Michaela Strachan: 'We often use bath water to flush the toilet'

Gemma Calvert

January 20, 2025 at 11:11 a.m.·9 min read

michaela strachan sitting outside — My Happy Home: Michaela Strachan Pat Mckeeman - BBC

My Happy Home: Wildlife TV presenter and Dancing On Ice star Michaela Strachan talks to House Beautiful about her passion for the imperfect and upcycling 20-year-old curtains.

Michaela rose to fame in the 1980s presenting kids' TV shows, Wide Awake Club alongside Timmy Mallett, Boogie Box, and The Really Wild Show. She hosted BBC One's Countryfile until 2009 and now co-presents the channel's Springwatch and Winterwatch alongside Chris Packham.

Before her TV career, Michaela started in theatre and had a brief pop career with her song, Take Good Care of My Heart, reaching number 66 on the charts in 1990.

Michaela is a breast cancer survivor after having a double mastectomy in October 2014.

Currently starring on Dancing On Ice's 17th series, Michaela lives in Cape Town, South Africa, with her cameraman and producer partner of 22 years, Nick Chevallier. They share a 19-year-old son, Ollie, three stepchildren and a dog, Rio.

Describe your home

MS: I've travelled all my life so my home is my stability and my security. I moved to South Africa 22 years ago and my partner Nick and I live on the slopes of Table Mountain National Park. I definitely have a foot in both continents but I still think of home as the UK. Someone once told me that home is usually where you were schooled, which for me is Esher in Surrey.

table mountain national park — **Table Mountain National Park** Siegfried Layda - Getty Images

What makes you happiest at home?

MS: Little things. I can't tell you what joy I feel when I'm on the beach watching my dog Rio run around. The beach is a five-minute drive from our house, which is a spacious, Mediterranean-style home with big rooms and big windows. It's absolutely hopeless in the winter and has been letting in a lot of water this year so while it's lovely to have a nice, roomy house, it needs a lot of work!

Tell us about your childhood home

MS: A real 1970s house in Hinchley Wood, Surrey. It had orange floral wallpaper, orange carpets and velour everywhere — incredibly fashionable at the time but, looking back, really quite hideous!

We had a bar with barstools, a kitchen hatch into the dining room and at the bottom of our garden was an orchard with apple trees, a nice pond and bird feeders. We spent a lot of time there.

Describe your dinner party style

MS: We have the most amazing oblong, wooden farmhouse table in our dining room with four church pews, which can seat 14 people. My ex-mother-in-law found them being advertised, long before eBay. We drove them back to Bristol, where I lived with my ex-husband, and then they came with me to Cape Town.

Whatever the occasion, I decorate the table the same way, with little wooden elephants, which Nick has picked up during his work trips to Kenya. We've got a whole herd! I also put out African candle holders and table mats.

Everything on my mother's dining table matched beautifully whereas I'm more casual. I've rebelled! We don't even have a set of wine glasses. We've got two matching and I quite like that.

When you get home what is the first thing you like to do?

MS: Say hello to Rio. It doesn't matter if I've been away for a day or two months, I get the same excited reception. Her bum wiggles so much I think she's going to dislocate it.

michaela with springwatch co presenter, chris packham — **Michaela with Springwatch co-presenter, Chris Packham** Pat Mckeeman - BBC

What is your favourite room in the house?

MS: Our patio because of the view. The house looks down onto Hout Bay Harbour with mountains on three sides of us. We're on a cape and sometimes get dramatic weather so you can watch cloud formations, the sun or the rain. We're so lucky because the sun sets in a V in the mountains, which can be absolutely stunning.

Describe your decorating style

MS: Different from what it was. I used to love bright colours. In my old place in Cape Town, which was much smaller, one room was pink and one was yellow. Those colours would be a bit imposing in a roomier home so I now tend to choose earthy colours like beige, green and orange.

What's the design trend you're least likely to follow?

MS: Grey. I like it when I go into a hotel room but I definitely wouldn't paint anything grey in my home. Plain white isn't me either. I like warm or bright colours.

What would we find on your bedside table?

MS: A tub of Arnica to treat my Dancing On Ice bruises, a picture of me and Nick from our younger days and my Kindle. I was a real book person before my eyes stopped being so good. Now, thanks to the Kindle, I can read at night if I wake up.

I've just finished The Orphan Sky by Ella Laya, which is based in Azerbaijan. I read it because I was supposed to be filming in Azerbaijan for BBC World News but it got cancelled at the last minute because we didn't get our accreditation!

What's the best home bargain you've ever snapped up?

MS: When we bought the house 19 years ago, I inherited lots of curtains. They're really grotty now so I recently decided to dye a pair. They were a dirty cream and are now an earthy green colour. They're not perfect but I don't mind. Non-perfect tells a story!

michaela presenting the superdogs showcase at the national pet show in 2019 — **Michaela presenting the SuperDogs showcase at the National Pet Show in 2019** Katja Ogrin - Getty Images

And what's your biggest extravagance?

MS: Solar panels. For years in South Africa, we had load shedding — rationed electricity when demand exceeds supply.

Some days the electricity would switch off for two hours five times in 24 hours. We all learned to live with it, but it affected our life, particularly in winter when we were walking around with a head torch, couldn't put anything in the oven or microwave or have a shower because the borehole water supply runs on a pump.

For a while after our eight panels were fitted in 2023, we were smug solar panel owners but we've now not had load shedding for months! Obviously, though, solar panels are better for the environment.

Have you ever had a decorating disaster?

MS: After we decided to rent out the flatlet at the bottom of our drive. Just as our first prospective tenant was arriving to have a look, my cleaning lady ran up to me and said, 'Michaela, there's poo all over the floor!'. There was a plumbing blockage and sewage had come up through the toilet. It was all over the floor and seeping into the brand-new custom-made wooden bed. We had to fumigate the whole thing. It was disgusting!

pilgrimage the road through north wales,29 03 2024,3,michaela strachan,dorothea slate quarry, nantlle valley strictly embargoed not for publication until 0001 hrs on tuesday 19th march 2024,ctvc,production — **Michaela in the Dorothea Slate Quarry, Nantlle Valley, for the BBC’s Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales** BBC/CTVC - BBC

Do you collect anything?

MS: Pictures that tell stories of my travels. My favourite, on the wall between my lounge and kitchen, is of a tiger. We did a special for The Really Wild Show in India about a charity that was getting young artists from rural areas to paint pictures of tigers that were sold in Delhi. I bought one and every time I see it, it sparks memories of the trip.

Describe the view outside your window

MS: Lots of wild birds. Cape Town's World Of Birds animal sanctuary is nearby so they fly here for the food.

What would you buy as a housewarming gift?

MS: Something that can grow, that doesn't have material value — a plant to put in someone's house, a tree for the garden, or a pot of herbs. It's a present that keeps on giving.

Large Monstera (Swiss Cheese Plant)

£28.00 at marksandspencer.com

What is your favourite object from your travels?

MS: A wooden giraffe I got when I was filming in South Africa before I moved there. After the flight back to London, it came out of the hold in two pieces, then the head fell off and the nose cracked! Now it's back in South Africa, glued back together, with gaffer tape around the neck and an interesting story to tell.

Are you green-fingered?

MS: I would and wouldn't describe myself as green-fingered. For a long time, I had a vegetable garden, which I stopped during the drought [between 2015 and 2018] and never rebuilt because I was away too much to manage it. I'm not particularly green-fingered with plants because, again, I'm just not here enough.

George Clarke

Read now: The Amazing Spaces presenter tells us about his mirror-hanging disaster.

Lydia Millen

AJ Odudu

Photo credit: Scott Garfitt - Getty Images

Describe your perfect Sunday...

MS: If I'm home, up the mountain. It's where we de-stress, socialise and walk the dog.

If you could snoop around anyone's house, whose would it be?

MS: A brand new eco house to understand how it works. When you've bought a house, it's difficult to adapt it to make it as eco-friendly as possible. To start fresh must be brilliant. I'd find building a house the most stressful thing in the world but I'm intrigued to know how we, as humans, can live better.

This or That with Michaela Strachan...

Eat to live or live to eat? Eat to live. I'm not a foodie.

Quick shower or relaxing bath? Bath. It's not environmentally friendly so often we use bath water to flush the toilet.

TV in the kitchen? No!

Entertain or be entertained? Be entertained. Definitely.

Gadget guru or a technophobe? A little bit in between!

Get someone in or DIY? Get someone in. I'm just not good at it.

Hoarder or a declutterer? I hoard things that mean a lot to me, but I try to declutter.

Dancing on Ice airs every Sunday at 6.30pm on ITV

Follow House Beautiful on TikTok and Instagram.

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