Bring the outside IN!

Let nature inspire your home, whilst embracing change.

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My entrance hall: old dead crap in a vase and someone else’s boots.

My life so far has been a rich tapestry of experiences and overall, even the bad ones I wouldn’t bother changing. Some of have been pretty damn shitty too. My early days of living an almost nomadic existence (note I did not spend my childhood in a desert with only a camel for company) moving from house to house, school to school, made me acutely aware of change. I was always the wretched new boy. For someone who was painfully shy back then, it was often terrifying. But, it also made me realise how important it was to not only accept, but to be brave and celebrate it and make it a reason to have fun. Otherwise, I was going to spend my life being afraid and bloody miserable. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I really believe that happiness comes from truly embracing change. Not that you can be happy all the time, that would be pretty weird and just a tad on the Stepford Wives Richter scale. But, i do think it’s possible to try and be as happy as you can be most of the time.

So many people are scared of change and it seems the older you get, the more frightened you become. To me, change is nearly always good. I’m not being a know-it-all twat. I’ve just had the most ridiculous amount of change in my life from the offset and now I’m numb to it. We might not think change is a good thing at first. But, that’s because most of us like familiarity and hug it tightly for fear of losing control. God forbid we should lose control!

Big changes in our lives, like our kids fleeing the nest, or selling up and moving to pastures new, can be supremely daunting. How will we cope? Will we be happy? I’m not a doctor, I’m not an expert, but what I do know is that if we start training our minds that change is good with something small, like the transition of the seasons, then the bigger things do seem to be less overwhelming.

You’d be astonished at the amount of people that don’t really notice the seasons, let alone celebrate them. As every summer saunters into fall, before you know it the “moment” you were supposed to cherish is over. It’s so easy for us to float through our lives like a sycamore helicopter seed spinning toward certain winter. We’re so busy “spinning”, just getting by, that we miss the true wonder of the world around us. So, today STOP! Take a moment, exhale. It’s the August bank holiday weekend and you are allowed to just “be”.

Take time to notice things. Changes are constantly taking place all around you. Contrary to what Instagram might have you believe, it is not yet autumn! But, there are tiny nods to it. My agapanthus have bloomed and withered and are now busy making seeds. That reminds me, I must cut those back and let them concentrate on building energy for next years blooms. I don’t know if you felt it, but there was a slight chill in the air this morning and I also noticed condensation on our victorian windows. But, it’s also still balmy at night and I can still see the wine glass in front of me by 8pm without lighting the garden candles.

Bringing the outside in isn't just about a vase of flowers

Truly embracing the seasons and national holidays has always been my pot of joy. Welcoming the seasons with open arms allows us to not only enjoy our life more by being excited about change, but we can also create an inspirational and beautiful home. By bringing the outside in we can celebrate the mini revolutions that are taking place in the world around us. We can allow nature to nurture our souls. The tiniest of seasonal suggestions in our home can enrich our lives. Sometimes, all you need is a bunch of daffs in a vase to transform a space and conjure a smile.

My seasonal style is often quite extravagant, some might say slightly OTT, but I do also love simplicity. I’m going to take you through the seasons over the coming months and years and show you both sides to my style and how you too can harness the natural world around you to glow up your home. I’m here for it, I’m all over it. Are you with me?

Natural wood, a well placed plant and rustic coastal vibes

My mum loves the seasons. She was pimping up a branch she had found in the woods decades before the dawn of Instagram. That’s where I originally found my inspiration for my first Insta branch named Luca. He received a great amount of use. I miss him, actually. Just so you know, I name a lot of the inanimate objects that I love. I have thing for anthropomorism.

As children, we were very used to seeing my mother covering a large twig with glitter or colour-dyed eggs. She would bring flowers and foliage from the garden inside and display them all over the house. She loved it and she instilled an appreciation of it in me too.

Everything I ever do now in interior design terms is about bringing the outside in, connecting the interior with the outside world. To me, nature, our gardens and the seasons are intrinsically linked to us and the way we live. Our homes, our interiors should reflect those changes throughout the year. In my mind, a room isn’t complete without an element of the outdoors within it.

Even in some of my more outlandish seasonal installations, such as the year we went all three foot long candy canes and over-sized baubles (don’t get saucy!) on our front steps, I was still celebrating the season with child-like joy, inspired by the colour of snow and the deep crimson of holly berries. Inside the house that year, I continued the theme purely with foraged holly, ivy and snow berries.

I am at my happiest when walking in the forest with my ever-ready pair of secateurs, just in case I spy the perfect clump of bracken, or a cluster of jewel-like rose hips. The joys of this experience are two-fold. Firstly, being in the moment and instinctively aware of the small joys around you is an art that many of us never learn, but which I believe we should all try in earnest to succeed at.

But, as well as that, those natural treasures can be taken home and arranged to nurture your home, create a pleasing aesthetic and enhance your daily life. Walking past something so intrinsically perfect and beautiful every day can’t but have an effect on your mood.

Being mindful of the beauty that surrounds us and the plentiful supply of completely free styling props is life changing. I always remember a quote from my favourite book by Alice Walker, The Color Purple: “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back”.

A simple swag and something a little more outlandish!

Something happened to me that changed my life a few years back and I naturally just started noticing the world around me. The deep cerise of the Monarda flower in my garden, for example. Its pointy petals and the intoxicating fragrance of bergamot. It got me thinking: why only have this beauty outside? Why can’t we use it to enrich our lives inside.

Now, buying a bunch of flowers and shoving them in a vase has been around for centuries and is certainly nothing ground-breaking. Growing that flower yourself though and then harvesting it specifically to make the inside of your home pretty is something else. We have a print of one of the famous Andy Warhol Marilyn artworks. Our colourway uses cerise pink. Taking a plentiful bunch of that Monarda flower, mixing it with seasonal foliage and then placing it in a contemporary vase in the same room as the artwork creates unity and flow and, in turn, entirely lifts the space and our hearts.

A great interior somehow has a link to the outside world within it. You could call it biophilic design, using sustainable materials and lots of plants and natural products, but it’s more than that. If it is at all possible, I like to physically link a space to the outside. Even in the most difficult of spaces you can make use of a window, a view by drawing the eye to it by using paint, wallpaper and fabric.

When I first see the interior of a house, if it has tiny windows, too many walls, or doors in the wrong places, all I want to do is rip through the clutter and noise and open it all up. In every home we have ever owned, if I can’t see a journey from the front door, if I can’t see the garden, then it has to change. I want to see the sky. I want to see trees. I want the outside to entice me with its light and its airiness. It can’t do that if there’s a whopping great big wall in the way. Sometimes you just need to move the wall. It can prove expensive, but linking the interior to outside is the best money you can spend.

Our botanical shower room.

A clever way to allow your home to reflect nature is to use botanical patterns on wallpaper, upholstery fabric, or even shower panels. Earlier this year I installed botanical print shower screens in our guest shower room. It really is like showering in a rain forest!

Whatever your budget, wherever you live and whether you have a garden or not, you can use the seasons as your inspiration for your interiors. You may not live near a forest. You may not be able to afford to spend some of your wage packet at the local florist. But, using nature in your home can be free, or almost free. You just have to make sure you follow the rules of foraging, which I will go into in another post.

You can also mix it up by using faux plants and stems to decorate your home. For the price of an Indian takeaway you can buy three beautiful faux stems of magnolia flower and make it look incredible in a vase. You’ve got them forever and can use them as the basis of a room design. I’ve collected many faux stems over the years. A lot of people might say I’m not really helping the environment by buying plastic. But, I think if I use them over and over throughout my life, then they went to very good use. If I had to buy three faux stems of one thing, it would be eucalyptus. I’ve used it a hundred times to bulk out natural floral displays, saving me a fortune. I am growing eucalyptus in my garden too, but the faux stems still help to create a larger, more impressive display.

House plants are the easiest solution to creating a sense of the outdoors within a space. There’s huge evidence that it’s good for your health too as plants purify the air we breathe and impact our mental health in a positive way.

Bringing the outside in isn’t just about bringing a Monstera, cut flowers and foliage into your home though. Anything from the natural world works, even if it has been manufactured using natural products. For example, the use of natural wood grain furniture (this does not include chip board or mdf) can ground your home and create a warm, inviting ambience. I particularly love the use of reclaimed, preloved furniture. There’s something very special about owning an object, or piece of furniture that has a history. It adds character as well as a talking point to a home.

I have a collection of antique bobbins in my living room. The patina of the aged wood is particularly pleasing, as are the various shades of blue thread that is wound around them. My mother-in-law asked me once why on earth I had 16 oversized bobbins on my coffee table. “Because they’re beautiful and they make me happy when I see them”, I replied. She scuttled off with bemusement.

In the homes I have curated I have used copious amounts of driftwood, antique coral and sea fans, large pebbles, acorns, dried grasses and cow parsley. I even have old bird’s nests and termite-eaten tree trunks. The textures, patterns and colours of the world all add to the intrigue of a nature-inspired home. I’m constantly collecting old natural dead crap basically. What is one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

There’s a plethora of free styling props right on your doorstep. You just need to know what to look for! If you continue to follow me and read my weekly columns, then I promise you that you will be inspired to style up your home with the seasons and you’ll feel all the better for it. I’ve never been in a gang, but I’m looking forward to starting my own. A slightly mad seasonal styling, natural dead crap hunting gang. Do you wanna be in it?