Where the Heart Is

If home is where the heart is, why do we neglect our domestic lives?

Amid unattainable interiors trends and a growing housing crisis, it's unsurprising that one in three people don't feel at home where they live, and only 56% experience joy there. Worse still, our feelings about home have a significant bearing on how we feel about ourselves.

The good news? Nothing has to change in our homes for them to feel like a completely different place.

Since 2017, Katie McCrory has led the annual IKEA Life at Home Report, identifying eight universal emotional states that create the ‘feeling of home’. Blending personal experience with this global research, and through clear advice and simple strategies, whether we rent or own, live solo or are growing a family, we learn to cultivate:

• comfort
• control
• security
• accomplishment
• belonging
• nurture
• enjoyment, and
• aspiration

From reframing our expectations to creating domestic ‘zones’ that help us accomplish our goals, this clarifying and compassionate roadmap empowers us to rethink our relationship with home, in order to transform our life.


'Will have you falling in love with your home all over again, without having to lift a paintbrush or a hammer' Penny Wincer

'I absolutely love this book. Understanding the emotional quotient of the places we live is everything to do with feeling at home' Michelle Ogundehin

'There is both solidarity and action to be gleaned and you will come away feeling both validated and motivated. Katherine Ormerod