Laura de Barra: Buy well and buy once for your living space

Gaff Goddess and Decor Galore author talks about interiors styling and why we need to slow down our consumption

Sat, 27 Nov, 2021 - 12:45

Eve Kelliher

Her first book may have empowered many readers to pick up a drill for the first time, and Laura de Barra has followed it with an inspirational bible on how to revamp your home — on any budget.

However, don’t for a moment confuse "budget" ideas with "fast fashion" interiors.

As soon as Laura and I meet over Zoom, it’s clear her twin passions are empowering others and slowing our consumption.

The Cork native takes us by the hand in her latest book, going from room to room with hacks and tips.

Whether you want to maximise storage, create layered lighting, or install a new kitchen, Decor Galore has got you covered — and that includes ultra-practical lists of what you might need and how to buy.

“A key part of this book is how to slow down the consumption in your space and interiors because, in my opinion, clothing went to fast fashion and now interiors is going to fast interiors, and it’s mainly the large corporate companies using people of influence to convince us to keep consuming,” says Laura.

Fast homeware and interiors are booming. It’s partly driven by generation rent and the pandemic — the working-from-home culture has sent householders seeking quick fixes to perk up their surroundings and ensure their backdrops are camera-ready for meetings.

“People tend to think that an interior purchase is a practical purchase but, unless you’re doing it with a practical end mind, you’re still consuming too fast,” says Laura.

Let’s slow down our consumption; let’s not get into a space where everything we buy on the high street is poor quality because the main consumer it’s designed for was just buying it for a couple of months and getting rid of it.

“Because I worked in that in high-street fashion supply and I’ve seen it first-hand, things just get poorer and poorer quality to accommodate the customer that always shops because the customer doesn’t want it for a long time.”

Laura includes very practical suggested items for particular spaces, but talks readers through how to buy sustainably.

“I suggest the basics you might need in the room and how to buy them well,” she says.

Good, warm lighting is a key element of interiors for Laura de Barra. Picture: iStock

Materials for products and running repairs may be available now that are more suitable than was thought in previous decades, she adds.

“Like how to buy couches, but how to buy modern couches, for instance,” she says. “Because what our parents may have taught us about couches may not really exist in the manufacturing process these days.”

Three years ago, the Douglas woman decided to record a useful Instagram primer on dishwasher maintenance.

Laura, a property portfolio developer in the competitive London rental market, announced in the video: “So this is the most disgusting lesson you will learn with a dishwasher. If you move in somewhere and you don’t clean it out — and it hasn’t been cleaned out — someone else’s food is being rinsed over your dishes the whole time.”

The rest is history. Laura has become the queen of She-IY, a term she uses to describe her version of DIY, which she says applies to men as well as women, and helped empower her readers with her first book Gaff Goddess: Simple Tips and Tricks to Help You Run Your Home. This year she followed it with Decor Galore, delivered in her trademark, no-nonsense voice — with stylish illustrations.

Having studied fashion in Edinburgh, Laura moved to London nine years ago. She was a fashion designer for high-street shops, but the increasing prevalence of fast fashion proved to be a turn off. Her boss offered her a position overseeing a property portfolio, which evolved into property managing and buying.

Laura was responsible for everything, from solving tenants’ household problems to sorting out repairs and styling interiors.

“I had a section in Gaff Goddess about the tricks that I do at work to make spaces feel a bit nicer and that chapter got loads of really positive feedback,” she says.

As a tenant herself, she felt the rental sector can be forgotten about in the home interiors and improvement movements.

“I do think that there needs to be a modern buying guide for the home, and it was something that I really lacked when I was at work,” she says.

“The book aims to make sure that you don’t waste your money and that you don’t end up sending any more to landfill, but there’s tips and tricks of what the water systems are in a house and how plumbing is done into bathrooms.”

Ah yes, bathrooms. Laura says there’s an art to getting it right first time when buying basics such as a toothbrush holder and toilet brush to “make sure you don’t buy twice”.

Toilet lid

What about the great toilet lid debate?

“I think people don’t realise that they’re there for a reason,” says Laura. “Every time you flush a toilet, it creates a plume. People don’t think about it like that, but if you think of any other lid in your home, it stops something coming out, right? That’s why we have lids. But people instead think it’s an aesthetic thing.”

She recalls visiting the bathroom of tenants where the toilet lid was missing.

“I said, did you break the toilet seat? The tenant said, we just removed the lid because we argued so much about it.”

Top tool

Laura’s “most lent-out” tool is a wire and cable finder. “It’s a little device you run along the wall and it tells you when you can safely hang something,” she says.

Interiors must-have

“I think lighting can make such a massive difference to a space. Sometimes I do consultations with a tenant who says, I just hate the place, I hate the colour of the walls. You know, like they’re just super frustrated.

“And I say just light up your lounge at night with a warm bulb because that can affect your melatonin levels and it makes you relax and if you can just layer lighting a little bit — lighting can add such luxury and it doesn’t have to be expensive lamps,” she says.