When I was younger, I felt a close connection between collecting and my strong nostalgic bent. I am from a line of women who hoard – and that tendency morphed into an expression of my longing for home, even when I was there. My favourite hunting ground was the local car boot sale, a love I inherited from one of my grandmothers. We’d go together in pursuit of the beautiful, not unlike gold panners in our commitment and fervour. I still own every chipped saucer and faded tablecloth we found.
As I grew older, my taste developed, but my appetite for collecting never waned. I became interested in antique textiles, finding them irresistible. Scraps of wallpaper, remnants of upholstery, an old kimono – they resonate because they remind me of something or someone I love. To begin with, I stored them all in an old trunk. This soon became a collection of boxes and, before long, they took up most of my garage. That first trunk was the origin of The One Day Box – my shorthand name for the things that spark a memory or feeling that appeals, to which, one day, we hope to return.
A big part of what I love about working with clients is finding out about their own One Day Boxes – whether metaphorical, tucked away in the recess of their minds, or literal. It feels the greatest privilege to explore what sparks joy for them and how to translate that into their homes.
There is a fluidity to this approach – things come and go, they have their moment. What we need from a home constantly evolves, or the inevitable demand of change throws up the need to move on. The important thing is to not see an interior as static. Move things around. Your wallpaper and curtains are the canvas that sets the tone; your furniture, artwork and belongings are the crucial characters at play. Rehang your pictures and plates as you see fit and make additions to your patchwork of belongings on a shelf.
Decorating a room is about enabling people to be themselves and feel truly comfortable. I am just as preoccupied by how people are going to move within a space as I am by what it looks like. Strive to achieve a sense of welcome, which works best when every-thing is not too precise or polite. The positioning of comfortable sofas and armchairs around a focal point, with plenty of surfaces to put your drink down on – or, dare I say it, put your feet up on. That sense that anything goes (surfaces that are older and worn, as well as new and more tailored), where kicking your shoes off is encouraged.
The impact of an interior is most striking when it is matched with what it feels like to sit in, live in and laugh in. I don’t believe in fads. For me, what’s timeless is listening to the way a colour on a wall speaks to you – whether that’s about nostalgia and the memories of a place you stepped into as a child, or a sense of serenity in your bedroom. They can still be chic or on-trend, but it’s not those elements that you respond to. A patchwork quilt, a pile of books by the bed, a fraying lampshade on top of an opaline lamp – these are the things that might prompt a conversation. The juxtaposition of old and new is the backbone of an interior. It is the contrasts that make a home lived in and interesting, and a room visually rich and compelling: the elegance alongside the casualness, the worn patina and often ordinary alongside the well-tailored.
Allow your house to be revealing of yourself. There is a considerable element of storytelling to be embraced in one’s own home, achieved in mine through pretty excessive layering. I put things on a mantelpiece or dresser that tell my (and now my family’s) story and I do that first and foremost for the pleasure it brings us as we walk past. Yes, I place an old quilt over the back of a sofa because I think it looks nice, but it’s really down to the fact I can’t bear not to have it on view. That’s why, for me, a home is never finished. It doesn’t stand still. My habit of collecting is a constant quest that marks travels, moments, holidays, friendships, relationships – and my house is the canvas on which I can display those things, tell those stories and let that constantly evolving narrative play out.
Flora Soames’ first book ‘The One Day Box: A Life-changing Love of Home’ (Rizzoli, £47.50) is out now. florasoames.com
