At home with… Kim Heslip
Welcome to the first in a new series of blog posts called “At home with…” where I will be speaking to a variety of different business owners and public figures asking them the same set of questions about their homes and what home means to them.
Who better to kick off this new series than yours truly? If you’d like to learn more about my home, and what’s important to me when it comes to making a house a home read on!
Nest and Flourish interior designer, Kim Heslip
Interior designer Kim Heslip is the owner and founder of Nest and Flourish Interiors. Kim is passionate about the influence our surroundings have upon our health and wellbeing, and approaches design with this in mind. As a former NHS nurse, she is passionate about inclusive and accessible spaces and has combined her nursing knowledge and experience with her interior design skills to provide specialist interior design services for people with health, accessibility, or sensory requirements.
Let’s get Kim’s perspective on what makes a house a home…
Tell me a little bit about your home and who you share it with?
I live in a large, modern, family home, in a small Yorkshire village, with my husband, our four children and our pet Labrador. It’s very much a renovation project and certainly doesn’t look like an interior designer lives here…yet! We’re gradually working our way through it room by room and we have big plans to transform it.
What is your favourite spot in your home and why?
That would have to be my ensuite bathroom. We renovated it last year and added a beautiful, freestanding bath under a skylight. It’s designed to be “mums sanctuary” where I can escape to after a long day, run a bath, light some candles, listen to music and look up at the stars.
Do you have any family heirlooms, or items inspired by your family history in your home?
No family heirlooms, but I do own a couple of pieces that were inspired by my grandparent’s homes. One is a glass-fronted display cabinet that reminds me of the one my Grandma had. Hers was filled with her best china, ornaments and trinkets. When we visited her, my sister and I would stand staring at all the treasures within it. Mine is used as a drinks cabinet, so not nearly as exciting.
I also have a red GPO telephone, with a rotary dial, like the one my Nana and Grandad had. It still works, although we rarely use the landline these days.
Do you have any quirky or unusual items?
I like to add an element of fun, so I have a few items around the house that raise a smile. One is a vintage Avon soap dish in the shape of a Hippo, you open its mouth to reveal the soap inside! I’ve had it since I was a child, and it has come with me to every home I’ve lived in.
What is the oldest thing in your house?
We have a framed stone slab which contains a 55 million year old fossilised fish! My husband loves fossils and I bought it for his 30th birthday present.
Kim's vintage red telephone pictured here with the fossilised fish.
What is the last thing you bought for your house?
Some Little Greene paint and some pretty storage boxes for my home studio.
What colours have you used in your home and what inspired those choices?
There’s lots of blues and greens, as they are my favourite colours and I’m really drawn to them. I like our rooms to feel calm, comfortable and relaxing, so most of the rooms have soft, muted, tones on the walls, with colour added in the artwork and soft furnishings.
We’ve been a little bolder in the children’s rooms though and tried to work with their favourite colours and interests.
A well-designed home doesn’t only look great, it works on a practical level, and makes life easier for those who live there. Are there any life-enhancing, practical design features in your home?
Storage and organisation make a big difference to my home life! I’m a great believer in the saying “tidy house, tidy mind” and I like everything to have a place – then as long as everyone puts things back where they belong, we always know where to find things!
Two features that make a big difference to me are our hallway cupboard, to hide away all the coats, shoes and bags, and the laundry cupboard, on our landing, where we have baskets for each type of wash so the dirty clothes are sorted as we go along.
I hate wasted space in a home and if I can add useable space, and storage, I will. I knocked out a previously boxed-in space under our stairs to create a dog bedroom for our Labrador and a space to store her toys and accessories, and I’ve got plans to add more storage to our home by knocking through into the eves, at the top of the house, later this year. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction knowing I have utilised space that was previously sat boxed in behind the walls!
Kim has made use of previously boxed in space to improve storage in her home.
If money were no object, where would you live and what would your home be like?
I would definitely like to live near a beach, with sea views, as I grew up on the coast and am a coastal girl at heart. It wouldn’t have to be tropical, but it would be nice to be slightly warmer and less rainy than the UK! I’d love a home with interesting architecture, maybe a large art deco villa, with big windows and beautiful curves. Plenty of indoor and outdoor space for our large family, a gym and a pool to exercise in. A large patio with an outdoor kitchen that flows from the house and a large laundry room – not that I’d be doing our laundry if money were no object!
Nest and Flourish Interiors is known for creating accessible and inclusive spaces, can you describe what makes you feel welcome and comfortable in a space?
I like a sense of space, where it doesn’t feel too crowded or overwhelming. A nice calming colour palette, where busy patterns are kept to a minimum. Not too cluttered, and lots of soft furnishings to dampen sound so it’s not too loud or echoey. I love to feel a connection to nature so windows, views, natural light, plants, and use of natural materials such as wood and stone really appeals to my sense of comfort and wellbeing.
And what puts you off and makes you want to leave a space?
I guess the opposite of the above! I can appreciate a maximalist design, but I find it overstimulating being surrounded by lots of bright colours and busy patterns, so it’s definitely not something I would choose for my own home. Poor acoustics or unwanted noise can make a space feel really uncomfortable, as can unpleasant smells! I don’t expect everywhere to be immaculate all of the time, but I don’t like to be anywhere that looks excessively untidy or unclean.
What makes a house a home in your eyes?
It’s personal items and treasures. You can have a beautifully designed home but without personal items, that tell your story, it can feel like a generic, empty shell.
It’s the photographs, the artwork, the pictures your children drew, the teddy bear you’ve had since you were a child, the unusual vase you found in a charity shop, your grandma’s old armchair, souvenirs from your travels, and all of those sentimental items that are priceless in your eyes, that give us that emotional connection to where we live and that sense of belonging. That’s what makes a home.
Kim Heslip is an interior designer and the founder and owner of Nest and Flourish Interiors. Kim is an advocate for diversity and inclusion and is passionate about the enormous impact our surroundings have on our health and wellbeing.
Kim has a wealth of knowledge around accessible and inclusive design and believes beautiful interiors are for everyone. She helps people, throughout the Yorkshire region, who have health and accessibility requirements, to redesign interior spaces, accommodating their needs, without compromising on style.
Contact Kim to find out how she can help you to make life-enhancing improvements to your interior spaces that embrace your individuality and support all of your needs.