What it's like having your house in a magazine
Because weirdly it's happened a lot
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I know it sounds at odds to say it, given that I have written a memoir about my life and also given that I share these little glimpses into my life, but I don’t massively enjoy attention. I am not (ever) the loudest person in the room and though I may have written about my life, I certainly don’t like to talk about it to everyone. I do believe I am an introvert and I guess like so many people, I am careful with what I share about myself personally online.
But then we had our house renovated. And suddenly it was online a lot. Once I woke up to more messages than I’ve ever had in my Instagram: ‘You’re in XYZ!’ (the article in the big magazine in question since got taken down, because I hadn’t given my permission for it ). Another time, there was a photo of a room in our house in House & Garden with a caption underneath - home of author Huma Qureshi - and people I hadn’t heard of in years got in touch to tell me as if I didn’t know (you can tell we are all of a certain age now that we read House & Garden). I have to admit, I felt a bit indignant - like you get in touch about my kitchen but not my books? (I am part joking, by the way). It’s weird, browsing kitchens on Pinterest, and then having your own pop up.
When we had our house renovated, I wasn’t doing it ‘for the Gram’ and I certainly wasn’t doing it expecting anything would come out of it. If you follow me there, you’ll notice I basically share the same couple of rooms again and again. I feel… weird, about sharing too much.
The way the ‘press’-thing started was because our architects asked if they could get photos done for their website and then our kitchen people had photos done for their social media and we agreed to both because they’d been so nice to work with. But then I guess once something is online, it’s online, and since then things just snowballed. Our home, or various rooms from our home, have been in: Elle Decoration, House & Garden, The Observer, The New York Times… some others I can’t remember now. We’ve also been in Penny Wincer’s beautiful interiors-with-a-conscience book, Home Matters too, which I wholeheartedly agreed to - it was such an honour to be asked and to be included, and Penny is such a dear friend, and also the book is entirely beautiful.
Most of the magazine requests have come in via the kitchen people, because some publication or the other has got in touch with them. Then, what usually happens is I say, hmmm, I don’t know. And then I think, hmmm, I wonder if I can ask if they’ll mention my book(s)… and then that generally swings it for me. I’ll take any mention for any book because yes, I would do anything for them, and no, I have no boundaries as far as publicity for them is concerned.
So yeah. That’s how our house has ended up in magazines. The funny thing is, it’s not just this house though. It’s been every house we’ve ever lived in; my first flat was in some random Japanese interiors book, the second in The Guardian (although, that was because I was writing an interiors piece and needed an extra house to mention and so I used myself) and the third, that lovely light-filled space, was in some other home glossy magazine though I don’t remember which one anymore.
This week, we had another magazine come and film on Monday, and yesterday there was another photographer here. The process itself is in practical terms quite smooth. Everyone arrives on time, everyone is very polite, everyone tidies up after themselves. I do naturally make sure the house is extra tidy, which sometimes does feel like just one more thing to think about, and this week I did in fact get the windows cleaned precisely because of these shoots. Knowing you are having people come to photograph or film generally means that household jobs you’ve been putting off have to get done, like getting pictures up on wall that have just been lying around, which all in all I think is a positive. But on the whole, when they are here, nothing really needs to be moved or changed and it’s not as intrusive as you might think - although it’s certainly different having someone film the house rather than just photograph. Sometimes I’m interviewed, often I’m not, which suits me better (but as long as I still get that book mention hey ;) )
You would think by now I would feel fine with all of this, and most of the time I do. But there are moments when I still feel a bit weird about it all. Like, it’s still our family home, you know? I’m conflicted between wanting to keep it all private and yet at the same time being all: have you seen my new wallpaper?! Because there is joy in sharing too. Yet yesterday, I found myself downplaying everything to the photographer, implying like all the interiors were just an afterthought; ‘Oh, the yellow floors, they’re just, you know, floors. No big deal.’ I don’t know why I did/do that. Because actually I am honest to God in love with my floors (a floor is not just a floor! A table it not just a table!). I don’t know if it’s because I worry people will think the house is just ‘trendy’ which makes me feel defensive, because really there’s so much more to it. I don’t want it be reduced to just a ‘style’ fad because we happen to have checkered tiles, which, I hasten to add, are not a style fad at all as I was replicating the original sixties’ checkered tiles that were already here, just bringing them up to date.
Or is it because I worry that people will think less of me? Is it because I worry they won’t take me seriously or think there’s something superficial about me because I care so much about the way things look?
I recall when the family bathroom (aka the boys’ bathroom) was in Elle Decoration and I told my sons. They were so confused. As in: but… why? It’s a… bathroom. This is generally their non-fussed take on all of this. Which is one way to not overthink it.
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