Product photographer, Holly Booth lives in a small Derbyshire village with her partner, Pete, two French bulldogs, Remi and Margot, and a tortoiseshell cat, called Juno. Holly works mainly with creative artists, designers and makers from around the world and has been running her own business for almost 10 years.
Her home is a Victorian terrace in a short row of houses, which – according to some local history books – were originally the homes of the teachers at a nearby school. The couple moved in around three and a half years ago and have been doing it up ever since, “It’s the first house we owned, so after years of living with magnolia walls, it’s been lots of fun being able to do whatever we want with it.”
As their terrace is a period property Holly and Pete have tried to keep and emphasise some of the original features, while bringing a touch of contemporary style via their furniture, plants and colour schemes. “There’s no single theme that runs throughout the house, but I tend to be drawn towards Mid-century modern and Scandinavian styling,” explains Holly.
“I’ve been sharing pictures of where I live for as long as I’ve had Instagram, but I’ve definitely shared more pictures of this house because we’ve been able to do much more to it.” Holly started posting images almost as soon as they moved in and enjoys looking back through her feed to see the changes they’ve made over the past few years. “While a lot of the house is an on-going project, we’ve pretty much finished doing the living room and our bedroom, which are my two favourite places. We’ve worked really hard to make them bright and airy, but cosy and relaxing at the same time,” explains Holly.
“I like looking at what other people do with their homes, so I thought it’d be nice to share some photos of what we’ve done with ours. It’s nice to get comments from people who like what we’ve done and connect with other like-minded instagrammers. I don’t put a lot of thought into making the house ‘instagrammable’ – the things we do with our home are really for our benefit and if my followers like it too, that’s a nice bonus.” The biggest challenge Holly has is trying to work around the dogs – “they like to leave their toys everywhere and be in every shot. My partner is really into gaming, so tidying up games consoles and controllers can also be a daily battle!”
One of Holly’s favourite aspects of their home is that the front of the house faces south, so she get loads of lovely natural light throughout the day, which really helps when taking pictures of your home. “It probably sounds really obvious, but the use of natural light makes a massive difference.”
Holly’s advice if you’re new to sharing your home on instagram?“This might sound a bit cheesy – but I think you have to do ‘you’. Some homes I follow are really neat and minimalist, and some are really chaotic and cluttered, but both can look totally amazing. I think you should make your house what you want it to be and there’ll be others out there, who love your style”
Follow more of Holly’s renovation journey on Instagram
See Holly’s photography work on her website.
