Julia Bradbury: 'My £10 Mexican skulls look great on my bookshelf'
My Happy Home: TV presenter Julia Bradbury talks to House Beautiful about her favourite room, Mexican skulls, and the tree that became 'a friend' during her breast cancer recovery.
Julia is a presenter, author, nature advocate, charity campaigner and cancer survivor. Her impressive career has seen her present shows including Countryfile, Top Gear, Watchdog, Planet Earth Live, The Wonder of Britain, and Britain's Best Walks.
She also runs a website with her sister, The Outdoor Guide, to make the outdoors more accessible. On the back of this, the sisters launched The Outdoor Guide Foundation, raising money to donate outdoor kits to primary schools.
Following her cancer diagnosis and surgery, Julia has dedicated much of her time to healthy living and nature therapy. She has documented this in her new book, Walk Yourself Happy: Find your path to health and healing in nature.
Julia lives in west London with her husband and three children.
What makes you happiest at home?
JB: Home is where my family lives. I have three children – Zephyr and twin girls, Xanthe and Zena – and it's a place where we can all be together, eat together, laugh together, cry together.
We live in London because it's convenient — for my work, my partner Gerard's work (he's a property developer) and the kids' schools. I've always enjoyed living here but I'm just beginning to consider whether it's the right place to bring up children.
Tell us about your childhood home
JB: My childhood home was idyllic, peaceful and loving. I grew up in a quaint village in Rutland, the smallest county in England, in a 400-year-old rectory next to a church.
What is the first thing you do when you get home?
JB: Take my shoes off – ours is a shoe-off house – and put on socks, slippers or Birkenstock sandals. Our kitchen has a polished concrete floor and it's really cold when I'm cooking.
What is your favourite room in the house?
JB: My favourite room in the house is my bathroom. It's got a big sash window overlooking the garden, which is where I spend every morning doing my breathwork.
What would we find on your bedside table?
JB: Lots of books, blue-light-blocking glasses on a moustache-shaped sunglasses holder and magnesium glycinate tablets that I take to help with sleep.
What's the best home bargain you've ever snapped up?
JB: A couple of Mexican skulls, one blue, one pink, from Guadalajara airport. They cost about £10 and were full of chewy sweets. They look great on my bookshelf.
And what's your biggest extravagance?
JB: A massive stone Buddha, which I bought for about £500 when travelling in Bali 20 years ago. It's absolutely beautiful.
Describe your decorating style
JB: My decorating style is a mix of modern and traditional. We've got limestone floors and glass balconies, for example.
Have you ever had a decorating disaster?
JB: A cobalt blue mosaic-tiled bathroom I had during my early days in London. I loved it at the time but I wouldn't have that again today.
Do you collect anything?
JB: I love to collect beautiful glass, crystal or wooden objects. I'm turned on by texture. Gerard's sister Mary bought me a piece of fossilised tree. It's from an Irish bog — curvy, smooth and weathered by time. It's wonderful.
Describe the view outside your window
JB: A mature London plane tree. During my breast cancer recovery, it became my friend and I spoke to it and expressed my gratitude as I got stronger.
What would you buy as a housewarming gift?
JB: A good chopping board. It's always a safe bet.
If you could snoop around anyone's house, whose would it be?
JB: The late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid's. I adore her designs and style. All those curves and ergonomic shapes make my heart sing.
What is your dinner party aesthetic?
JB: Rather than dinner parties, we tend to do larger gatherings, for special birthdays or bonfire nights, for example. People will pile in, we'll prepare a big spaghetti bolognese or a chilli with salads, vegetables and some chocolate mousse for everyone to help themselves to.
Where do you shop for the best homeware?
JB: My favourite homeware store is The Conran Shop. We just bought the girls new bunkbeds and I wanted them to have been made using water-based paint and be as natural as possible. I got mattresses and bedlinen from Woolroom, because they're chemical-free too. That's what I look for in furniture and homeware.
What design trend are you least likely to follow?
JB: Anything floral, Laura Ashley vibe.
Are you green fingered?
JB: I love nature and everything involved with gardening, but some people have a magic ability to get plants to flower almost overnight and I can't do that.
Describe your perfect Sunday...
JB: In bed with my kids, either listening to music, bouncing on the bed, or reading together and swapping stories.
This or that with Julia Bradbury...
Eat to live or live to eat? I eat to live because with every morsel you're contributing to your body. But I live to eat because I really enjoy eating healthy food.
Quick shower or a relaxing bath? A quick shower followed by a blast of cold water a few times a week.
TV in the kitchen: Yes or no? Yes, we have one.
Interior design: DIY or get someone in? I'll do what I can, then get someone in so it doesn't look like it's a hash job.
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