Usually, my job entails looking at hundreds of pictures of beautiful homes and interviewing designers about them, but never setting foot inside. And while that still offers me inside access to what makes a home really work, it's not the same as being in a space and really getting to grips with what it's like to live in.

However, this past week, we held Livingetc Unlocked, our new event where we offer our readers access to some of London's best-designed homes. Experiencing a home from the inside is something special — and there are so many details that can get lost in a photoshoot that you can really engage with in real life.

So, across the four homes we unlocked the doors to for, well, Unlocked (you can find them in their full glory here, and sign up to the newsletter to hear about next year's event), what were the details you might have missed if you weren't paying attention? These were our favorite ideas to steal.

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

At this year’s Livingetc Unlocked, we offered two days of one-to-one consultations with us, the stylists from Design Lab by Livingetc. Our VIP guests could book a slot and bring along any design dilemma they were struggling with, from kitchens and bathrooms to challenging layouts and those awkward corners that never feel quite resolved.

Every consultation was different. Some guests arrived with floor plans and moodboards, while others brought photographs of rooms they simply couldn’t make work. We sat down together to explore layouts, color palettes, furniture choices and the smaller decorative details that can completely change how a space feels. So many of the same questions came up that we decided to share our answers here, because chances are, you may be wondering about them too.

1. My living room is quite large, but it always feels empty. How can I make it feel more inviting?

We would start by dividing the room into smaller zones, each with its own purpose. A generous rug can anchor the main seating area, while an armchair with a side table and floor lamp might create a separate reading spot. Bringing furniture closer together, rather than pushing everything against the walls, will also make the space feel more intimate.

Color and pattern can help a large room feel warmer and more enveloping. Deeper shades work particularly well, while wallpaper can bring texture and character to expansive walls. A large-scale pattern or mural could even be used to define one area of the room. Finish with layered lighting at different heights to create softer pools of light after dark.

2. How can I give my kitchen or bathroom more character without renovating?

Focus on the elements that have a strong visual impact but are relatively easy to change. New cabinet handles, a characterful light, painted joinery or an unexpected wall color can shift the mood of a kitchen. In a bathroom, try a decorative mirror, softer lighting, framed artwork or a fabric shower curtain instead of another hard, clinical surface.

These practical rooms often feel unfinished because we decorate them less than the rest of the home. Bringing in art, color and objects you genuinely love can make them feel much more personal, without needing to replace the expensive foundations.

3. My home is very white and feels a little boring. How can I become braver with color?

You don’t have to begin with a brightly painted room. Start with colors you naturally respond to and introduce them through pieces that feel easier to change, such as a rug, artwork, cushions or an occasional chair. Once you see those shades in the space, you’ll feel more confident about taking them onto the walls.

Wallcoverings are another lovely middle ground. A soft pattern or a linen- or silk-effect texture in a neutral shade adds depth without demanding too much attention. Color doesn’t always need to be loud — sometimes it's the subtle variation in tone and texture that makes a white room feel richer.

4. How do I find the right layout for an awkwardly shaped room?

We begin with how the room actually needs to be used, rather than where the furniture is traditionally expected to go. Look for an architectural feature, such as a fireplace, bay window or particularly beautiful view, that could become the room’s natural focal point, and build the layout around it. Then position the largest piece, usually the sofa, dining table or bed, and consider how you will move through the space, keeping doorways and natural walkways clear.

Before committing, we recommend marking out each piece on the floor with painter’s tape or sheets of newspaper. It's a simple trick, but it lets you experience the proportions and circulation of a proposed layout far more accurately than judging it from a floor plan alone.

5. How can I make an open-plan space feel connected without making everything match?

We like to create a visual thread that travels through the whole space. This could be one color repeated in different strengths, a timber finish that appears across several pieces, or a material such as brass used in the lighting and smaller details. The different areas should feel related, but they don’t need to be identical.

Each zone can then have its own identity. Rugs, pendant lights and changes in furniture arrangement can define where one area ends and another begins. For something less obvious, look to the floor — a slim marble threshold or brass floor inlay can create an elegant transition between two materials, subtly marking the move from a kitchen into a living area while still connecting the spaces architecturally.

6. How do I make a small room feel bigger without painting everything white?

White isn’t the only color that can make a small room feel spacious. We often recommend using a tonal palette on the walls, woodwork, and even the ceiling, as fewer visual breaks let the eye move around the room more easily. Soft earthy shades, muted blues, or warm neutrals can add depth while still making the space feel inviting. Curtains hung close to the ceiling and extended beyond the window frame will also exaggerate its height and width while allowing in as much natural light as possible.

Try to avoid filling the room with lots of small furniture. One generously sized sofa or statement chair can make the layout feel calmer and more confident than several undersized pieces. Furniture raised on legs keeps more of the floor visible, while a well-positioned mirror can carry light further into the room. Ultimately, it's good proportions and a clear layout, rather than white walls, that make a small space appear bigger.

7. I have sentimental furniture I want to keep, but my room no longer feels like me. How do I make it feel fresh again?

I always start by asking what you genuinely want to keep, a sentimental piece doesn’t have to dictate the whole room, but it can spark a fresh direction. That might mean reupholstering an armchair, moving a piece to another spot in your home, or pairing it with more current furniture.

Once you’ve settled on what’s staying, look at the room as a whole. For example, you could rethink the focal point or where the TV sits, and play with the layout by adding a larger sofa or extra armchairs for a more inviting setup. If your space is open-plan, try carrying some of the color from adjoining areas into the living room to make it feel cohesive. You don’t always need to start from scratch — sometimes a few key changes can completely transform how your existing pieces feel.

8. How can I make a low ceiling and short window feel taller and more generous?

Curtains can do a lot of the visual work here. Rather than stopping them at the width of the window, I’d take the curtain rod or track across the full wall and hang the fabric from ceiling to floor. It softens the architecture, makes the window seem much bigger, and pulls your eye up so the room feels taller.

For the low ceiling, I’d keep the walls and ceiling in the same soft color, no harsh contrasts. That way, your eye doesn’t immediately land on the line where the wall stops and the ceiling starts. It’s a simple trick that makes the whole space seem more open and even gives that cozy, cocoonlike vibe my clients always ask for.

9. My living room doesn’t have an obvious focal point. How do I create a layout that feels anchored?

You don’t always have to let the architecture dictate the layout. In this room, the walls were sharply angled, so instead of following those angles with the furniture, I created a clear square seating zone within the irregular footprint.

I turned the largest sofa toward the main window, where the client naturally wanted to look; then I grouped the rug, coffee table, and armchairs around it, almost like an island in the room. That immediately gave the living area more presence while opening up a much clearer circulation route around it.

And don’t feel you need to fill every awkward corner. Here, the sharpest angle became a small reading nook with a chair and a larger plant, turning what could have felt like dead space into something intentional.

10. My room has all the furniture it needs, but it still feels unfinished. What am I missing?

Before adding anything else, I’d always look at scale first. Often, a room doesn’t need more things; it just needs the pieces already there to have a little more presence. A larger rug that properly anchors the furniture, artwork that feels generous enough for the wall, or lighting at different heights can completely change how finished the space feels.

Then I’d look at what’s tying everything together. Repeating a color, material or shape in a few places helps your eye travel around the room and makes everything feel more connected. Sometimes the final layer is as simple as a floor lamp, a larger piece of art or a few well-chosen objects. It’s not about filling every empty space; it’s about making sure everything has enough visual weight, and the room feels balanced overall.

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

British interior designer Minnie Kemp has little interest in rooms that are merely tasteful. For the Design Director of Firmdale Hotels, the best interiors are the ones that make you smile, make you look twice and reveal something about the person who lives there. Her own home, she says, has been compared to "a Roald Dahl novel", which feels about right.

What makes her rooms memorable is not simply the color or pattern, but the way ideas are layered together, from hand-painted tiles that reappear as rug motifs to orange candlesticks that should not work but somehow make the whole room sing.

These are the decorating lessons behind that approach.

1. "You Always Need a Starting Point"

When Minnie was given a blank dining room for the Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York, she began with Virginia Woolf's A Room of One’s Own. "I think it's very important that we all have a room of one's own," she says. Everyone needs their space to be creative."

That idea gave everything else a direction. The dining table evoked the forest floor, a mural referenced Duncan Grant, and art was borrowed from New York galleries. "You always need a starting point." For Minnie, that might be a book, a place, a painting, or a memory. Something strong enough to stop a room from becoming a collection of unrelated good ideas.

2. "The Trick Is Adding Another Layer"

Minnie's rooms always go that extra step. For example, the Julian Chichester basket lights over the Kips Bay dining table were already striking due to their oversized scale, but Minnie took embroidered leaves from Natasha Hulse and added them to the shades. "My trick is adding a layer so that every time anyone comes in, they spot something different."

At home, she does the same thing, albeit more quietly. A motif from a hand-painted tile might reappear later on a rug or somewhere upstairs. "There's a running thread that runs through the house that echoes back to something that you've seen before."

The key is repetition with purpose. Layering works when details speak to each other, not when a room simply contains more things.

3. "Don't Get Bogged Down With Being Too Chic"

For the same Kips Bay room, Minnie chose vivid orange candlesticks. "I was thinking, 'Oh my God, is this going to look Halloween?'" She used them anyway. "Having the orange candlesticks kind of made the space because it was one of those things that was so unexpected and really made people smile."

That instinct is central to the way she decorates. "Don't be too bogged down with being too chic. A room can be beautifully composed and still have room for something funny, bright, or a little bit wrong."

4. "I Try to Mess With the Algorithm"

Minnie is wary of what happens when everyone takes inspiration from the same places. "We're all on Instagram, and we all have the algorithm. So there is a trap that you fall into seeing the same thing over and over again."

Her solution is active resistance. "I often try to mess with the algorithm." Look at what you loved before you knew what was fashionable. Look at craft, art, fashion, childhood memories and places rather than only at other interiors. "What did you like growing up? What turns you on now?" She is particularly suspicious of rooms assembled entirely from the things that happen to be fashionable at that moment. "Try not to be led by interior design trends."

5. "You Do Have to Have a Sense of Place"

For a house in Roquebrune on the French Riviera, Minnie began with the history already around her. "You see across the bay is Eileen Gray's house, and already the mind is bubbling."

Pebble mosaics are part of the local visual language, which led to a 20-meter pebble mosaic running through the property, with a representation of Zeus blowing the wind down the path and a Tree of Life motif at its end. Minnie then planned hundreds of fiber-optic lights to be embedded within it to make it sparkle.

Inside, artist Julie Bolisano created recycled-glass windows that referenced stained glass (Matisse's chapel is also in the area) but felt lighter and more contemporary. "It's a new take on an old idea."

6. "It All Has to Be Curated"

Minnie loves a layered home, but she is clear that there is a point at which layering becomes clutter. "In your own home, when you're collecting and you're building over time, it does tend to become more layered than one might want."

The answer is editing. "Sometimes you have to strip it all back and start again."

Her test for whether you have gone too far? "The smell. If you start to smell dust, you've got too much stuff."

7. "Make the Most of What You Have"

At Bloomsbury Publishing, Minnie inherited a space with an ugly suspended ceiling and two awkward structural columns. Rather than conceal them, she made them more obvious. The ceiling was stripped back and sprayed Yves Klein blue. The pillars were painted with bold graphic arrows. "Sometimes if there's a horrible thing in the room, celebrate the horrible thing. It is like dressing. Make the most of what you have and show off all your lumps and bumps."

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

There are few people who understand how color changes a room quite like Joa Studholme.

After decades spent creating colors for the feted British paint brand Farrow & Ball and helping people transform their homes, her approach is surprisingly simple: trust your instincts, embrace the colors you love, and stop worrying about getting it "right".

From choosing warmer neutrals to painting ceilings, using unexpected flashes of color, and allowing rooms to become darker and more cocooning as the day goes on, these are the decorating lessons Joa returns to again and again.

1. "What Do You Feel Comfortable With?"

This, for Joa, is where every successful color scheme begins. Not with interior design trends. Not with what your neighbor has done. Not even with the color everybody is suddenly talking about.

"What do you feel comfortable with? Because that's the most important thing. You live with these colors."

After decades of visiting people's houses, she says she can often start to understand someone's palette before she has even stepped through the door. "From the color of their garden gate or front door, I can pretty much work out what palette somebody is going to like. I also look at what they're wearing."

Memories can be equally revealing. A color might remind you of a childhood room, a holiday or a landscape. And if you are struggling to articulate what you love, Joa suggests looking at the images you instinctively save.

"I'm a great believer in Pinterest. Although, funnily enough, most of the time people show me pictures of white rooms, that's fine because I'm not necessarily looking at the colors. I'm looking at the spirit of the room."

2. "We're Going Warmer"

If there is one clear shift Joa is seeing in interiors now, it is away from cooler neutrals and towards colors with more warmth and complexity.

"Neutrals were my big thing when I first came to Farrow & Ball," she says. "The last lot that were really popular were the stony ones. A little less grey than previously. But now the really popular neutrals are much warmer, like Stirabout and Jitney."

Stirabout takes its name from a nourishing Irish porridge, while Jitney was named after the bus that carries New Yorkers out to the Hamptons. "I wanted Jitney to be really uplifting. I might have been watching Gossip Girl at the time," she laughs.

For Joa, decorating with neutrals works precisely because they do not shout. "Jitney is all about being quite laid back and letting everything else take centre stage," she says.

Another favorite is Au Lait, originally created through Farrow & Ball's collaboration with designer Christopher John Rogers. "Warm but not creamy, it is just the easiest color to work with. Keep quiet about it. It's everybody's secret."

3. "I'm a Huge Believer in Going From a Lighter Space During the Day to a Darker Space at Night"

One of Joa's most useful principles for decorating with color has nothing to do with coordinating colors and everything to do with how we move through our homes.

"I'm a huge believer in going from a lighter space during the day to a darker space at night,” she says. “I think it's really good for the soul."

A light kitchen or hall can feel energizing during the day. Then, as evening comes, she likes moving into a deeper, more enveloping sitting room. "It gives you a great big hug."

A Joa-approved sequence starts with Scallop in the hall, moves into Dead Salmon in the sitting room, then uses something lighter, such as Au Lait, through the kitchen or on recurring woodwork.

4. "The Thing Most People Are Concerned About Is Flow — It Doesn't Bother Me in the Slightest"

Ask Joa what homeowners worry about most, and one word comes up repeatedly: flow.

"It's the word I hear more often than anything." Her response is surprisingly liberating. "It doesn't bother me in the slightest. I don't care if I have a red room, a blue room, and a green room."

Rather than repeating one palette throughout an entire house, she prefers individual spaces designed around individual needs. There is, however, one trick that can stop a collection of different rooms from feeling chaotic: keep the colors at a similar "weight".

"If I'm standing in a hallway and seeing into three rooms, they should somehow work together even if they are red, blue and green."

By weight, Joa means intensity. A deep green and a similarly saturated red can sit comfortably beside each other even though the hues themselves are completely different. "It's really the intensity of the color," she says. The result is continuity without sameness.

5. "A Little Shock Is Fun"

Some of Joa's favorite uses of color are also the smallest. She loves painting the jamb of a door in an unexpected shade, creating a tiny flash that appears as you pass through a room. "It doesn't necessarily have to correspond with anything. It's just about having a kind of shock." She compares it to a pocket square or a brightly colored sock. "It's that same feeling. Just a little tiny thing which you see and then it's gone."

In one hallway, she ran a checked wallpaper across the ceiling and slightly down the walls, then framed three doorways with bands of the three different colors from the paper. "It sounds ridiculous when you describe it. But nobody notices it. It just feels like it should be there," she says. This leads to one of her most interesting decorating philosophies. "Good decoration isn't noticed. It's when it's wrong that people notice things."

6. "Ceilings, Always. Ceilings."

"I personally hate a big white ceiling because I think they completely ruin any paint scheme," Joa says. Instead, she treats the ceiling as the fifth wall, either carrying the wall color upwards or using another shade entirely. And when she wants to bring light into a darker room, she goes one step further.

"I'm a huge fan of the gloss ceiling. Gloss creates reflection, allowing light to bounce around the space. If you've got a dark room, paint the ceiling in gloss. Pink Ground gloss is one of my particular favorites," Joa says. Again, the effect of decorating a ceiling in this way does not necessarily announce itself.

"You walk into the room, and you don't think, 'Oh God, the ceiling is pink and glossy.' You just think it feels really nice."

7. "It’s Fantastic That Colors Change"

One of the greatest anxieties people have about paint is that the color they chose in the shop suddenly looks completely different at home. Joa thinks that is exactly what makes good color beautiful. "Some people get very freaked out because it looks green in one light and dark brown there and gray somewhere else. But that's what makes it alive. A shade might feel warmer in south-facing summer light, then greener or greyer in cooler northern or winter light. Embrace it. It's alive. It's fantastic."

Rather than fighting those variations, Joa believes they should become part of the room. Her own favorite Farrow & Ball color, Light Blue, is a perfect example. "It's a fabulous bedroom color because it's silvery blue when you wake up and then much more silvery and gray at night."

8. "You Can Use Finish Almost Like Another Color"

Joa's obsession is not only with color, but with what happens when the same color is given two entirely different finishes.

She loves Farrow & Ball's Dead Flat for its chalky, almost velvety quality. "You feel like you can dive into the walls. Because it can be used across walls, woodwork and ceilings, it also makes color drenching simpler. One pot of paint can do the whole thing."

But her favorite trick is pairing that softness with gloss. She might paint the bottom metre of a wall in gloss, then use exactly the same shade in Dead Flat above. "The gloss is super durable for dogs, suitcases, prams, whatever. And it creates this sparkle, with the light bouncing off it, while the Dead Flat sits above."

9. "If You’re Wary of Color, Just Use a Tiny Bit"

Despite her reputation for color, Joa has no interest in forcing anyone into a maximalist home.

"If you're wary of color, it doesn't matter. Just use a tiny bit."

Children's and teenagers' rooms are perfect places to experiment. "If you live in a very neutral, contained house, it's quite fun to let your child put color inside the cupboard or on the back of the bedroom door. "They're often in there with the door shut, but you're not, so they get their boost of color, and you get your neutral home."

She also likes split color in children's rooms, taking a stronger shade to around hip height and using something lighter above. "This is so great with younger children. When the child is playing on the floor, it feels really cosy down below, but the lighter color above makes the room feel as though it opens out."

10. "Isn’t It Lucky We All Like Different Colors?"

For all the forecasting, color charts, and decorating advice, Joa ultimately believes taste should remain deeply personal.

She herself struggles with lilac. "I find it a difficult color to decorate with. Even the darker purples. But isn't it lucky we all like different colors? The world would be really boring if we all liked the same thing."

Personally, she is currently drawn to colors that feel warmer, richer, and more grounding: Etruscan Red, Duster, Marmelo, Broccoli Brown, Reduced Green, and Dibber. That's what she is decorating with at home at the moment. In fact, she's doing a whole project with just two of these colors. 'These are all colors that feel like they're keeping you safe, but they've got a little bit of excitement as well," she says.

And perhaps that is the best summary of Joa's approach to decorating: create a home that gives you security without becoming predictable. One that feels comforting, alive, and unmistakably yours.

Because, as she puts it, the aim is really very simple. "Choose color that makes you smile. Color that makes you feel good about yourself."

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

Fashion icon and ultimate tastemaker Lucinda Chambers does not believe style is something you either have or you don't. "I think style is something you absolutely can learn," she says. "It's like a craft, like anything else. You try it out. You make mistakes. You learn from those mistakes."

After decades at British Vogue and now as co-founder of covetable shopping site Collagerie, hers is one of the most recognizable eyes in fashion and interiors, but the way she talks about taste is refreshingly unprecious.

For Lucinda, it comes from looking, trying, getting things wrong, changing your mind, and staying curious. These are the rules she has learned along the way.

1. "Try Everything Out"

Lucinda's mother gave her one of the most useful pieces of creative advice she has ever received: "Try boyfriends out, try makeup out, try hair out, try everything out."

Lucinda took it literally. "I used to dress in a crazy way, but it was experimental." At one point she put a wicker wastepaper basket on her head, tied it with a bow and convinced herself it looked like Stephen Jones. "No. I looked like I had a rubbish bin on my head."

That willingness to get it wrong became fundamental to how she developed her eye. "If you don't try things out, how are you going to learn?"

Her route into fashion was just as improvised. She and her mother made art-school portfolios together on the kitchen table when money became tight. Lucinda initially felt hopelessly outclassed, until she discovered the Perspex room and started making jewellery. A pair of earrings she had made eventually appeared on a model in a free London magazine. "I remember thinking, oh my God, I held those and made those."

Later, one of her Vogue mentors told her: "Darling, you've got lots of furniture in your head, but it has to come out." The instinct may be there, but the skill is learning how to use it.

2. "Always on the Lookout"

Lucinda's eye has been trained by looking. Constantly. "I am always, always on the lookout."

Travel played a huge part during her Vogue years, but inspiration can come from almost anywhere: exhibitions, films, art books, car boots, shop windows, or something completely accidental. "It could be a plastic bag caught in a tree that's the most amazing color, and you think, oh my God, that could be a whole collection."

Marrakech remains one of the places she finds most inspiring, particularly for its color and craftsmanship, but the bigger idea is to keep your brain "on receive mode". Car boots are particularly good for this because, as Lucinda puts it, every stall is "somebody else's point of view".

3. "It's All Storytelling"

Lucinda sees very little distinction between the way she approaches fashion and interiors. "It's all about decoration. Whether it's decoration on the body or for your home, it's storytelling."

The same elements matter in both: color, proportion, pattern, texture and, crucially, comfort. "You have to get dressed every morning. You have to put yourself down on the sofa every evening."

She will not wear uncomfortable clothes, and she will not buy an uncomfortable chair. A room has to support what actually happens there: somewhere to read, somewhere to put your feet up, somewhere to put a coffee cup. "I always start with what am I going to be doing in that room?" That question comes before the color, pattern, or furniture. Her electric yellow dining room works because she wants the space to feel energetic and sociable. A bedroom can be calmer because it has a completely different job.

4. “You Can Creep Color in”

Lucinda loves color, but she does not think confidence has to arrive all at once. "You can creep color in. Start with a lamp, cushion or rug and build from there." In her kitchen, green emerged gradually through cushions, ceramics and eventually a reconditioned Aga that she's just bought from Range Exchange. "If people aren't confident about color, then I always just suggest having a thread running through your home."

When she chooses colors more deliberately, she carries a small notebook, cuts out paint swatches, and moves them around. "I do in my head go, are they talking to each other?" She does not necessarily want them to be talking too politely. Her recently redecorated bedroom is a soft lilac-grey, but she matched the ceiling to a muddy tobacco-colored candle because the room needed something to "throw it off a bit". "If they're living all very harmoniously, then probably to me that seems boring."

5. “I Like to Throw a Curveball in”

Lucinda becomes suspicious when something looks too tasteful. Her husband calls it "ghastly good taste", and Lucinda calls the antidote "the grit in the oyster".

In one restrained room, that meant introducing an orange chair purely because everything else was getting along too well. The same instinct guides the things she buys. "I'm sort of attracted to things that I'm not really attracted by." At flea markets and car boots, she looks for objects that make her feel a bit uncomfortable: a strange 1960s lampshade, an awkward ceramic, something she has never seen before. One of her best finds was a five-foot Murano glass lamp bought for about $25 in New York. "It sat on my lap in economy for six hours."

"If it makes you feel a bit jaggy, I quite like that. That slight discomfort stops a room from becoming predictable."

6. "I Can Just Look at It, Appreciate It, and Walk Away"

Lucinda has spent much of her life collecting. She is now learning the opposite skill.

"I've spent thirty years accumulating stuff, and I'm going to spend the next 10 years getting rid of it." Her rule now is simple: if she cannot imagine where something will go, she does not buy it. "I can appreciate it, clock it mentally, then walk away."

She learned the value of editing after returning from a long trip and seeing her own hallway afresh. "It was electric pink, there was a pom-pom on almost every doorknob, and every surface was full. I just thought, oh my gosh. I've overloaded, and I haven't noticed." She cleared the decks and repainted it. "Now it looks like a German urinal."

7. "To Hand Over Something to an Expert Was an Absolute Revelation"

Lucinda is instinctive, but she is not precious about doing everything herself. One of her best investments at home was a professional picture hanger. After repainting her hallway, she took all the art down and gave him complete freedom. "I just said, you choose whatever you like and can leave stuff out. I'm going out."

The result completely changed how she saw the collection. "He hung all my pictures in a way that I would never ever have dreamt of. There's not a day that goes past when I don't walk up the stairs and just think, wow."

She feels similarly about framing. "You can buy something that's £5, but if you frame it really interestingly, it just elevates it." This isn't necessarily expensive. She has just bought IKEA frames, painted them with Annie Sloan paint, and attacked them with a nail file.

8. "You Don’t Have to Get It Right Straight Away"

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to developing personal style now, Lucinda thinks, is the pressure to find an answer immediately.

"I think people feel very, very pressured that their houses become either Instagrammable or perfect." Her own home has evolved over 35 years. One son's room was once completely covered in graffiti by an artist she spotted working on Portobello Road. It is now a calm spare bedroom. Rooms have changed as children have grown up, things have been repainted, collections have expanded and then been edited back.

"I think there is a pressure to get everything right all at once, all at the same time." Lucinda is much more comfortable with trial and error. Even at Vogue, she learned that not every detail needed endless perfecting. Some things demanded obsession; others were, in her words, "good enough for jazz". That balance between caring deeply and knowing when to let go is part of developing an eye too.

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

British interior designer Sophie Paterson has built a distinctive interiors business around a clear point of view, but she is just as thoughtful about what sits behind the finished rooms as the rooms themselves.

Talking at Livingetc Unlocked last week, the designer explained a little about her career history, and how she built her brand from scratch, inspired by a passing comment on the design of her own home.

She started with no formal interior design training, no team and very little confidence. Nearly two decades later, she runs a 20-person studio and has expanded into product, education and community. Along the way, she has learned how to recognize the right opportunities, protect a creative vision, listen properly, build an audience, and create a business that can keep evolving.

These are the lessons that shaped it.

1. "Trust Your Gut"

Ask Sophie for the best piece of advice she has ever been given, and the answer is immediate: "Trust your gut." Ask for her biggest career mistake, and the answer is just as quick: "Not trusting my gut."

It now informs everything from the projects she accepts to the people she chooses to work with. "There are some clients that I said yes to that ended up being some of the most difficult situations, and I did know on some level they weren’t the right fit."

Experience has taught her to recognize the warning signs, from unrealistic expectations around budget to a reluctance to respect the studio’s process. "That doesn’t mean they’re a bad client. They might just not be a good fit for me."

There is also a cost to saying yes to the wrong thing. "When you say yes to that client and that project, you might be missing out on one down the line that would be a better fit for you."

2. "You’re Not Going to Get the Projects That You Want Straight Away"

Sophie’s first interior design commission came almost by accident. A developer visiting the first home she shared with her husband asked who had designed it. She was 23 and so unsure of herself that she did not want to admit it was her. "My husband was elbowing me in the ribs saying, 'It was you. Tell him it was you.'"

She eventually agreed to take on one of his projects, although with so little confidence that she initially offered to do it for free.

Those early jobs were not necessarily the projects she dreamed of, but Sophie quickly understood that an opportunity does not have to be perfect to be valuable. "You’re not going to get the projects that you want straight away. There’ll be something wrong with them. They might not have the budget. It might not be the most beautiful project."

The question is what you can get from it. "You need to just find something that you can photograph or some value, something that you’ll learn."

On one early project, there was no budget left for art, rugs or accessories, so she borrowed pieces from suppliers, hired a van and stripped objects from her own house to style the shoot. "You’ve just got to make it work."

That same instinct led her to invest early in photography. "Without images, you really can’t have new projects. You don’t have a brand." Her advice now is simple: "Take site photos, before photos, after photos."

3. "You Can Become Pigeonholed Quite Quickly as a Designer"

There is an obvious advantage to having an identifiable aesthetic. Clients know what they are buying into. But Sophie is wary of the point at which a signature becomes a formula.

She describes her own style broadly as "classic contemporary" and remembers the moment clients began arriving with images of her previous work, asking for versions of particular rooms. "It was really flattering."

But it also made her cautious. "You can become pigeonholed quite quickly as a designer, and you don’t want to just replicate the same design time and time again."

One of her earliest clients actually told Sophie she hated her style but liked her enough to hire her anyway. The project pushed her somewhere completely different and remains on her website almost 18 years later. "I’m always trying to get clients that actually don’t want to do something that I’ve always done because it’s more fun for me and my team."

Her own homes have become testing grounds for that evolution too. Her current house helped establish the look many clients now associate with her, while the next will be more pared back, architectural and antique-led. "I love antiques. I think it’s really sustainable. I think it adds a lot of character. I think the quality you get for the money is brilliant. It’ll be quite interesting to see if my clients get on board with that."

4. "Listening Is a Really Important Skill of Any Designer"

For all the attention placed on having an eye, Sophie thinks listening matters just as much.

"Sometimes we’ll be practicing a presentation and someone on the team will rush in and say, 'I’ve looked at the floor plan; we should do this, this, and this.' I’m like, hang on. We don’t even know how the client wants to use it yet."

The job is not simply to arrive with the best idea. "Really make sure that not only are you listening to your client, but that they feel heard and they feel listened to."

Renovating her own home has made Sophie even more conscious of how the process feels from the other side. Clients are spending large amounts of money and handing over control of something intensely personal. When something goes wrong, the designer is often the person delivering the news.

Her rule is simple: "Never respond straight away. I’m very calm, always. Inside, I might not feel calm, but I always give myself a moment so that I seem it. You don’t have to respond to everything straight away."

5. "I Undercharged for a Long Time, and I Didn’t Even Know I Was Doing It"

One of Sophie’s most important business lessons came when the studio started looking properly at time.

"I undercharged for a long time, and I didn’t even know I was doing it."

The fees sounded substantial, but so were the projects, and nobody was properly accounting for the hours involved. The turning point came when a new finance director asked how much time the team was actually spending on each job. I was like, I don’t know. We just do what needs to be done."

When they finally calculated the hours on one major international project, the answer was sobering. "We probably hadn’t made any money. It cost us money."

Her advice now is to quantify time from the beginning: work out what your hourly rate needs to be, estimate the job, and then track what actually happens. "You won’t get it right, but at least you’ll start this process. Everyone underestimates how long it takes to design a project."

6. "Build an Audience"

Asked what she would do first if she were starting again now, Sophie does not hesitate: "Build an audience."

She began using Instagram partly because working alone was lonely. "I didn’t have a team to bounce ideas off. I didn’t have like-minded friends to talk about beautiful designs with or difficult clients."

Social media gave her community before it gave her clients. It also offered something traditional PR could not at that stage of her career. "PR and press were really intimidating to me. I didn’t have the budget to hire a great PR firm. Whereas I did have the time, I did have the energy and the inclination to do social media."

The platform has changed since then. "Back in the day of 2012, I could put a picture of my shoes, and I’d get 5,000 likes. Now we literally sell our soul for likes and follows."

But Sophie still thinks the opportunity lies in showing more of the real work. "Show the not glamorous moments." The site visits, samples, decisions, setbacks, and practical details designers may take for granted can be exactly what audiences want to see. "Share that, and you’ll build an audience."

7. "You Can’t Take on More and More Clients"

Building an audience opened the door to something bigger than simply attracting more interior design work."You can’t take on more and more clients. There are only so many people you can service at a high level."

Sophie is equally realistic about the emotional cost. "I really pour my soul into my clients’ projects, but you can only do that so much before you burn out."

That made diversification a deliberate part of the business. Product collaborations allowed her aesthetic to reach far beyond a relatively small number of private clients. Education followed through the Sophie Paterson Academy, while The Moodboard created a membership community for designers looking for advice, support and connection.

The thinking behind them is consistent: take the expertise built through the studio and find other ways to share it. "I think a rising tide lifts all ships. If I share my design process and that helps another designer, that doesn’t take anything away from me."

For Sophie, community is not just another revenue stream. It grew from the same thing that drew her to Instagram in the first place: not wanting creative work to feel isolating.

8. "Please Make a Different Mistake Next Time"

Sophie has no interest in pretending that building the business has been a flawless process. "I’ve made so many mistakes."

But she is equally clear that the aim is not to eliminate them altogether. "I don’t mind if someone on my team makes a mistake. I just say to them, please make a different one next time."

That willingness to learn has shaped the way she approaches opportunity too. "I always think you need to go after what you want."

"With pretty much all of my product collaborations, I went to them with a proposal and said that I’d love to do this. Plenty of brands said no, which is fine. You just sort of dust yourself off and move on to the next one.If I just sat here and waited for all the amazing brands that I want to work with me to come, it wouldn’t have happened."

One piece of advice from early in her career still guides which opportunities she accepts. When Sophie was considering a well-paid partnership that did not feel quite right, a marketing mentor asked her to think about the person she admired most in the industry. "If they said yes to this, would your perception of them change? Whatever your answer is for them is what you should apply to yourself."

It changed the way she thought about building a brand. "You don’t want to just be building towards where you are. You want to be aspiring to the best version of you you can be."

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

The chef and award-winning cookbook writer Yotam Ottolenghi has changed how we all cook today. It’s thanks to him that ingredients like harissa and preserved lemons are common on grocery store shelves, and that we all know the difference a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds makes.

But his best hosting advice is surprisingly little about culinary pyrotechnics. For him, a great dinner is about giving yourself time, lowering the pressure, and creating a table where both you and your guests can relax.

These are the hosting rules he actually lives by.

1. "I Just Want To Be Present"

"I always make sure that, first of all, everything is prepared in advance," Ottolenghi says. "Really, as much as possible. It’s not that I can’t multitask. I just want to be present. You know, I can cook and chat, but it’s not real chat."

He says that good hosting needs to involve a little prep, but that some forethought goes a long way on the night. "I try to do everything I can beforehand," he adds. "So when you sit down, I maybe warm up something, or I finish it off with a drizzle of dressing or a scattering of nuts. But essentially everything is prepared."

He is equally firm about leaving himself enough time.

"I never want to be in a situation where I’m coming back from work at 4:30 or 5 pm and have people coming at 7. That is the nightmare. I don’t want that. I want to give myself time."

2. "I Like To Prepare Lots of Food That Is Really Good to Eat at Room Temperature"

Ottolenghi describes the abundant food displays you find in his delis as a useful way to think about hosting.

"I like to prepare lots of food that is really good to eat at room temperature, that I can prepare in advance and just finish off before I bring it to the table," he says. "I always try to keep to a maximum of one or two things that I have to cook last minute."

Fish is a favorite because the sauce can be made beforehand, and one he returns to again and again is what he calls "The One Sauce," a new recipe from his brand-new book Simple Too.

"It’s been serving me really well all summer for formal and informal events," he says.

The method is deliberately simple: tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and herbs are roasted together until soft. "After forty-five minutes, you take it out, and the garlic has got all soft and squishy. You squeeze it out, and you whisk it so it emulsifies as the sauce. That’s it. You don’t do anything. It’s the easiest thing in the world. It’s a great pasta sauce, but it’s a sauce for everything."

For dinner, he will often put fillets of fish straight into it, return the tray to the oven and finish with tahini.

"That’s dinner. And it’s beautiful. It feels very impressive."

3. "I Like to Make An Effort With A Nibble"

Sometimes that is simply roasted nuts. Other times it might be crostini or the fennel tarte Tatin from his new book, made with fennel, grapes and fennel seed, plus a layer of puff.

"It’s a really lovely recipe. It’s very easy because you just put it all in. You let it all do the cooking."

And he is entirely happy to rely on bought puff pastry. "We live in a world where there’s so many great things that you can buy in the supermarket," he says. "Give yourself a break and use supermarket ingredients. As soon as people come over, you flip it over, and it looks absolutely great. And it’s a really nice nibble."

4. "You Need To Love What You Serve Your Food In"

"I think whatever serving bowls you have to hand are fine. But I also think you need to love what you serve your food in. The dishes that have had a bit of a history at home are actually the nicest things to serve in," Ottolenghi says.

"If you’ve got an old Le Creuset or an old roasting tin that you want to present at the table, then I’d rather do that than necessarily decant the food into a very fancy new ceramic pot or dish that you bought."

He also collects pieces from friends and on his travels.

"I do have some beautiful things that I collect, a nice salad bowl or ceramics that maybe a friend has made or bought for me," he says. "Or if I travel, I tend to come back with a beautiful platter. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It can be just something beautiful with a bit of patina on it."

5. "I Want to See the Food"

There is one piece of tableware Ottolenghi feels rather more strongly about.

"This is important," he says. "The typical deep salad bowl I find really useless because you don’t really see the food. I want to see the food."

He prefers something wide and shallow, with enough of a rim to catch any sauce or dressing.

"Even a lettuce salad is really nice on a platter as long as you’ve got a little bit of lip. You can spread all the lettuce there and then drizzle it. So you can see the dressing. You can see the leaves. You can see their shape, and it makes a whole lot of difference."

6. "The Things That Are Practical And Beautiful Really, Really Help"

Ottolenghi prefers table decor that feels considered without becoming overly formal or fussy.

"If you have made a lot of effort and you do one of these pick-and-mix situations, and you have lovely platters to serve on, you almost don’t need anything else."

He likes useful objects to do some of the decorating. A beautiful pitcher might hold still or sparkling water, while his glassware is deliberately mixed.

"I have a collection of things that I like to mix. I’ve got a bunch of Moroccan glasses that I use, sometimes for wine, sometimes for water. I’m not strict about those things. I think it’s quite nice to have different coloured glasses. All these things just make it a richer experience. Even my cutlery is a bunch of mismatched silverware, and they’re not really a set, but it looks nice on the table."

"Flowers can be in the way," he adds. "And I don’t love small pots of flowers. I love bigger gestures.

What I often do is, if I want to make it a little bit more formal, I put something beautiful out before people sit down, then I remove it because it’s in the way if it’s in our eyeline. Candles are really nice on a table. I like the lighting to be muted."

7. "Everything Can Just Wait For the Potatoes"

For the Christmas table, Ottolenghi applies exactly the same prepare-ahead philosophy. "If you think of the traditional Christmas meal, it’s made out of a lot of things. So many of them are fine just warm rather than piping hot"

His Brussels sprouts can be roasted and dressed with vinaigrette as soon as they emerge from the oven.

"This is a trick that I use quite often in my cooking: hot brassicas, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages coming out of the oven, a bit of vinaigrette, and they sit down, and they soak up that richness, the acidity and the sweetness." Carrots can be handled in much the same way.

"You roast them. You dress them. They’re ready to go. I use a lot of chopped-up coriander, a lot of pomegranate seeds, and they just sit there. Don’t dress it till before, then dress it with some lime juice, with olive oil, and put it all over the carrots, bring it to the table. People will be happy." But one thing deserves your full attention.

"The roast potatoes are the thing of my life. They always take way longer than you think. If you cook potatoes, you parboil and put them in the oven; they take an hour and a half, or an hour at least, to get to the right crispy situation that you want them in."

He saves herbs and garlic until the end so they do not burn. "Everything can just wait for the potatoes."

8. "Who Doesn’t Like Roast Strawberries and Cream?"

And finally, dessert. If he had to suggest one thing that can make hosting easier, Ottolenghi chose his brown sugar cake with brown sugar cream and brown sugar roasted strawberries.

"This is a marvellous dessert. Every one of these elements is great on their own. You can just eat the cream with the strawberries or the cake with the cream or just the strawberries with granola and yogurt."

But served together, layered onto a big tray, it becomes something else.

"We were just cutting pieces and giving it to everybody. And it just made everybody so happy. Who doesn’t like roast strawberries and cream?"

The fruit can change with the seasons.

"When strawberries are not in season, you can use plums. They’re also super delicious when roasted, or rhubarb roasted with brown sugar as well."

Or even more simply: "Brown sugar cake, brown sugar cream, and just passion fruit. So good."

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

One of the absolute pleasures of working at Livingetc is having the opportunity to look through pictures of some of the world's finest homes on a daily basis — but being able to step inside some of them, specifically four of London's most beautiful homes in the heart of Clapham alongside our readers, is quite another joy entirely.

These curated homes opened their doors for our Livingetc Unlocked two-day event, and they're a one-stop shop for design inspiration. From quirky artwork and marble masterpieces to cozy nooks and standout architecture, these modern homes are a testament to originality, personality, and what it means to make a home your own.

Here, our house hosts guide us through each home, sharing the spaces that left a lasting impact on them and their fellow guests, so that you can be inspired to recreate a little bit of their magic in your own home.

House 1 — The Art Collector’s Home

Unlike so many homes, where stepping through the front door reveals barely anything about the people who live within it and the lives they lead, The Art Collector’s Home instantly greets you with a collage of frames before you even cross the threshold. It’s so aptly characterized with colorful paintings signed by big names, monochrome prints, and even nostalgic drawings from the children of the home layering into each other.

The couple, who met at a Christy’s auction of all the gin joints, pieced together this home that reads like a love letter to art and family. It manages to multitask in its role as a genreless gallery and an actual livable home with character. As I guided people around the home, a few characteristics caught a particularly friendly amount of compliments.

First, the cloches of quirky felt art in the modern kitchen and bathroom, courtesy of contemporary artist Lucy Sparrow. Including a reimagined Twix bar, a Colgate tub, a pack of Band-Aids, and a jar of Skippy peanut butter, to name a few. A more serious element of design that conjured a flurry of oohs and aahs was the dirty marble kitchen island. And of course, all eyes were on the art. Be it the oversized hanging fixtures, the mini black and white frames, the preserved Basquiat-esque doodle-ridden receipts, or even the Joseph Kosuth ‘FIVE WORDS IN VIOLET NEON’ sign that hangs adjacent to the front door.

And in true ‘art collector’ character, the home had plenty of minimalist picture lights showing off the pieces on display. The spaces teach you to leave it all out in the open. Forget coloring inside the lines and spotlighting only the manicured side of your home’s design. That kooky piece of art you’re unsure of? Hang it in the living room. The manifestation poster that gives away the hopeful side of you? Place it with pride. The products of an artistic hobby that sit hidden in your creative space? Pop it right by the front door or on a powder room ledge. Personality is the most charmingly unique thing you can adorn your home with.

House 2 — The Modern Family Home

Stepping through the door of The Modern Family Home was a moment of serenity along the Livingetc Unlocked tour. Everything about this south London home oozed restfulness, comfort, and a truly elevated, but lived-in aesthetic. You could imagine living here, but you also left feeling inspired to make a few upgrades. The red velvet bench seat in the breakfast nook, the seating area across from the modern farmhouse kitchen, the vanity by the window in the bedroom — each detail seemingly better than the last. So what moments really made this heritage-meets-contemporary home stand out?

The main bedroom was one of the most impressive rooms. From the textured detailing on the built-in wardrobes to the custom curved doorway leading into the ensuite, every moment felt intentional without feeling overdone. When the goal is to create a serene, cozy bedroom, it’s easy to fall into overly minimalist territory, but that wasn’t the case in The Modern Family Home — subtle, but curated details gave the room character.

For instance, over the radiator (in a rather awkward corner), a floating vanity was installed, then decorated with a bouclé accent chair, portable table lamp, and oversized mirror. This became a very memorable part of the room. The walls were color-drenched in Little Greene’s Portland Stone (a paint color almost everyone asked about on the day), but by adding a textured wallpaper to the built-in cabinetry, it didn’t read flat. This tactile detail was repeated throughout the room in the thick curtains lining the window seat, the upholstered headboard, and the pleated lampshades — everything in conversation with one another.

And the open-plan kitchen and dining space in The Modern Family Home was equally impressive. White zellige tiles that wrapped around the space, natural wood cabinetry, a custom cabinet hiding the fridge, and even a sitting area with family photos. I could go on, but if you need inspiration for creating a home that feels luxurious but livable, this Modern Family Home is a masterclass.

House 3 — The Home for Entertaining

I don’t like to play favorites, but there was something about The Home for Entertaining that left me with a sense of FOMO. I could picture glamorous guests traipsing through the front door past its stained-glass transom window, ushered into the spacious foyer that opens into a gorgeous modern living room to the right and a bright open kitchen and dining room to the left. Milling around with dirty martini glasses perched on the shelves, perhaps some with a cigar from the stocked case sat in the same corner.

As you make your way into the kitchen, you can almost hear soft music from soirées past, and I can only imagine the fun the connected garden has seen in its time. Of course, since the owners, once actors, now the brains behind the buzzing Opus 11, lend their entertaining genius to high society, it only makes sense that their home has all the lavishly considered details to host.

But it’s not just the guest-led spaces that garnered verbal applause. As I spoke to the crowds at Livingetc Unlocked, many praised the dusky blue cinema room, the Mediterranean-inspired ensuite bath and its relaxed minimalist primary bed. Another detail that was captured on countless phones was the accent wall dotted with round marble and gold sconces by the staircase, landing between the upper floors.

Gently curving architecture, the wabi-sabi of the limewash walls, color-drenched pockets, and curated vignettes make the house read as infinitely confident and somehow still surprisingly approachable. And if you still can’t catch on to just how much of a vibe the space is, a shelved pair of red bedazzled shoes from a certain Rocket Man is the cherry on top...

House 4 — The Interior Designer's Home

Although I only spent one day in The Interior Designers House, by the time I left, it already felt a bit like home. This is exactly what Pauline, the interior designer and architect who lives here, was hoping for when designing her Clapham family home — an artfully balanced blend of old and new when renovating this property, Pauline took care to retain as much of the home's Victorian charm as possible, combining original features with modern flourishes for a finish that feels both contemporary and classic.

Restored, original wooden flooring runs from the entryway through to the living areas, providing a foundation of warmth and texture. Bright, light walls are juxtaposed with dark accents for a crisp contrast across the ground floor. Dark, wooden alcoves flank the large, original fireplace, and windows and doorways are coated in a deep black paint. These surprising, stark contrasts feel distinctly modern against the traditional Victorian architecture, which brings a new level of depth and complexity to the family home.

The furniture across the home also leans more modern, with a mustard yellow Togo sofa and white leather Eames lounge chair bringing a cool, modernist feel to the living spaces. These iconic furniture pieces set the tone for the home, so much so that you’d never guess that so many of the finishing touches were sourced from high street favorites, including an Anthropologie desk holding fort in the top floor office.

The kitchen extension is, arguably, the highlight of the home. Throughout my time spent in this home, I can’t count the number of people who fell in love with the kitchen worktops. Nor can I count the number of shocked faces upon the realisation that the Calacatta Viola counters were in fact ceramic rather than a true natural stone. The kitchen was a true testament to Pauline's mastery of space.

Despite working with relatively limited dimensions, she found a way to squeeze everything you could possibly need in there, without it feeling cramped. She even managed to find space for a wine fridge, a new essential. The banquette seating, running along the length of the wall, was another genius move. The Kirkby Design fabric added an extra layer of character to the room, and a few keen eyes were particularly excited to spot that it was a reworked tube seat design.

If you missed out on Livingetc Unlocked this year, fear not — you can already register your interest for Livingetc Unlocked 2027, and we'll let you know as soon as tickets go on sale. And it's not just house tours either — we're talking a programme of workshops, talks, and the best in design talent, of course, so you won't want to miss it.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean? Not a problem. Fill up on design and travel ideas with maker and furniture designer Mary Ratcliffe's insider guide to Toronto.

And for more inspiring home tours and design ideas, subscribe to the Livingetc newsletter.

If you're a longstanding Livingetc fan, you might remember our House Tours events, where we invited readers into some of the UK's most design-forward properties to have a snoop at the interior design. Well, we've got news. House Tours has evolved, and this year, we're launching the all-new and improved Livingetc Unlocked.

Livingetc Unlocked is a two-day event, running across 10-11 September 2026, and, yes, we're still giving our readers the chance to tour some incredible homes, this time all situated in London's Clapham. As well as this insider access, Livingetc Unlocked includes a standout programme of designer talks and hands-on workshops, including names such as interior designer Sophie Paterson and former Vogue Fashion Director and founder of Collagerie Lucinda Chambers.

Tickets for Livingetc Unlocked are now on sale, and we have a special discount for our readers — simply enter 10LIVING at checkout to save 10% on your ticket.

The Houses

This year's four curated homes are all in a walkable pocket in the heart of Clapham. Expect brilliant architecture, a unique sense of style, and design inspiration for your own home from each stop on the Livingetc Unlocked tour. It's your opportunity to look around some of London's best homes in person.

Talks and Workshops

Alongside the Livingetc Unlocked house tours, you'll also have access to a programme of talks and hands-on workshops from leading figures in the design industry and beyond at our Clapham-based hub. We've lined up five incredible speakers to deliver major style inspiration — so whether you want to find out how to use colour in your home like a designer, discover the art of hosting or explore how to build a creative brand, you'll find what you need at one of these talks. Meet our speakers now…

Also included in your ticket is access to one of our hands-on workshops. Choose from candle painting with Bable London, tablescaping with the team from LORDS Fragrance House, or a cocktail-making workshop to help you master the art of mixology at home. And don't worry about making it all work with your schedule — we'll take care of that. Simply choose the talk and workshop you want to attend, and before the event we'll send you your personalised itinerary with everything booked in (plus plenty of time to explore those houses, of course).

The Tickets

Choose from a standard ticket or our VIP package, which includes a Design Lab consultation, a goody bag and more — and don't forget to use code 10LIVING at checkout to save 10% on your order.

Our Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors, LG and lights&lamps, who have helped make this event possible. Keep an eye out for LG TVs and lights&lamps lighting around the houses and in our hubs to experiences the products up close and personal.

To stay in the loop about Livingetc Unlocked and get more design news straight to your inbox, why not sign up for the Livingetc newsletter?