My year in review
A look back over 2024, with a selection of posts unlocked (Happy New Year!) so everyone can see the sort of content they will receive if they sign up to become a paid subscriber.
This may be the most newslettery post I’ve ever written, as it’s a round-up of the last 12 months (my first year on Substack) but it also allows me to revisit some of my most-read posts and make them available to everyone. It’s long, so your email may cut it off, but I thought it might be nice to have lots of content to dip in and out of during the last few days of the holiday.
JANUARY
The year began at the house in Italy as eight of us rang in the start of 2024 with homemade pizzas. We then went back to London where frantic tidying ensued to ready the house for a shoot with YOU magazine. It was styled by Nicole Gray, who would visit us in Italy later in the year as a guest speaker for one of the expert workshops at my first interior design retreat.
After the pictures appeared later that month, I wrote a post about what goes on behind the scenes:
Behind the scenes at an interiors shoot
I have never been very good at sharing snippets and images from my life to that other place – whisper it – Instagram. It all feels a little too public and, as someone who values the beauty of a great photograph, I’m not sure I want to see piles of unwashed laundry and messy kitchens on my feed. I appreciate it might be interesting to discover that Jennifer Aniston’s dog did a wee on her rug or that Julianne Moore leaves wet towels on her bathroom floor (showing you that Hollywood stars are ‘real’). But do you really need to know that I haven’t yet washed up last night’s supper dishes?
Later that month I went to Paris for the annual Deco Off show. This is a three-day event in the heart of the City of Light, where all the tex…