The unexpected thing I learned after 14 years of writing about interiors
What started as a design blog has become a community fascinated by other peoples' houses and how they influence our own homes. The greatest joy has been seeing what happens when we meet in real life.
When I started Mad About The House back in 2012, I thought I was simply writing about interior design. What began as a factual, slightly dry place to tell people where to buy things for their homes and how to arrange them grew into a daily conversation with people - like me - who are endlessly fascinated by paint colours and cushions. With people - like you - who can spend hours discussing room layout and rug sizes. And over the years I have discovered just how many people exist who are - like us.
The ones who move a lamp three inches to the left and feel, not just that the room is better, but that their whole life might suddenly be moving in the right direction. Those who visit a city and come home with 147 pictures of door handles and signs, none of which are available to buy, but which are the “mood”.
The ones who save screenshots of kitchens they have neither the space nor the budget to create but who can also spend a happy evening discussing whether a room should be painted in Setting Plaster or Factor Fifty and still wake up at 3am with another point to make.
Over the years this group of us has grown into a community of nearly 25,000 voices. Some of you came from the original blog to Substack when I moved here nearly three years ago, and there are many many more who have joined since. We meet in the comments. We meet in the chat and we meet online in the monthly Drop-in Design Clinic on Zoom.
But what I have learned is that when we meet in real life something truly magical happens. During one of the first retreats at my house in Turin, chairs were laid out in the garden for the evening aperitivi, but then, like all the best parties, we never quite made it out of the kitchen. And what started as one person worrying about how to sell her tricky house (with an electricity pylon right next door) so she could start her new life with her partner, ended up with 15 of us making suggestions on how to dress it for sale - and all offering to help in any way we could.
Two years later (despite several offers falling through and a couple of chain collapses), she now lives in the house she was dreaming of buying and last week we had a two-hour session discussing room layouts and design ideas.
Then there was the workshop in which one (recently divorced) guest realised she had been living with blue for years, and that what she actually wanted was green. It has been a privilege to provide a space where people can come together to understand what they want and need - and, crucially, learn how to create it.
The WhatsApps groups for each of the six design retreats we have hosted to date remain active, with one in particular chatting almost every day about everything from wallpaper patterns to how to use AI to run the back office of a growing business.
There have been subsequent meet-ups at design events, life-long friendships forged, new rooms decorated, and we have had several guests return for a second retreat, which is why I created the Milan weekend, which ran for the first time this year and will take place again in 2027.
Guests have subsequently returned to Turin with their partners, husbands and families. They have stayed in the same hotel and retraced some of our steps. They have visited the same restaurants and fallen in love with the city in the same way that I did when I first came here.
And over the last three years of hosting, one thing I didn’t expect (and that I feel so privileged to be part of) is the absolute joy of bringing together a group of like-minded people in my home, introducing them to a city I love, and watching them leave feeling inspired and rejuvenated, with a much clearer understanding of how they want their own homes to look and feel.
Yes, it’s a weekend of learning - but it’s also about laughing - and occasionally crying -when you finally understand what’s been missing and how to get it right. Yes, it’s about cushions but it’s also about cocktails. And yes we will discuss what makes a piece of furniture great, but we will are having fun while we are doing it.
It’s about finding out your own taste and understanding how to apply it to your own home. And it’s about doing it in Turin, this most underrated of Italian cities that was once the country’s capital and seat of the royal family.
Turin is liberty style and modernism, it’s baroque and brutalism. You will walk through classical piazzas from your mid-century hotel on your way to see an ornate royal palace. It will feed your soul and fill you with new ideas. It’s a city like no other, and I will show you around.
And, as much as it’s all about those things, it’s also about coming away for a long weekend where all the tough decisions have been made for you. You will learn from the experts. You will eat at the best restaurants, drink in the most beautiful bars, and be ferried around in cars that take you from door to door. All you have to worry about is what to order from the menu.
If this sounds like you, then join us this Autumn. The world is tough at the moment and it might be just the reset you need. I remember very clearly going to visit a museum after the long lockdowns of 2020 and 21 and coming out feeling like my soul had been fed on a level that screens and scrolling just can’t do.
We have updated the programme to include new guest speakers - and, for the first retreat, in September, we have added a visit to the incredible apartment of the celebrated architect, designer, photographer and stunt pilot Carlo Mollino, who created a secret home full of classic mid-century design, but who never spent a single night there.
The cost includes everything except flights and transfers. You can travel either direct to Turin, or Milan (there’s a fast train from Milano Centrale, easily accessible from either Malpensa or Linate airport, that takes less than an hour). Once you arrive at the hotel, all your accommodation, meals, drinks, local transport, visits and workshops are included. The only money you might spend is at the vintage market.
You can read all the highlights and details at the button and you can also register your interest for Milan next May too.
THE DATES
Turin 11th-15th September 2026: Finding Your Interior Design Style
Turin 9th-12th October 2026: An Introduction To Interior Design Style
Milan & Lake Como, 7th-11th May 2027: Italy's Capital City of Design
You can email me via the website or leave a comment here if you want to reserve a place. I will take a 25% deposit now with 50% due two months before (11 July or 11 August) and the balance 30 days out (9 August or 9 September).
I can’t wait to show you around, and I hope you will join me for one of these incredible weekends. You’ve already found the community that loves the same things you do - now it’s time to get together in real life.
It’s a wonderful thing when you find your tribe.
The intro reminds me of that scene from Fight Club: "You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.”
What an impressive community you've built!