The Home I Made

I am so pleased to welcome this guest to the podcast. This is the second time I have interviewed interior designer and content creator Sophie Gould, otherwise known as @bramleyandbear, about her home. Last time was all about her amazing budget outdoor kitchen which she created for less than £1000. This time, we chat all things home, what that means to her and her journey to the cottage in Norfolk she shares with her husband and two kids.Sophie talks to me about leaving home for the first time to go to university but returning home to her small, sleepy village when she found she didn’t like being away. Rather than feeling good that she had returned, Sophie battled with feelings of failure, that being a homebird was a negative, had to discover what her life would look like and where she really belonged. With a number of home renovations under her belt, including a self build, Sophie discusses how a home is shaped by life and how that always changes. She asks: can we ever have a forever home?In a world of comparison and everything at our fingertips, Sophie talks about looking inward and finding that joy is to be found in how we live our lives for ourselves, not what we feel we should be doing to please others. For her, this includes going to her happy place: the greenhouse in the garden. Shop Sophie’s pre-loved finds and shelving collection. -----Connect with Lindsay Blair on The Home I Made Substack.Find out about her work at ⁠⁠lindsayblair.co.uk⁠⁠. Thank you for listening to The Home I Made podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please do like it, share it, subscribe, follow and comment and all of those things. It really does help other people find it and helps it to grow. Your support means the world.

Today’s guest really doesn’t need an introduction. As soon as you hear her voice, I think you will recognise it.She is a Substack bestseller, founder of the award winning blog Mad About The House, she is an author, fellow journalist and podcaster on all things interior design.Of course, it is Kate Watson-Smyth.Kate and her blog and now Substack is the go-to for design tips, ideas and an expert eye for dissecting what makes a room sing with design goodness.Founded in 2012, Mad About The House has won many awards and became the number one interiors blog in the UK and now is ranked #6 in Substack’s Design category. As she puts it, it’s for people who are mad about their houses.Kate talks about her central ethos being that a well-designed home should support our lives and our wellbeing. And she tells me how her home provides this for her in the various stages of her life, in the different homes she has lived. Watch this episode on ⁠YouTube⁠. Check out Kate’s Substack, Mad About The House. Shop Kate’s books.Find out more about Kate’s Design Retreats in Italy.-----Connect with Lindsay Blair on ⁠The Home I Made on Substack⁠, find out about her work at ⁠lindsayblair.co.uk⁠. Thank you for listening to The Home I Made podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please do like it, share it, subscribe , follow and all of those things. It really does help other people find it and helps it to grow. Your support means the world.

You’ll have probably seen Reena on Instagram and Substack, following her renovation of The Black House. In this episode of The Home I Made Podcast, we chat about that and so, so much more.Reena generously opens up about her childhood memories of growing up in Women’s Aid Refuges after her mother left the family home with Reena and her sister, carrying only a carrier bag each. We talk about how early experiences have shaped her true meaning of home, a continuous emphasis on calm interiors and how a love for Scandi design was formed.Reena discusses renovating homes, lessons learned, what goes on behind the Instagram posts and exciting collaborations, including launching a candle collection with Beauty Pie.Discover more about Reena and The Intentional Home, at reenasimon.com, on Instagram and on Substack at reenasimon.substack.comWatch this episode on YouTube. -----Connect with Lindsay Blair on The Home I Made on Substack, find out about her work at lindsayblair.co.uk. Thank you for listening to The Home I Made podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please do like it, share it, subscribe , follow and all of those things. It really does help other people find it and helps it to grow. Your support means the world.

Introducing The Home I Made Podcast with Lindsay Blair.