Home sense: How to create a home

Creating a home is more than painting a wall, buying some cushions and putting down a rug, according to product designer, pundit and TV judge Helen James in her first how-to book, writes Carol O’Callaghan.

I have little time for what are typically described as coffee table home interior books. You know the sort, full of luscious images, designed to take us away from our own, perhaps, less inspiring environment. Equally unimpressed, am I, by the likes of Marie Condo, the scary international decluttering and tidying guru who takes her topic to competitive sports level, with regulations delivered to her devotees with an attending tone of chastisement.

I’m far more comfortable with the kindly Mary Berry and her housekeeping tips, some taught to her by her mother in a time when housekeeping was an art form, and on which Mary has built with decades of trial and error in her own house while baking her way to fame.

I mean, who wouldn’t utterly trust Mary Berry? I, for one, consult Mary’s Household Tips & Tricks for everything from stain removal, to hospital corners when I run out of fitted sheets.

So, ever open to practicality and authenticity, I decided to pick up Helen James’ — designer of the Considered range of homewares for Dunnes Stores, and judge on the first series of RTÉ’s Home of the Year — own home interior opus.

Casual entertaining in the living room with a fold-out table, your best tableware and the fire lighting is a stress-free option, especially if the preparation has been done the day or afternoon before. Picture: Helen James

My bedtime murder mystery was temporarily abandoned for a nightly speed read of her A Sense of Home – Eat, Make, Sleep, Live. You see, I like this girl with her earthy chic, her appreciation of tradition and her discerning creative eye.

In fact, I loved her soothing opening gambit: ‘A house is a building...... A home is a living thing’. It had me murmuring in agreement, as I regularly shout something in that vein — although not so eloquent — when driving past estate agents’ signs which announce new homes for sale.

Equally soothing is the book’s photography of everything from baking, to balms, home fragrances, cleaning products and herbal teas, all made by the woman herself.

It’s a virtue continued in her food blog — she really does the cooking and experiments with ingredients, as she claims. It’s also a cosy sort of domesticity but it’s real and feeds her family, so think lovely free-range eggs, and home-baked bread or almond scones for breakfast. No hipster food here — it’s home cooking with flair.

Of course, there’s plenty of design inspiration as one would expect. I’m keen on her section about creating a Master Collection which involves the simple exercise of visiting each room in the house and gathering together objects, colours and textures you like, and which speak of who you are.

She says these can be anything — a scarf, a pebble, wrapping paper — just things you love and can connect with your senses of touch, sight, smell, sound and taste.

I gave it a go and surprised myself. Things I hadn’t noticed for a while took on a new value, especially when I laid everything out on the kitchen table and saw it all with fresh eyes.

Gathering together what Helen James calls a ‘Master Collection’, which is objects you like from around the house, gives you a sense of your own interior design taste. Picture: Joanne Murphy

If you can’t quite describe your interior design sensibility, or think you don’t have one, it’s a worthwhile exercise, where trends are left behind and where the sensory perception of each room becomes the guiding principle in planning what you want to do with it.

Exploring tactility for all surfaces features large, as does creating scents for each room; how to hang art and what to do if you make a terrible hames of the wall.

Sage advice about bed linen, too, and dealing with light and dark all get a look in. But for me, one of the most engrossing parts of the book was the scented kitchen and the simple practice of bringing herbs indoors, not just for culinary purposes, but to establish your own kitchen fragrances which help to the hum of soft cheese and fish.

Helen James advocates bringing herbs indoors, not just for cooking but to fragrance the kitchen and dispel cooking odours.

Best of all, it’s the stress-free, guilt-free direction in Helen James’ delivery of information that makes everything seem achievable. Not all in one go mind you; there are plenty of recommendations for having the perfect relaxing bath in the section enticingly named ‘Bathroom Recipes’.

Neither is she afraid to move away from the ideal of dining around a table. She promotes a sometimes alternative of living room dinners when friends come round, and TV dinners. Talk about taking the pressure off. Now there’s something we can all aspire to.

- A Sense of Home — Eat, Make, Sleep, Live. By Helen James; Hachette Books. €21.