Life Unstyled

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Life Unstyled Interiors and styling content from interior stylist and author Emily Henson

Emily Henson is an interior stylist, set designer and interiors author known for her creative and approachable style. She works in photography and film styling sets for a variety of brands - from interiors, fashion, food, tech and more. Emily has written four interiors books: Modern Rustic, Bohemian Modern, Life Unstyled and Be Bold. She also publishes a self-paced online course for the aspiring lifestyle author where she shares her knowledge and experience to help others publish a lifestyle book.

08/10/2026

There’s nothing wrong with getting excited for your first pumpkin spice latte of the season or digging out your chunky scarves and cosy coats. But for me Autumn and Winter are a real challenge and those rituals just don’t do it for me. I like being warm and bathed in sunshine and I mourn the end of Summer. But living in the UK as I do, I have to face facts and just get over it.

In my latest column for I share ways to ready your home for winter, including one of my favourite paints that transition well from the glow of Summer to the gloom of Winter. Where are you on the seasonal spectrum? Are you ready yet to trade your rosé for hot chocolate or are you in denial like me?

22/08/2026

Volume up if you like the sound of rain. Rain did not stop play, although it did play havoc with my hair. My only full free day in Tainan and the rain did not let up (it’s still going).

I met a hat wearing bunny named JoJo in a temple, I ate beef noodle soup with an old friend, perused a 1930s department store with a roof top shrine, watched a pavement game of Beyblades, discovered hidden markets and marveled at all the wonderful things we don’t have at home, walked and sloshed in the warm rain, and took a hundred pictures of all the interesting architecture, people and activities.

I also discovered that in Taiwan the rubbish trucks play classical music as they drive slowly through the streets, signaling that it’s time to take your rubbish out and dump it in the truck. How very civilised.

04/08/2026

The Little Society of Potterers. Are you one of us?

More videos like this, plus longer form DIY/Interiors/Renovation content over on my YouTube channel.

01/08/2026

A dream design commission, and not just because I got to cycle to work along the beach every day.

Cockle & Hen, the best looking new bar in Margate, if we say so ourselves .

A creative collaboration between myself and Bazz Kay .m.k_creative. Designing this bar together allowed us to pool our varied experience and knowledge and dream up a place we’d like to spend time in ourselves.

Working with the best clients who trusted our vision, even when we probably tested their patience with our obsession over seemingly silly details, and who themselves grafted hard to get the bar open on a very tight turnaround.

We worked with local suppliers and used almost entirely secondhand, vintage, and found objects, repurposing them to fit the space.
m.k_creative built almost everything himself - from the copper bar to the huge mirror (both made from an oak panelled room he found!), the seating, the glass dividers, the upholstery, the list is long….

Other brilliant people involved:

and Jack - additional build work
- lovely logo
- gorgeous hand painted gold leaf signage
- delicious food coming soon

29/06/2026

Writing is mostly staring out the window/making coffee/brushing the cat/looking up synonyms/contemplating life choices/wondering who will even read it.

27/06/2026

Long standing followers will know how I feel about the disco ball, the most underrated joy-inducing interiors accessory, in my opinion.

In this month’s column for I write about ways to make the summer light work for you at home.

Large disco ball from .

Small battered disco ball that has been taped together many times - I don’t know where I got it but I’m never getting rid of it.

22/06/2026

I needed to spend a week in the garden but I could only spare an hour. Let the speed gardening commence 🍓

14/03/2026

Transforming old brown wood furniture - often solidly made but heavily varnished - is one of my favourite thrifty home updates for the DIY-averse and I wrote about in my March column for .

I finally found a cabinet for my bathroom, a place to store (and hide) all those unsightly cosmetics, hair products etc in one place behind closed doors.

Bought for £15 at charity shop, I sanded it first, hoping that would be enough to reveal the lighter wood beneath, but it wasn’t there yet so I slathered on some paint st****er that had been congealing in the garage, hoping it was still good (it was), scraped that off, wiped it clean with some white spirits, sanded it again and finally oiled it with come clear wax.

I repurposed a pair of vintage curtains already hanging in the bathroom, altered them a bit and hung them inside the cabinet doors with net wire.

Hanging the cabinet on my own would’ve been challenging seeing as it’s quite big…so I enlisted the help of .m.k_creative who used the age old tapping method to find the wall studs and added some spacers behind the cabinet because there was a raised strip of wood on the back that stopped it laying flush against the wall.

We intentionally hung it upside down because the bottom had damage that I didn’t want to see when I was laying in the bath looking up at it.

Years ago I would’ve painted this cabinet, but these days I prefer a natural wood finish and I love how it turned out. More than that, I’m so happy to consolidate all the bathroom products in one place instead of them looking messy on window sills or piled into boxes in the linen cupboard. More than THAT I love that it cost next to nothing and looks bloody gorgeous.

Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. Well then. I love rummaging, rearranging/reorganising ro...
12/02/2026

Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Well then. I love rummaging, rearranging/reorganising rooms, making stuff, writing, designing spaces, house snooping, fixing up, buying, selling, styling…

Some of it I get paid for in £££, some in satisfaction and happiness. Not exactly what the high school careers counsellor suggested, but it rarely feels like work.

As my boyfriend rightly said when I tagged along with him to an old plastics factory that was shutting down and selling off all their stuff: while digging through piles of ‘junk’ I was like a pig in s**t.

As more jobs - creative and others - are being made redundant by AI, leaning into what is ACTUALLY real and tangible IRL feels like the only way forward.

Creativity, connection, community.

Create spaces where people want to linger, make objects and art people will cherish, write words with soul that humans want to read, be moved by music composed by people with emotions, rummage for and reuse things made by people, so that their effort doesn’t go to waste. Keep on creating. It sounds naive and I’m not in denial, but I’m not willing to give it up so easily, all these things I love.

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