Home Life — Nina Noir

A sunlit bedroom corner with a wooden chest of drawers topped by a trailing plant, a woven basket, sheer curtains at an open window and a rug on wooden floorboards.

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How to get rid of a musty smell in a room

A musty room is a moisture problem disguised as a smell. Find the source, dry the room out, deal with fabrics, and know when…

9 October 2026

An unmade bed with a rumpled white duvet and a navy cushion, beside a wooden bedside table with a lamp and a vase of greenery, in daylight from a window.

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Should you make your bed every day?

The dust-mite case for an unmade bed is weaker than the headlines suggest, and so is the case for hospital corners as a life…

6 October 2026

Two lit candles in clear glass jars on a dark wooden table at dusk: the one on the left has burned a deep tunnel down its centre, leaving high walls of unmelted wax, while the one on the right has an even pool of melted wax.

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Why your candle is tunnelling, and how to fix it

A tunnelling candle wastes most of its wax. Why it happens, how to burn a candle properly from the first night, what can be…

4 October 2026

An open pale-wood wardrobe beside an open window, with shirts spaced on wooden hangers, folded linen, and a bowl of white powder and a cotton sachet on a shelf.

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How to get rid of a musty smell in your wardrobe

The stale smell is a sign of moisture and still air, not a lack of fragrance. How to clear it properly, keep it away,…

2 October 2026

A living-room corner with a framed print leaning on a sideboard, a floor lamp, a rug over laminate and a throw on an armchair.

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How to make a rental feel like home without losing your deposit

You can make a rented home unmistakably yours without a single drill hole. What to change, what to ask first, and how to leave…

30 September 2026

Folded white duvets on a wooden bench beside a stack of pillows and folded bedding, with a linen cupboard behind.

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How to choose a duvet: tog, filling and size explained

Most of us use one every night and replace it almost never. What the tog, the filling and the size really tell you.

29 September 2026

A living room with a laundry basket full of hastily gathered things, a jumper, envelopes, a mug and a trainer, and a vacuum cleaner standing on the rug.

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Why do we tidy up before the cleaner comes?

Plenty of people clean before the person they pay to clean arrives. It says a lot about who a home is performed for.

29 September 2026

A sculptural oxblood velvet armchair in a bright living room.

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On buying the chair I could not justify

I walked past it four times before I bought it. On taste, money, the ridiculous sums we do to make wanting things respectable, and…

30 July 2026

A deep, wide sofa in a calm, spacious living room.

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I built a home that does not ask me to shrink

Most rooms are designed with an assumed body in mind, and it is not mine. On chairs, doorways, mirrors, and making a space that…

22 July 2026

A pot simmering on an old stove in a rustic kitchen with herbs and a wooden spoon.

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What my grandmother’s kitchen taught me about taking my time

She cooked by looking, never by timing. What a kitchen teaches about attention, repetition and the things that flatly refuse to be hurried, including…

22 July 2026

A cat asleep on a soft wool throw draped over a sofa.

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Softness is not laziness

Rest has been quietly recategorised as a moral failure, and comfort as something you earn. I would like to formally decline both of those…

16 July 2026