has anyone had their home featured in an interiors magazine

[queenofpuddings]

was just wondering how to maybe get my home photographed for an interiors magazine

has anyone had any experience or know someone who has

many thanks in advance

Rhubarb - did you sound like twats? (sometimes I amuse myself when the renovations go wrong by imagining myself being quoted as saying twattish things in a magazine.) What kind of thing did they claim you said?

Ooh, I LOVE interiors magazines. I love how each one has their own demographic, their own style, their own cliches. I love the posh ones full of Copenhagen lofts with poured concrete floors, and the 'accessible' ones with lots of feature walls with metallic wallpaper, and the middly ones with knocked through kitchen-diners and 'boutique hotel style' bedrooms and mums talking about how great it is to be able to supervise their children doing homework while they prepare the dinner. And I love how limited they are, the houses fall into maybe five main categories, and 75% of them are in SW London or Ireland or Edinburgh.

I met one person who had her flat featured. She said they basically turned up with a removal van, took all her shit out, and put their own in. They even repainted some rooms. She loved the finished result, but said it certainly wasn't HER home.

My current house was in a mag just after we had refurbed it from wreck status about 5-6 years ago, when I was so relieved to have walls and a floor and actual inside loos that it all seemed marvellous and share-worthy. A photographer contacted me after I submitted some before and after pics to a magazine and it went from there. I don't know what possessed me - by the time the mag came out I was so embarrassed I wanted to go out and buy up every copy within a ten mile radius.. glad to say I was photographed amongst all my own furniture and standing up though!

We have a property business. Amongst our services are interior design and we have had several of our projects in mags because it's very good free marketing for us and can generate a lot of work.

The likes of Ideal Home and House Beautiful will respond to some photographs just emailed to the commissioning editor. Kitchens and bathrooms are very popular. The more upmarket magazines tend to be a bit snootier about features so we rely on relationships we've built up through PR and trade shows like Decorex, and only pitch full service projects to them so we don't undermine our credibility.

No magazine is interested in identikit 'good taste' interiors or typical floor plans - there has to be a design story of some kind and it needs to be quite glossy and aspirational, and avoid cliche. Even the mass market mags will turn up their noses at 1930s semis and new builds, unless you've done something brilliant with them. Many mags have a house style - Wallpaper is very different to Cheshire Life.

For security reasons, make sure your house is not identifiable from the feature. The trade will never admit to this, but it's very common for properties to be burgled soon after the magazine hits the shelves .