Welcome back to Home and Hosting with Louis Bourke, the podcast
that's all about helping you make your space feel like home.
I'm Louis, stylist, design educator, content creator and
your friend in all things home hosting and at the moment
holidays. Because Can you believe it's
already November? Christmas is just around the
corner. I've been shooting all my
holiday collabs this week and I cannot wait for you to see it
all on my feeds across TikTok and Instagram.
So be sure to check it out over at the Wee Burke.
Each week over here we talk about how to elevate your space
and your life without over complicating it.
I'm not afraid to mix high and low because money doesn't buy
you class or taste, education does.
Researching, practise and routine gets you one beautiful
life. So today's episode is a little
bit of a tough loved one. It's my Capricorn moon coming
through today because I want to talk about why your home might
feel lifeless. You know that feeling when
everything looks fine on paper but the energy just isn't there?
It's not warm, it's not inspiring, it's just a bit
beige. It might not be your space, but
you might have seen it online. Very put together homes that
don't really put together despite everything being there.
Or it's the complete opposite and that a house is a mess and
nothing's cohesive and everything is all over the shop.
And before we start blaming square footage or budget, let's
be honest, a lot of the time it's not the house, it's us.
I think this is a really Aussie thing of playing down ourselves,
the oh I can't do that, it's too fancy.
But that often means I'm scared to commit, scared to put in the
effort into something that I might not be able to sustain.
And that's such a shame because your home should be a reflection
and a reminder of the best version of you, not the version
that's afraid to try. Because that's saying you are.
What you eat actually applies to who and what you surround
yourself with. If you improve your home, you
will improve your whole life. So today we're talking about 5
mistakes that make your home feel lifeless and what to do
instead. But more than that, we're
talking about how to grow up your space and actually lean
into being an adult because honestly, you deserve to live in
a home that reflects that. All right, let's get into it.
Number one, you don't know the difference between authentic and
fake. If your home feels lifeless,
it's probably because everything feels fake.
Reproduction furniture, fake plants, dupes, veneers,
imitation marble. It's all pretending and it's
shows. Honestly it probably shows up in
your wardrobe too. A whole lot of plastic.
Now I get it and I hear you. Not everything can be high end
expensive and senders broke. But when your home is full of
replicas it starts to feel like an amateur theatre set.
It's glossy, but it's certainly not grounded.
Now, finding the difference between reproduction and real
can be tricky if you don't have the lived experience.
I remember going shopping as a young kid with my mum and we
would go around the store and we would pick out things that we
liked and I would show my mum, oh, look at this, look at this
amazing desk that was clearly like a replica desk that did not
look good. And it was very shiny and it was
like fake veneer and whatever. And my mum would be like, no, we
want something like this and she would show me more of an
authentic timber piece that looked beautiful.
So I learned from a really early age the difference between
replica and real furniture, homewares, etcetera.
My parents are very earthy. They like lots of natural
materials around them more so than myself.
But I think that also relays back to where we live.
My parents are in regional NSW, whereas now I live in metro
Melbourne. So the textures and, and the
looks are going to feel different, but the rule of real
verse reproduction still is apparent no matter where you
live. How do we figure out what's
reproduction and what's real if we don't have that experience?
My recommendation is to look at the things that you really
admire. Find them at the really
expensive price point at the store, wherever you find it at
the most expensive price, be it at like an auctioneer place or a
beautiful store. And and then look at it in a
place that you could pick up at a second hand store or Facebook
marketplace. So you can see like one thing is
original. It speaks to the time that it
was built in and made in versus something that's been made now,
but in a really beautiful way with really good craftsmanship.
9 times out of 10 where the reproduction stuff comes into
play is when you see it at that sort of mid tier price point.
A mid tier can range depending on the original price of the
item. So if the original price at an
auction here is like 10s of thousands of dollars, that mid
tier range is going to be a couple thousand or a couple 100,
right? So you can kind of tell
automatically someone has had to cut a fair few corners in order
to bring that cost down, making it a reproduction.
And you can see the price of something correlates to how many
corners have been cut 9 times out of the 10.
If you can find it at Facebook Marketplace, it means you've
found an opportunity where someone wants to get rid of
something if they don't want to. Spend the time, energy and
effort putting it on an auctioneer website and you're
getting it at a great value. The item has like maintained the
skill set and the craftsmanship because the corners weren't cut.
It's just a person who wants to get rid of it.
Does that make sense? It's not to say that you can't
buy reproduction and replicas, but keep in mind if you're
getting it at a really good price, 9 times out of 10 it will
show. And if you do that with
everything, it's not great. I also think you can feel the
difference between something that's real and something that's
trying to be real. And I also think you don't look
great in a space that's full of like reproduction stuff because
you're a natural living thing surrounded by man made stuff.
So if you're not done all the time, like with your hair's
done, you've got makeup on, you've got a really good outfit
on, that reproduction stuff in your home can make you look
worse because natural things are imperfect.
They're lived in, right? So the warmth of timber, the
cool weight of glass, the texture of linen, those are
things that bring life into a room and those are the things
seen in nature, the imperfect, the ever changing, just like
you. So it just feels better and it
looks better all the time. Let's not even talk about fake
plants unless you've spent a small fortune.
They are not fooling anyone. They're always a little bit too
green, they're too shiny, they're too still.
And the dust is a serious issue. You're better off cutting a
branch from outside and sticking it in like an urn and then
replacing it weekly, honestly. And look, that's not about
status, it's just about substance.
Buy less, but buy real. Mix in historical things and
vintage things that add character.
Because when you fill your home with things that actually have
life to them, the space starts to breathe again.
I remember when we covered this in my episode with fellow
friends with Home and hosting with Alexander Wagner.
He really loves to purchase items that are pre the
industrial revolution because there wasn't a trend cycle.
They were made with true craftsmanship and they have
stood the test of time. And I know some people are going
to be listening and saying, Louis, I live in a modern
contemporary house. The historical stuff just does
not work. To which I will say that is
totally fine. Just look for pieces that are
made from natural materials because they will not date and
they will stay timeless and they will look great and they'll feel
real and you'll look great. Let's move on to #2 everything
being from the same store, Like if you're walking into your home
and saying, Oh my God, this looks like Restoration Hardware
or Pottery Barn or Target or IKEA, kind of not a good look.
You need to mix it up because it's not giving home, it's
giving showroom and lived in, which is like really hard to
sustain because those places are not lived in.
So you living in an environment that you're trying to sustain
that showroom level, it's just not achievable because you will.
You'll just get stressed because you won't be able to maintain
that level of clean lines and everything that a showroom can.
You need a home that feels cohesive like a store, but you
need to do that through a colour palette and not a one stop shop.
You should be able to look around your home and remember
the stories where you found something, how it came into your
life. So mix it up especially with the
homewares you can, I can collect a lot of furniture pieces from a
particular store. Like I have a lot of Globe West
in my home. Not my whole house is Globe
West. But also when you look around
you don't go, oh, this is a globe W store, beautiful store,
love the brand. But my home does not look like a
Globe W store and certainly the homewares not from Globe West.
That's the thing. I think where people can go
really wrong is when they start picking up too many homeware
bits and bobs from bigger chain stores like H&M Home or worse
like Kmart. Don't get me wrong, you can pick
up one or two things, but picking up like 20 things and
having them in all the different rooms, that's when things just
go really, really wrong. Like pair an IKEA sofa with a
designer lamp, put a vintage chest next to a homey cushion.
That contrast creates rhythm and and I think the real reason
people buy everything from one place is because they don't want
to take the time to figure out what they actually like.
They just want it done. But also it's not done until
everything has a home. Put things in places so you know
where they go when you're finished with them.
Stuff just can't live on the floor.
Give it a purpose. You have a purpose and so does
the stuff in your home. So give it some context.
Give it a place. Good homes are never done.
They just evolve. They grow as you grow, so stop
rushing to fill every space by one thing that matters instead
of five that don't #3 you're playing it too safe with colour.
Let's talk beige. Beige with no texture, no
contrast, no life. It's not a neutral, it's numb.
Now don't get me wrong, I love beige, there's lots of it
throughout my home. But you've got to treat it like
it's a full colour palette. Layer your tones, combine matte
with gloss, linen with metal, timber with glass.
And don't be afraid to mix in those deeper tones.
Brown, tan, caramel, terracotta, green.
They make beige feel intentional, not lazy.
Because this I'll just keep it simple thing is often code for I
don't trust my own taste. You've got to back yourself.
Commit to the look. Design.
Confidence doesn't come from being safe.
It comes from trying things and learning what works.
That's growth. That one was a quick one, hard
and fast. OK, so now we move on to #4 You
don't understand scale. Scale is one of those invisible
rules that separates amateur from effortless.
Too often people have huge furniture and tiny decor, or the
opposite little furniture with oversized lighting and it just
doesn't feel right. You want variety, Think tall,
medium, low and repeat that across your space.
When everything is 1 size or one height, your eye gets really
bored. And when you have rhythm,
different levels, depths, shapes, it suddenly starts to
feel calm. And that calmness is what good
design actually is. It's not about perfection, it's
just about balance. You also need to layer right?
So a bed needs layers with blankets and pillows, tables
need layers when you're setting up for dinner.
Windows need layers with curtains and Roman shades.
Consoles, however, don't need 20 things.
Coffee tables do not need 10 things, Sofas do not need 15
cushions and TV cabinets do not need 5 trinkets.
You also don't need to have all your furniture pushed up against
the wall, like have a rug sit in the centre of a room.
Put your sofa away from the wall, even if it's 15
centimetres. Let the space breathe, let the
energy move around the room. Decide when things need to be
symmetrical, like do we do 2 lamps anchored on either side of
the console or will it look better with just one scale?
And layering will be the thing that transforms your space.
Homewares that look good nine times out of 10 serve a function
and a purpose. So if you have a lot of trinkets
that serve 0 purpose, it will 9 times out of 10 look messy.
Oh a candle has a purpose because it's there to like set a
mood, you know, emit A scent. A vase is there to house
flowers. A lamp is to emit light.
A coffee table book is to inspire you.
But we don't need 5 coffee table books.
Get an aesthetic board game for when someone comes over.
The small cutesy trinkets. I'm over it.
The cutesy childlike stuff just does not make a space feel
cohesive. It just feels like your
attention span is that of like scrolling TikTok and you need
little cutesy pieces to make you give like a quick dopamine hit
and then move on to the next thing or go back to watching the
TV. Like your home decor should not
be a distraction from real life. It should just elevate your
life. It should be reminding you of
where you want to go, who you want to be.
Now I'm going to finish with a big one, one that I noticed a
lot when I moved from the Hunter Valley to Melbourne, which I
kind of mentioned earlier, which is your textures are fighting
each other or it's 21 and the same.
So texture is an emotion. If everything is smooth and
shiny, your home feels sterile, which can often happen in metro
city areas. If everything is raw and rustic,
it can feel quite heavy and unfinished, often seen in
country homes. You need to combine and contrast
these textures. Raw linen and timber, beautiful
glossy marble with Chrome luxe but jute with white gloss tiles,
not so much. They don't marry up as well.
You need to know your materials and understand their
personality, and don't force opposites to coexist.
When your finishes complement each other, your home feels
cohesive, and when the textures relate to one another, it feels
balanced. It's also good to think about
how much of the texture you're using in a space.
So if you use a really textured rug, that's going to take up a
lot of visual weight versus how you just use the texture as a
small cushion. So be sure to consider that when
you're doing your room. I live in inner city Melbourne,
so the textures that I incorporate into Myspace is a
lot of timber. It's a lot of suede, it's a lot
of linen, but it's not a lot of like rustic jute used to have a
lot of unfinished and raw timber and it felt really heavy.
So then I moved over to more of a smooth timber finish with
curves to make it feel more balanced and modern and
contemporary. Also incorporated a lot more
stone, like the marble because it was a natural texture, but it
was smooth. Again, it's actually more in a
leather texture. It's not shiny, so it's a little
bit more matte so it doesn't feel so sterile.
Don't get me wrong, you can definitely use a sisal or a jute
carpet in one of those heritage looking homes.
Just keep in mind that it is a little bit heavier, so you will
need to go a bit lighter and brighter when it comes to the
furniture choices to keep it feeling more urban.
Think about the context and where you live because that will
help guide you as to what you should have in the space.
Home acts and works like your wardrobe, so if you're dressing
for the seasons, your home should also meet that as well.
So if your home feels lifeless, it's probably one of those five
things. Either everything's fake,
everything's from one store, you're scared of colour, your
scales off or your textures are fighting.
But deeper than that, it's often about confidence.
Stop downplaying yourself. Stop telling yourself that
you're not fancy enough. Because it's not about being
fancy. It's about having respect for
your environment and by extension, for yourself.
Hold yourself and your family to a higher regard.
Lean into being that adult you know you are.
Own your taste, and stop waiting for permission to live it
beautifully. Because when you're home finally
feels like you, confident, grounded, there's logic.
It feels alive. That's when everything else
starts coming together. Thank you again for listening to
Home and hosting with Louis Burke.
If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with a friend or
someone whose house might need a little bit more work.
And I'll see you next week when we talk about the design trends
that are actually worth backing in 2025.