Homing Instinct: Design for a Working House - how can we use design to make places more personal and happy making?
British interior designer Nicola Harding and artist–gardener Matthew Rice join Elizabeth Metcalfe, Features Editor at House & Garden, for a conversation on how shaping a home can, in turn, shape us, helping us to manifest the lives we want to lead.
The discussion will explore how thoughtful design can prompt us to celebrate the everyday, connect to seasonal rhythms and foster creativity to create a meaningful sense of place. Real design for real life. Rooted in a shared love of the domestic, gardening and craft, our panellists will consider how life flourishes in a well-designed, well-used home.
Included in the ticket price is a welcome refreshment. Following the talk there will be time for an audience Q&A and a book signing.
Friday 30th January
10-10.30am - Guest Arrival and Refreshments
10.30-11.30am - Talk
11.30am - Audience Q&A and Book Signing
12pm - 1pm - Lunch in the Ox Barn
*Talk and lunch tickets include access to the talk, welcome refreshments and lunch in the Ox Barn - either a 2-course Prix Fixe menu, or a £30 allocation towards your bill. Guests may be seated on a communal table - if you have a seating preference, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you on the day.
Homing Instinct
Nicola Harding takes the principles of English interior design and deploys them with a universal appeal in her debut book Homing Instinct which features a selection of her most celebrated projects.
She takes us on an in-depth tour around a ‘Tuscan Retreat’ Farmhouse, ‘Reimagined Regency’ Town House, ‘Colourful Country Escape’ Country House amongst others.
With a calming, nature-inspired palette, Harding’s residential projects embrace Egnlish country-house cosiness and radiate a warmth that makes each place feel personal and well lived in, while her hospitality commissions are bold and spirted, often inspired by literary or historic characters.
‘It’s about giving please a sense of place. Achieving that peculiar alchemy that makes a house someone’s home.’
Nicola Harding
Nicola Harding is a renowned British interior designer. Founder, in 2007, of the London- based award-winning design studio Nicola Harding & Co., her work spans restaurants, private members clubs, and hotels as well as the homes of acclaimed figures from the film and music industries, artists, politicians, and royalty.
Her NiX lifestyle brand, launched in 2023, features beautifully useful furniture, lighting and objects born out of Harding’s understanding of how people live and what makes a home.
Matthew Rice
Matthew Rice is an illustrator, writer, painter and gardener. He lives in a medieval house and walled garden created from a crumbling modern farmyard, ten years ago.
Matthew’s parents were both designers, his father doing Opera and Ballet sets and his Mother textiles, famously 500 teat towels for the national trust. So, he is fairly steeped in design.
Elizabeth Metcalfe
Elizabeth Metcalfe is a writer and editor and currently House & Garden’s Features Editor. She joined the magazine in 2015, with a BA in English Literature from King’s College London and a Masters from the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Her interest in interiors was sparked through a Saturday job working in Pentreath & Hall when she was a student. She likes writing about lived-in, layered interiors, as well as discovering little-known craftspeople. Her writing has appeared in Toast Magazine andCereal, and she hosted talks for the likes of Christie’s and Collect Art Fair.
Her first book, New English Interiors (Frances Lincoln) came out in October 2024 and profiles the colourful, pattern-rich homes of 22 creatives. She lives in Sussex with her husband and daughter, and spends her spare time rummaging for treasure at antiques fairs.
