ve got me all figured out. Which is why I’ve left Instagram for now and have been spending far more time here, both writing and reading longer form essays, some of them with - drum roll - no pictures! But I do want/need/enjoy seeing inside people’s homes, both for work and personal project inspiration.
So let me introduce you to the photo shoot location agency.
Now, because I work in the industry that I do, I often forget that not everyone knows what I know. A classic case of undervaluing my knowledge and experience. But then I remember that every time I tell a new neighbour/hair dresser/builder what I do for a living, they clearly have no clue about this world.
Think of the following scenarios: A TV commercial for speedy home broadband set in an ‘ordinary home’ ; an advert in a magazine for a luxury sofa manufacturer; an interior scene in a film or tv series; the kitchen on the cover of a cookbook by your favourite celebrity chef. These were likely all filmed/photographed in a property that was hired for the shoot. Sometimes they might be in a studio with a fake interior built by a team, but much of the time it is a real home rented out for the duration of the shoot and usually with some changes made by a set design team (that’s me!).
And there are public websites dedicated to showcasing these properties for hire. It’s an absolute treasure trove of interiors inspiration, whatever your style. What you won’t get is any background on the owners or the story of their renovation like you would in a magazine piece or a book (case studies on the owners/renters is one of my favourite parts of writing my books). In fact all you’ll get is an approximate location.
But what you will get is a full interior and often exterior tour, something that doesn’t often happen in magazine articles which are much more selective, often showing only the ‘good’ bits. Because the homes on these sites are vying for the attention (and cash) of potential shoot producers, stylists, and photographers, the agency photography shows all the areas they would allow you to shoot in. Again, for magazine articles and books you rarely get the full picture.
Many of these homes don’t have ‘bad bits’ anyway, and all rooms have been meticulously cleaned, tided and styled for the photos, so don’t expect any Life Unstyled realism here, although there is a real mix of minimal, trad, maximal and everything in between. But what I love is the wholeness of the imagery, the fuller picture of a home that you don’t get in a magazine or book. Steel yourself for an abundance of envy inducing homes, but don’t get down on yourself, just take what you can from them as inspiration for your own home.
Yesterday as I was browsing on my favourite of these sites, it sparked the idea for green painted gutters on the outside of the house, a ruffled hem sofa, a different angle for my desk and a slide instead of stairs (not actually my dream but knowing this is how one family lives thrills me!)
And that is what I get from these sites, tidbits of ideas both big and small. I do often feel sick with envy - I’m human - but mostly I take away little nuggets to work into my own designs, filing ideas to be reworked at a later date, combined with my own style to make something new. What I also love is the diversity of homes (although there is a lot of repetition as well), from airy lofts with concrete floors and steel beams to low ceilinged cottages to retro apartments with original seventies wallpaper. It’s a real feast and so refreshing when you’re stuck in the algorithm loop.
My favourite in the UK is Shoot Factory - their website is well designed and the homes are beautifully photographed.
Others to browse are Light Locations, Love Locations, 1st Option and JJ Locations. And don’t forget, if you have a home you think could be used for shoots, that’s an option as well. It’s part of my business plan!
A few interesting ones below from Shoot Factory. Enjoy browsing! And tell me, where do you get your interiors inspiration these days?
The following two bathrooms are in the same (fabulous) home which should tell you that there are no rules in a creative home - things do not need to flow seamlessly
There are also homes like this one, probably showing up in a tv series scene in the home of an elderly lady talking to detectives about the murder that happened next door.
How’s this for making the most of a disaster? The story goes that there was a fire in the upper room of this house and the owner left it as is and hires it for shoots. Genius.
Keeping with the distressed theme
Lastly, the home of Zoe Anderson, barely recognisable from when we shot it for my book Be Bold, due a to a fabulous kitchen and main bed/ensuite renovation.
I hope you feel inspired to make your home uniquely YOU xx
Yea same Emily I’ve been perusing those sites since 2008 or so. I love them. Also Frank Features in So Africa and the Swedish realtor sites with the exceptional propping!
“Photo shoot location agency”—will have to remember that search engine phrase! Magazines are just too expensive to make a monthly weekend habit of anymore, and as you say, IG & Pinterest take you down an ever-narrowing spiral of sameness.