Inside Susannah Constantine's House! | Good Housekeeping UK

[Music] oh my goodness look who's here Good Housekeeping you are in West Sussex come into my home come and have a snoop around I want to show you some of my favorite [Music] things so you've now come into what we call our drawing room and I don't know where the word drawing room comes from was it kind of in the 19th century and earlier where people would painting I've got no idea and just before Christmas I had a moment of okay we're going to make this over and we had these horrible on the Windows behind us this sort of plastic double glazing and all these cobwebs behind it and dead wasps and insects everywhere and it didn't take much to turn it into this beautiful room because what I love about this room in particular is the light it's got the most incred in light it's so peaceful and and my dad um was an amazing collector of antiques he had an extraordinary eye so there's so many memories in this room of the Antiques that he's collected and I've been very very fortunate in that way to have these Exquisite pieces and we had our first Christmas in here and it was had a massive tree like a 10t tree I had to get on a very tall step ladder to get the Christmas decoration up and I was writing in this room this is where I'd write but now because I'm so greedy I'm always in the kitchen and food is near a hand um so yeah that's where we are welcome to my drawing [Music] room what I love about this house is that it feels like an extension of our family it's it's kind of the sixth member of our family and I feel like it's our protector where I grew up I grew up in leerer and like I said my father had this amazing taste it is similar in so much that I'm quite obsessed with symmetry so there's a fireplace there where everything is quite symmetrical the paintings are not so symmetrical and if that's because my husband hung them and did them really badly he's next door so I would prefer it to be even more symmetrical but is it has that kind of faded Elegance I suppose and I I don't like things to be too perfect which is how I grew up you know there were dogs coming and going and I I it's kind of Perfectly Imperfect this house the first memory of my childhood home I think was the kitchen because I'm so greedy I just remember that we had a ray bur in the kitchen and the house was always cold and it was a a sort of long low house uh it's called the prior but it was more like a farmhouse and I'd go into the kitchen and feel that warmth and we had this amazing lady who was like a sarant mother to me called Mrs a and she was always in there and I love being in her company and it was all the senses that were evoked in that room so the sense of smell the sound of the the kettle going and just these amazing smells smells and sounds and those two things probably evoke more memories than anything else you know I loved I had a pony called Dandy and he would be in Winter he'd come in to a stable and I treated him like a teddy bear I trusted I had quite a complicated upbringing because my mom was um very severely bipolar and um I kind of think I really trusted animals more than I did people because they were more reliable and they couldn't answer back so I'd kind of create these conversations I could give the pony Dandy speech I could give him the power of speech and he'd tell me that he loved me and he'd ask me if I was hungry and and that was an extraordinary gift that this animal gave [Music] me [Music] I do really enjoy cooking and this is this is the the room in the house that I feel is mine it's the one place where I can tell everyone to get the hell out it's got everything I need you know I I could I could move into this room and even I just do a flannel wash in the sink that's fine I don't need anything else in my life if I could live one day when I'm old we move into a house that just is a big kitchen and a couple of sofas I'd be happy this I love I don't know I'm sure you've got things that your children have made I mean that isn't it just literally the ugliest thing you've ever seen in your life but it's made by CCE my youngest daughter and it is so practical and the reason I still got it is obviously for sentimental reasons but I use it and I've used it so she was about five when she made this it's still here and that's my kitchen roll and I absolutely bloody love it it's so sweet so i' got twiglets got my Apple all a bit un tidy but there are bigger battles to fight aren't there these are this triptic I think is the professional word of my son when he was 6 months old and I just love this look the little dribble coming out almost about to cry and then that beautifully shaped head and these were taken by an ex-boyfriend of mine called Edward Maple thought Joe was his first little model when he was 6 months old don't he's so sweet look at him wish he was like that [Music] now the prior again and I'm just thinking about this now it it in the same way this house is the protector the prior was the protector too because you know my poor mother I'd never know how she was going to be from one day to the next whether she was going to be on a high or low she tried to commit Su suicide multiple times but the prior was always constant and you know yes I was incredibly fortunate to have grown up in such privilege you know my father worked we were never short of money but emotionally it was a different story and I'm sure so many of you will identify with that and in the same way as alcoholism which you know I'm a recovering alcoholic you you know it doesn't bypass people who have wealth and privilege it can happen to anyone and it happened to me and that's the same way with you know having a difficult troubled childhood when I look back at my mom you know and I think about her I've never felt any anger towards her I've never felt any resentment I've never i' I've only I only ever look at her with huge amount of love because I knew it was there and I understood very from a very young age that it wasn't her it was the illness that was creating this emotional Mayhem and also I'm actually very grateful for it because I'd wake up in the morning have anxiety which I still do but it allowed me and taught me to live in the present because I never knew how each day was going to be so I'd capture the moment and sit with it because it's what I understood it's how I coped and so why the movie Forward today it's how I leave my life I never look back the first time I looked back was writing my Memoir and there were so many moments of oh my God I can't believe that oh my God because I'd wipe them from my mind and and not because they were bad or especially good it's just how I how I am and I'm not very worried about the future so that is a tremend mendous gift to have been given and for that I will always be great grateful to my darling [Music] Mom so one of the things I always loved at the prior um was this painting and it's of my mom painted by my by my dad and my dad this is kind of quite an early one so I think I think this must have been painted in the kind of 60s although there are very few Strokes used you it's painted in pastel it couldn't it is my mother I mean my father has captured my mother so well the way he's done the sheets and the light and I have this by my bed so when I wake up in the morning it's the first thing I see and it kind of also shows that the despite my mom she was very much trophy wife for my dad she very very beautiful but you can see the tenderness of my dad towards her and then I have a representation of my other parent and that is my favorite Christmas bble of Elton John this is probably about 30 years old now limited edition and he's a man I've known for 40 years now I just love it it's so much fun it's so joyous it's you know I've got so many memories of our friendship which are in this little bble would I rather cook for friends or eat out definitely cook for friends definitely my kitchen covered must halves art Bal butter um whole milk rude Health coconut drink French mustard cheese mulas twiglets salt and vinegar snacker Jacks peanuts Dr car spelt biscuits hummus do you want me to stop ooh my best store covered recipe is a good one it's not totally store covered you need some l but then you need red currant jelly Rosemary we have some growing in the garden Rosemary garlic soy sauce you put it in a mixer and you go and then you marinate the lamb chops in that delicious sauce fry them up um and then you flash fry them to Brown them put them in the oven and then serve back with homemade readymade mashed potato and French beans delicious my favorite household task is probably Building A Fire my least favorite household chore is putting duvet covers on a duvet my favorite household Gadget is without question a vitamic it you could put a mini car in there and it would turn it into a smoothie it's so powerful I don't mind cleaning I find it quite cathartic and I think my best cleaning hack is associated with clothes and that's putting so if an item of clothing gets a bad stain on it I put a bit of toothpaste on it takes it out this can you believe is by my eldest daughter Esme and she did it quite a while ago and it just is such a representative of her you got Kurt Cain Joey Essex a few expletives but it's this kind of creative Madness that is EZ and um I just love all the colors and it's it's so decorative and Powerful she's a good little Artist as okay this is actually another of my favorite rooms look my clothes bought that the other day haven't worn it once um but I just love the color of this wallpaper and my mom would have loved this room too she would have absolutely loved it sadly she never got to see it and then here I've got all trin's products bit untidy but you know and then this stuff I have to actually just say there's um a friend of mine called Victoria ker and she makes the best scented candles that were downstairs and now she's just done body lotion and bath gel and it I swear to God it smells so amazing and it goes on like velvet but um and that bath it's just such a lovely feeling when you come in this is like probably the only room in the house that is kind of interior designed and I love it and then if you follow me this way just so you don't kind of get the wrong idea my house is not perfect so I'm just going to show you the reality okay there's my favorite place in the room there's bit of damp on the wall down at the end there which is hidden by the painting of my mom so that's where I wake up all steen's clothes getting he's just come back from a work trip fly spray because we get all those horrible you know those sort of invasive little ladybird things they come in so they're sprayed so it's you know it's very shabby a little bit sheet but mostly shabby

Channel: Good Housekeeping UK

Views: 96,407

Keywords: Good Housekeeping, DIY, How to, Tips, Tricks, Lifehacks, Home, Lifestyle, Women, Easy, Quick, Food, Cooking, Beauty, Family, susannah Constantine, trinny, celebrity, trinny and susannah, house tour, celebrity house tour

Id: PEKq8TWG5a8

Length: 14min 35sec (875 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2024