This month…
For many years, our talented homes director Ben Kendrick has sought out the spectacular houses that define our magazine. Always understated (just like Ben himself!), the homes have a warm, lived-in feeling and are utterly individual. The people who inhabit them are usually artists – or creative souls – who have embarked on a restoration project, often taking years to complete it. And that’s the point. For them, renovating is a gradual and organic process: the joy lies in the journey of bringing a tired house back to life. One of the best examples of this comes from interiors expert Cassandra Ellis, who (on page 102) shares her passion for taking on properties ‘that are sad and imbuing them with happiness’. Her approach to renovation has inspired me just as much as the aesthetic of her home, and has certainly helped me rethink my own home-improvement project.
‘Slow decorating’ is clearly a trend to watch, and many movers and shakers in the interiors industry have embraced it. In a recent interview, John Sims-hilditch, founder of the lifestyle brand Neptune, advocates the same considered approach: “Decorating should be like gardening. It’s a life-long quest and never quite finished. Not feeling the need to finish is important – it relieves a lot of pressure.”
Of course, this cultural shift towards rejecting the idea that faster is better started with the slow food movement and this month we bring you one of the greatest champions of that – Hugh Fearnleywhittingstall. Hugh has been a friend of Country Living for years and on pages 38 and 142 he tells about his latest mission to help us all eat better – for ever. It may be an ambitious goal but, with Hugh’s common-sense approach, it sounds like, well, a piece of cake…
I hope all our contributors will inspire you as much as they have me. As the world speeds up again post-pandemic, I’ll be dedicating 2021 to the enjoyment of living slowly – eating and decorating!
PS We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with retailer Homebase. Check out our fabulous kitchens on page 74. Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing more exciting home collections with you.