Create | Emily Henson
Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating By the Book, hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
Emily Henson: Hi, I'm Emily Henson. I'm an interior stylist and set designer and interiors author based in the UK. And I've just released by fifth interiors book, which is called Create, and it's all about inspiring homes that value creativity before consumption.
Suzy Chase: Creativity before consumption is about reinvention and sustainability for the sake of the planet, but also for the pure joy and satisfaction of creating a home that is truly unique. Consuming less and shopping more consciously may be a slower way of decorating, but it is thrilling when you succeed in achieving the look you love while spending less in the process. So you're a set designer, interior stylist, and author of five books. I can't believe it.
Emily Henson: Me neither.
Suzy Chase: How was the idea of this book, Create, born?
Emily Henson: Well, what happens with my books, I've noticed now after, as you said, doing five of them, there's usually a seed for the next book idea in the previous books. So I've actually written in I'd say at least two of my previous books, there's a chapter called Creativity Before Consumption. It's something I've always been interested in, and I grew up in a household where that was valued. It just took this long to actually be able to devote an entire book to the subject. It's always been important to me in interiors and in everything in my whole life, really. The idea of not just going out and buying something, but being creative, putting your own stamp on something. And as I said in the intro part that you wrote, that it's not just about ... Of course, it's right now really important that it's about for the sake of the planet, but it's also about just having something that is your own, that's your representative of your own style.
Suzy Chase: So speaking of growing up in a household where it was valued, do you think your mom sort of put that ethos into you because she had a vintage clothing shop in the early 80s in London?
Emily Henson: That's right, yes. She did. And I think it even goes back to the generation before because my mom was raised in a household by a mother who herself lived in sort of post World War II London. Right? So that generation, everything they did was about just getting by, make to, and mend, that whole attitude in sort of post World War II era. So my mom grew up with a mom who taught her that, and then she kind of passed it on to me. But my mom was always really creative, and I was seven when she opened her first shop, so I grew up walking home from school to my mom's shop that was filled with, I think at the time she had clothes from the 1920s onwards. So I'd go and try on these flapper dresses, I mean, the classic story of putting on shoes that were too big and parading around the shop. That was my childhood for a number of years. So the idea of shopping secondhand has always been with me are, and I definitely credit my mom for that.
Suzy Chase: So Create is a book about creativity, reinvention, and sustainability, not just for the sake of the planet, but also for the joy and satisfaction of creating a home that is truly unique. Talk a little bit about the 12 homes in the book.
Emily Henson: For each of the books that I've written, we always include 12. That is for some reason the magic number that myself and my publisher like to do, so we always try to include a variety of homes, not just in the UK, which is where I live now, but across Europe. I mean, I'd love to be able to travel farther, but there are limits. In the first couple of books, we also went to the US. I've done houses in New York and LA. But for this book, it was the UK and kind of continental Europe. So we found a variety of houses, I think for this book, it was a little bit more challenging than my past books because I've written books, one was called Modern Rustic, and the other one was Be Bold. And they were visually quite specific, whereas this book was more about a concept. It's not about a particular look of a house, so that made it a little bit more challenging in terms of trying to find homes that fit.
And I also really wanted it to be authentic. That was kind of my whole ... Everything I do is about authenticity, so I wanted to try to find homes that really represented this concept that I was writing about. I wanted them to have that creativity where they've made things, or they've made do, they haven't necessarily bought everything. But that's actually quite hard to find because we're all human and we all do buy things new as well, so it was a challenge to find places that fit, but we found such incredible homes. And they're all quite diverse, they're different styles. Some are quite modern. Some are definitely more kind of vintage inspired, lots of different color palettes, lots of different materials, but all holding that same kind of ethos.
Suzy Chase: So you just mentioned authenticity, and that just really hit me with this book because at the end, you write that this was the most challenging of all the five books you've ever written because you didn't want it just to be pretty pictures of unattainable homes. And I think you really hit the mark for me. Every photo in this book is inspirational and attainable.
Emily Henson: Oh, thank you. That means a lot to me because as I said, it's always difficult to do, to find homes that fit this idea that I've got in my head. And with this one, it was even more challenging. I'm really happy with it. And the thing is, there are so many incredible people out there. With my books, I'm not an interior designer, these are not books about houses I've designed. I think of myself more as, for want of a better word, more as a curator. So I notice an idea that's happening, and then I try to find people who are doing that in their homes. So there are so many incredible people out there doing really wonderful things at home. It's just finding them, that's the trick.
It's getting easier. When I first started doing books, I would find an image on Pinterest, for example, and have to kind of trace back to try to find the root of that image, find the homeowner, try to track them down. It's a little bit easier now with social media. Things have improved.
Suzy Chase: This is your third book together with Catherine Gratwicke, a photographer, and you traveled all Europe to visit these 12 homes. So in terms of you working together, did she find some of the homes, did you find some of the homes? How did that work?
Emily Henson: Yeah. Cath is amazing. We have worked together. This will be the third book. She did my first book, Modern Rustic. And then we've done Be Bold, and now Create together. And she's incredible because she's an amazing photographer. I love her style of photography. And very importantly, we get along really well. So when we travel together, you're with somebody all day, you travel, you're on trains, planes, in hotels, having breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, and then working together. So it's really important to have a strong relationship, and we just really get along.
In terms of finding the houses, Cath usually comes on board a little bit later, so I will come up with the concept, obviously pitch to my publisher, get a book deal. And then I will always cross my fingers and hope that I can get the photographer of choice, which is Cath. And she's not usually part of the process of finding the houses. If she found something, she would forward it to me and we can look into it, but typically, it's myself and my publisher. There's a location guru we'll call her, Jess, at my publisher, who's incredible, so we work together, discuss the concept, and then both kind of go out and try to find homes. But Cath then comes in. We've discussed it before with start shooting. We'll have calls. She'll see my brief. She'll look at my presentation for the book, the initial kind of book pitch.
But no, she's amazing because she'll just show up and get on with it, which is incredible. And we've traveled so much for all of these books, and just have had such laughs. Some things have gone wrong and we just figure it out. And you get exhausted, but working with her has just been fantastic.
Suzy Chase: You have a section called Gather: Unearthing Your Style, where you share three tips to help us unearth our style. And I love all three of these. Could you please give us those?
Emily Henson: One of the things that I get asked loads, whether it's through social media or people literally emailing me, saying that the main problem people seem to have is figuring out what their style is. And I, even myself, struggle with that because I'm exposed to so many wonderful homes through my work as a set designer and stylist, and then through the books. Sometimes you can get paralyzed by liking too many things. As I said, I struggle with it myself. So I think one of the things that I talk about in the book, there are three ways that I tackle it personally, and I think it's helpful for others.
And those three things, one of them is kind of more tangible idea, and then the other two are more like mindset changes. So the first more tangible idea is mood boarding. And I know that this is not a new concept. I think that a lot of people think of it in terms of, maybe you're working with an interior designer, you come up with a mood board for materials and all of the fine details. But I use them also just to fine tune a general look for a house or a room. And you can do it through a tangible 3D mood board with magazine tears and paint samples and all that stuff. Or you could do lots and lots of online digital mood boards as well. And I think it's just a really great way to start to compile the things that you like. And I think the more you gather those images together, you will start to see patterns that repeat, things that you like.
It might seem like you like 10 different types of flooring, for example. But I really do believe the more you start to put images together, the more you can fine tune and realize I'm actually always going more towards, I don't know, white painted floorboards, for example. So I think mood boards are really important for just kind of figuring out your signature style. And also, don't forget that it will evolve as well over time.
The second thing is to decorate slowly. And I think this is something that now, especially with social media, where we're exposed to these videos of 15 second TikToks where you see the before and the after, and it just seems to easy and fast. And I think it's really important to remember that's not real life. It's not realistic, and that taking things a little bit slower allows you time to make mistakes, to figure things out as they evolve. A lot of ideas come to me a little bit slower. I don't walk into a room and know immediately what I'm going to do. And I think you just have to allow yourself a little bit of space, little bit of time to let your ideas kind of percolate.
So the third thing is the idea of the forever home. I say forget the myth of the forever home. It's a concept that I hear people talk about a lot, and it doesn't resonate with me at all. And I think on the one hand, that's because I've been lucky. I've moved a lot. I've lived in lots of different places, so I never think of a home as forever. But I think it's something that even if you're in a house that you picture yourself being in for a length of time, just changing that mindset to not thinking of things as forever is quite liberating. Otherwise, you tend to think that, for example, if you're trying to choose a bathroom sink, if you think that's the last sink you're ever going to buy, it can be quite paralyzing because you think, "This is the one. This has to be the perfect sink." And then you can become paralyzed with decision-making, at least that's how I feel. So I think it's really important to just let go of this idea of things being forever and open yourself up to the idea that things will change over time.
Suzy Chase: That is such a novel idea. I've never really explored the fact that, that mindset can stunt your creativity, if you think this is so important, every decision I make, I can't mess up.
Emily Henson: Yeah. I think it's paralyzing. And I think we're already bombarded with so many choices in life, but specifically in the home and interiors, that it can become completely paralyzing. And I say that from my own experience as well, working in this industry and seeing so many incredible styles all the time, and then thinking about my own home. I think as soon as I let go of that idea of this is forever, then I can, well, make mistakes, first of all, but also make decisions knowing that it's okay if I change my mind later down the line.
Suzy Chase: Right, because I do think that your style kind of evolves as you evolve. And it doesn't stay stagnant wherever you're living.
Emily Henson: No, not at all. I mean, I look back on my house. I bought a house when I lived in the states back in 2005. And it was completely different to the style now. I mean, there are similarities in terms of the types of ... I suppose they probably have the same feeling, my house now and my house then, but in terms of the actual finishes, the colors and the patterns, they're completely different. And I think that in 10 years, 15 years from now, my house will probably be different as well. And I think that's what's wonderful. Right? We change as people and I think our homes are supposed to be a reflection of who we are as people and where we are at this time in our life.
Suzy Chase: In Create, you talk about the beauty of the basics, and there is this photo of an oversized white paper lantern with a red wire or flex for hanging. And it looks so chic, and this can go with any style of interiors. I just adore the simplicity and low cost of it all. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Emily Henson: Yeah. I know exactly the image you're talking about. That was in this amazing loft apartment in Berlin. It was rented. The couple that lived there didn't own it. They rented it. And so for them, they were trying to find ways of updating their flat without spending a lot of money, first of all, and without doing things that were too permanent. So yet, they had used a red, bright red flex, and then just one of those huge paper pendants that you can spend money on them, but they can be quite cheap. And that's actually something I'm doing here in my house. I'm renovating right now. And I just decided that I didn't want to put some huge, big statement piece in my living room, and so I've done the same. I've bought this green braided cable that I'm going to use to hang just a gigantic paper pendant. And it's probably going to cost about 30 quid instead of costing hundreds and hundreds.
And also, it looks really great. It's easy to achieve. It's something that you can pretty much do yourself. And it's kind of low commitment as well. It's a great thing for renters. I did try with the book, I really wanted to have more renters, rented houses in the book because not everyone owns their home, and it's really important to think of ways that we can make our place without spending too much money on our landlord's property, first of all. And also, a lot of houses here in the UK in particular, you're not really allowed to make a lot of changes to rented properties, so it was important to me to include homes like that.
Suzy Chase: So repurposing is more important than ever, you say because it keeps in use items that would go to the landfill. And also, it will make your home uniquely yours. You show a kitchen where everything is secondhand except for the appliances. I love it so much.
Emily Henson: Yes. That house that you're referring to was incredible, is incredible. It was in the Netherlands. And what I love about this place is that it's owned by a family, a couple. They've owned it for 12 years I think, and they're still fixing it up, which I think I say in the chapter I wrote. For a lot of people, that's probably a nightmare, the idea that 12 years later, you're still making changes. That's what life is. Right? You can't always afford to do everything at once. You keep adapting. But their kitchen was incredible because as you said, every single piece had been found over the years, salvaged, except for appliances. And then they'd had some stainless steel counters, sort of work tops installed as well.
It gives it so much soul. And I actually really love that contrast in this particular kitchen, the contrast of the shiny newness of the stainless steel and the stainless appliances, then with these more vintage pieces of wood and metal. It really has a lot of life, that house.
Suzy Chase: This book is just page after page of clever ways to make your house your own. You show us how to use reclaimed double doors in place of bland, ugly prefab closet doors.
Emily Henson: That particular homeowner, she said she decided after university many years ago that she would get rid of all of her flat pack, you know who we're talking about, this big Swedish brand, she would get rid of all of the stuff that she owned from there, and slowly try to just replace it with things that she really loved and cared about. And so now many years later, she's got a home that's just filled with every single thing has been salvaged or sourced secondhand, including the wardrobe doors that you speak of. I think those doors are in the bedroom, and it was just a simple white wall with three sets of doors that she'd replaced. None of them matched. There were three separate sets of doors, all a little bit different. And it becomes a focal point. It becomes a piece of art, where it could've just been a door that vanishes. It's such a clever idea.
Suzy Chase: It's so clever, and I do love that they don't match.
Emily Henson: Yeah, definitely. And then it also makes it easier to find. Another thing they did too in terms of just picking up on the idea of not matching, is that all of their floorboards were salvaged as well. And that's something that's really quite difficult to do, is to find large quantities of salvaged floorboards. And people think, "Well, I can't do it because I want to do the whole house. I want all the floors to match." But what they had done is they'd had sections that didn't match. They'd got whatever, X amount of floorboards for the living room, but then there was a little bit on the stairs that they had to replace with some other slightly different tone, or a different thickness. And overall, it looks like this beautiful patchwork. So I think it's really important to remember that you can kind of piece things together.
Suzy Chase: Okay. So we've reclaimed, we've thrifted. We've found antiques on the street. So when do we splurge?
Emily Henson: This was something that was important to me to include. And I actually don't think I really realized it until I was in the process of creating the book, which is what happens sometimes, where I started to realize we were photographing these homes, and it's unrealistic for most people to be able to salvage everything secondhand. And also, sometimes you just, there's something that you really want and need, and you can't find it, or you want it to feel new. An example, one of the houses in the book, their splurge was on their kitchen. So for them, the kitchen that came with the house, it wasn't working for them. They found ways to remove some of the pieces, and then pass them on. I think they sold a lot of it on Facebook Marketplace or whatever was their local marketplace, so it didn't go to waste. But for them, it was important that they build from scratch a kitchen that worked for them because mealtimes, cooking was really valuable in their family.
So I think it depends. There's no hard and fast rule in terms of what you should splurge on. One person's splurge is going to be different from the next person's in terms of actual money, monetary value, and the thing itself, so it's a really personal thing. But I think I included it just so that people didn't feel this pressure of, I can't buy anything new. That's not what the book's about. It's just about thinking more consciously about what you buy, not just buying with this kind of throw away mentality.
Suzy Chase: I love that you've included Q and As with the owners of the homes featured in Create.
Emily Henson: Yes. And I hadn't done that with any of my past books, but I with this one, wanted to do things a little bit differently. With each book I write, I kind of hone in more and more on what's important to me. And as I said earlier, these books aren't about me. I'm the curator of other people's homes, and so I really love hearing the stories about the homeowners. I love writing about them. And so I just thought it would be quite fun to have a little Q and A with them, hearing their own words as well because I of course write the chapters after interviewing them, but I thought it would be quite nice for the reader to feel like they actually get to meet the owner.
Suzy Chase: I saw this idea of using every bit of space repeated over and over in the book. Can you just talk a little bit about that?
Emily Henson: Yes. One of the homes that comes to mind in terms of using every little bit of space is, again, it's the one we were speaking about earlier with the wardrobe doors. But there's a shot in the book of a kitchen, and behind the door, there was just a little bit of space that would be dead space, really. The door opens, but they had put some little shelves behind, just the depth of kind of a mug or a cup. And they put a row of them kind of ceiling to floor for things that they use on hand, cups and mugs and that kind of thing. And it's such a clever idea because it is literally an area that would've just been unused. And so I think it's important to just take a look around and think about those kind of spaces. Just think a little bit differently in terms of how you decorate.
Suzy Chase: You recently wrote that you, in fact, are trying to adhere to the words in your own book. Tell me about the cabinet knob situation.
Emily Henson: Right. Before the cabinet knob situation, there was the tile situation, kitchen tile situation, tile gate, as I call it. And it's just about me struggling to make a decision, even though what I just said is, the whole forever home thing. I'm trying to remember that myself because we had to redo our kitchen, built a very simple but beautiful kitchen out of thick birch plywood, just really, really simple. I still need to choose some doorknobs for it, and there's a number of things. First of all, my style has changed quite a bit with the house that I'm decorating right now. It's evolved so much. I used to love color and pattern, and now everything's a lot more muted and simple. So I'm struggling to find these doorknobs for my kitchen cabinets. I only need three, three doorknobs, and it's taken me forever to commit because I think it's ...
First of all, my style has changed, so I'm trying to figure out. What is this new style? What does it look like? And then also, sometimes when you've got to put a hole in something, when you're going to put a hole, whether it's in a wall to hang a picture, or in a wooden, beautifully, freshly made door, the idea of putting a hole in and then deciding that it's wrong, has been holding me back. And so yeah, I'm just trying to remember the words that I wrote in my book, that you've just got to go for it sometimes. So for now, we still have little duct tape doorknobs on the cabinets. I have bought some. I've bought a few different sets of knobs, and I still can't seem to commit.
Suzy Chase: Well, I think you need to remember that they're not your forever knobs.
Emily Henson: Exactly. And somebody commented because I posted about it on Instagram. And someone wrote a wonderful comment saying exactly that. She said, "Even in two months, you might change your mind, so just put anything in now. It doesn't matter because regardless, you're going to change your mind." And I think that's something that's really important to remember, as I wrote in the book.
Suzy Chase: And especially with knobs, I mean, you're using the same hole for each knob. It's not like you have to-
Emily Henson: Well, you are, except if you ... Sometimes some knobs have one hole, and sometimes they have two holes. And they might be sideways or they might be horizontal or vertical, the two holes, because that's what holding me back exactly. If it was something that's a little bit longer, I might change my mind. But no, I mean, it's one of those things that's ridiculous, but even I struggle with it.
Suzy Chase: Well, that's good to know for us readers. You're just like us.
Emily Henson: Exactly.
Suzy Chase: Now for my segment called Decorator or Designer. Do you prefer the term interior decorator or the term interior designer, and why?
Emily Henson: Well, I actually don't really think of myself as being either of those because by trade, I'm a set designer. I'm an interior stylist and set designer, so I kind of take a little bit of the interior decorator, a little bit of interior designer, but I'm doing it for sets that aren't permanent. You know? And funny enough, in the UK, the term decorator, people really refer to it as someone who comes and just paints your house. That's a decorator. So it depends where you live as well, in terms of the terminology. But, yeah, I would say that I'm more of a decorator than a designer. I think interior designers have to know a lot more about whole space, structural, working with architects, that type of thing, which is something that I don't tend to do. I'm really good at finishing a space. I'm good at walking in and kind of having a look around, and thinking of the finishing details, rather than big space, structural changes, which I think of more as an interior designer.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Emily Henson: So on social media, I am at Life Unstyled, mostly on Instagram. And I also have been writing a blog since about 2009, which is called Life Unstyled, and that's at lifeunstyledblog.com. And then if you're interested in any of my set design work, that's emilyhensonstudio.com So quite a few places to check out my work.
Suzy Chase: This book is a must-have if you want to learn how to make mindful, intentional, eco-friendly decorating choices in the new year. Thank you so much, Emily, for coming on Decorating By the Book Podcast.
Emily Henson: Thank you, Suzy. It's been an absolute pleasure.
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