Reading · Editions by Natalie Walton

Edition No. 15

Celebrating 4 years of my book STYLE: The Art of Creating A Beautiful Home. Here is an excerpt for you to enjoy.

What is style? And is it important? Do you need a clear understanding of your own personal style to create a beautiful and authentic home? What if you are drawn to many different aesthetic styles? Can your personal style evolve over time and adapt to different homes, especially if they’re rooted in different architectural periods or aesthetics? And how do you avoid leaving a trail of regretted decisions and wasteful mistakes?

Style book by Natalie Walton; Photography Chris Warnes

Our relationship with style is complicated. At times it might appear vacuous, a little too surface focussed. Certainly, when it comes to creating a home, it can feel as if there are many more important decisions to make. But if you don’t have a clear understanding of who you are, and how to express that in your home, it’s easy to become distracted and create what you think is appropriate rather than what is meaningful. This can lead not only to costly mistakes but also to a home that doesn’t feel like you.

And, whether you’re working by yourself or engaging the services of a design professional, getting a clear idea of your style is the first and important step in any project. It should be a priority before you start making any decisions, sourcing or spending. Taking the time to understand your style and become intimate with your own visual vocabulary creates a foundation that will be your anchor in the most intense times and be your guide through unexpected turns on the journey to creating a home.

Style can seem complex because it is multifaceted, relating to people, places and periods in time. But, at its heart, it’s a form of expression. It’s who you are—your journey, your story, your feelings, your priorities and even your sense of self-worth. And if you don’t make what’s important to you a priority, what type of home are you really creating? Who is at the heart of your home? Are you living with integrity? Indifference and indecision can be choices too.

Everyone’s style is different because we have all taken different journeys in life. Creating in your own truth is at the heart of knowing and expressing your style. Your style doesn’t need to conform to any prevailing opinion or general consensus.

The most beautiful spaces are not only grounded in authenticity but also actively engage in the process of styling. Styling is how you arrange a space or scene to make it the best it can be. While the craft is still in its infancy in the grand scheme of the visual arts, it’s a powerful way to curate your space and display what you love. It is understanding ‘what to place where’ to create a beautiful interior, and what to edit for clarity and impact.

Styling is a process you can engage with no matter where you are on the home-making journey. If you’re just starting out, or in a rental and unable to make structural changes, it allows you to work with what you’ve already got and what you love. Alternatively, if you have designed and decorated your home, or completed a major renovation, styling is how you bring together all the elements to enhance your spaces. And if you’re ready to sell, it’s a process that can add significant value to your home.

Styling is elevating the spaces in your home to bring more beauty and joy into your life every day.

However, styling is still a little misunderstood and undervalued.

Any great interior designer or architect knows its true worth. A stylist can take a well-designed interior and turn it into a work of art. While a stylist might not be credited, they are often integral to install days, arranging objects and adding the finishing touches before an interior designer reveals the space to a client. Stylists also help to craft images for all-important portfolios and marketing material. It is not a skill to dismiss or diminish.

Stylists can add value to homes as any real estate agent will tell you. Not only can they make a home the best it can be, but they can create visual stories that allow potential buyers to envisage themselves within the space. A carefully curated scene can convey a lifestyle in an instant. Styling is a way to paint a picture and sell a story, too.

Styling will benefit your creative ventures, as well as your home. It helps to create captivating imagery for brands or businesses that want to cultivate engaged clients or customers. Styling is the essential ingredient in any beautiful product or homewares image you’ve seen. If you’ve connected with an image, most likely styling is at play.

Styling can not only transform spaces but also enhance our relationships and experiences within them. I have styled countless homes over the years and had homeowners remark in wonder that editing their collections, moving objects around and making seemingly minor adjustments has given their space a whole new look and feel. Styling your home doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy more ‘stuff’. Often the opposite is true—you can reconnect with what you already own, move objects from one room to another, or rediscover a long-forgotten treasure that was tucked away in a cupboard. These are the layers—the textures, colours, materials, forms, stories, and more—that help bring a home to life.

When travelling the world to style homes for my books, This is Home: The Art of Simple Living and Still: The Slow Home, I had only a small carry-on suitcase and no time or room to take props to any of the photo shoots. And yet each space was carefully curated for photography. That is not to diminish the beautiful homes that photographer Chris Warnes and I visited, but styling helped create a visual story that related to each homeowner, showcasing their journey, values and personal style. And, as every image and home was part of a larger story or concept, the styling of each photograph needed to be consistent with the philosophy of the book. Styling works on many levels, helping to tell the story of not just each room, but also the home, the homeowner and the bigger picture.

You are here, most likely, because you’re interested in the idea of creating beauty at home. Maybe you already have it—you create instinctively but want to reconnect with the process and re-engage with your home. When we have been living in our spaces for a while, it’s easy to stop ‘seeing’ them. We stop noticing what we’ve created, including the objects and elements that we added as temporary measures but aren’t quite right, or half-resolved solutions to complete later. It’s easy to fall into a rut, too. Let this be a chance to reconnect with what you love.

Perhaps you want to make your home more beautiful, but you’re not sure where to start, what is missing and how to bring it all together in a way that brings you pleasure. The steps you need to take feel just beyond your grasp, but your hopeful you can engage with the creative process.

Either way, your home is important to you. You see and appreciate beauty when it’s within sight. And you know the impact it can have on your emotional life. Just like a great work of art, poetry or music, your home can create an experience that transcends the physical and tangible.

How we choose to create our homes from what we have and love has a significant impact on how we experience them every day. Styling is a simple way to establish order, remove what is unnecessary, and make the most of what remains. It is an art and science that can be learnt, and a practice that can bring you daily joy.

Engaging with creativity is both a gift and an essential part of what it means to be human. And one of the easiest ways to engage with this process is at home. It is where we can experiment with ideas, explore the heart of who we are, and mirror our inner desires in our outer world.

Dear Reader, Let’s start a conversation: Do you have a clear sense of your style? How is it expressed in your home? Where do you struggle? Where do you find joy?

Why Style Matters

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