How telling your story through your home helps you reconnect with yourself: in conversation with artist and home stylist Java Bere
Java Bere is a writer, artist, table and home stylist. Together with her partner Jon, their two boys, and a cat called Nutmeg, she lives in a gorgeous Hebden Bridge (West Yorkshire) family home that is full of character and filled with stories. The stories told through that home represent and are inspired by their life together but also Java’s upbringing: She grew up between London, Scotland, France, and Spain, finally ending up in Manchester for fifteen years, where she worked as an actress and later as a theatre agent. All those glorious places shaped her as a person as well as her current work and aesthetic. In this interview she talks about the importance and magic of storytelling in one’s own four walls—and she shares more details on her upcoming two-week workshop “Tell the Story of Your Home.”
What does home mean to you?
Home to me is somewhere I can feel at peace, safe and inspired to create. I have made a home everywhere I have lived, whether it be the little attic I lived in a five story Victorian house, a scruffy ex-council house in Manchester and an old chicken shed in the depths of the Languedoc, France.
What are 3 of the most important pieces in your home and why?
The first one is a large painting of Javanese cows. My mum painted it when she was pregnant with me and had just returned from Java in Indonesia. It has pride of place on the wall in my work room and is a reminder of her creativity both as a mother and an artist.
The second important piece in our house is my desk where I sit and work most days. We were in a charity shop when I was pregnant with our first child and I found a collection of bluey/green pieces of wood and drawers that appeared to make up a desk. I bought it for £8, took it home and rebuilt it with my partner Jon. When we lost our daughter a few months later, the desk was a huge source of comfort for me.
Last but not least, a 1960's blue cabinet in the kitchen where we store all the kid's art materials. I found it on the kerbside in Manchester when my partner Jon and I had not long been seeing each other. I ran back home and asked him to carry it home with me, the first of many a time I would do this. It has since travelled to France, Spain, Wales and now Yorkshire with us. I love that it reminds me of the early days of our relationship, of every home we have lived in, and now, seeing the boys opening the doors to create drawings and paintings each day.
The Javanese cow painting by Java’s mum and Java’s blue desk
Why do you feel that telling a story through your home is important?
I find that telling your story through your environment can help open up every aspect of your life: your relationship with yourself and others, creativity and hopes and dreams. It can be an anchor for making our inner self feel stronger, more grounded, inspired. Vastly beyond what we may think it could be. I see it as expressing ourselves in a visually poetic, without barriers, external expectations or pretences, which is incredibly grounding and empowering.
It can be so easy to lose ourselves in our day to day lives, and what we sometimes think we should or should not be doing. Where we sleep, eat, love, work, socialise and relax is an important core to keep coming back to: it represents our emotions, hopes and dreams. The foundations of who we are.
Java and Jon’s bedroom in their Hebden Bridge home
How did your journey of "home styling" begin?
As a child I would endlessly create little homes for imaginary mice friends, or Borrowers, who I was convinced were real. My Barbies also had an entire block of flats made out of cardboard boxes, styled in different themes.
My mum worked as an interior designer for many years, in commercial spaces as well as private homes, so conversations around light, space and texture were a daily thing in our house. I was very aware of my environment and naturally styled whichever space I found myself in. I spent my childhood on jobs with her, and then, as I grew older, I became her assistant.
I started to realise that what I found easy and instinctive (styling a space), wasn't the same case with everyone.
Seven years ago we moved to Yorkshire and renovated our 'first' house. I began to share the journey on Instagram and quickly gained an audience. I shared our ideas, our progress, corners of our home that changed with the seasons, and people started asking for styling tips and ideas. I have since hosted styling workshops, styled tablescapes for retreats, workshops and weddings and worked with private clients on how to tell the story of their home with a deep dive into their loves, life story and tastes.
The family kitchen
You recently launched your online workshop "Tell the Story of Your Home". What was the inspiration for it? When does it start, what's the format you've chosen for it, and what can people learn and take away from it?
A lot of the illustration, photography and writing I do is around ritual, kitchen life and celebrating the every day. The core of it all is the story. Plain 'styling' has never been particularly interesting to me. Don't get me wrong, I deeply appreciate a harmoniously styled space, but I find it even more interesting and beautiful if I can see a story woven through it for me to follow.
People often ask me, how do you create the magic in your home? So I decided to write a workshop where I could help guide others in finding their own magic, creating the space that reflects their inner worlds and loves.
The workshop is running between the 13th and 26th of January, perfect for refreshing your energy and focus when it comes to the home. Each person will have a 30 minute 1-2-1 zoom consultation with me at the beginning and at the end of the workshop. This will help clarify vision and objectives and identify any particular sticking points. There will then be Monday - Friday emails with creative prompts, inspiration and workbook material. There will also be a private facebook group for members to share their progress, thoughts and challenges.
What you will come away with:
A guide of straightforward and effective styling techniques to make your style flourish.
A fresh perspective on your space and how to use it.
The confidence to experiment and be playful in your home.
A clarity to identify the SPARK that triggers the creativity and light in your life.
A refreshed energy for your home in the new year.
A deeper sense of self.
A method for mining your own stories and life, to tell the story of your home.
A new community of like minded people. Passionate about making their home into a multi-layered, creative, joyous place to be.
Two thirty minute one-to-one zoom consultations with me
A fun, creative experience that will encourage you to delve into everything that you love.
Table and home styling by Java Bere
How can people connect with you?
You can find me on instagram @javabere and on Substack as Java Ceridwen Bere (@javacbere) where I post on my publication A Kitchen Notebook. You can also find my website javabere.co.uk or email me at hello@javabere.co.uk
What are 3 things that make you feel heiter?
1. My morning walks through the forest and fields around our Yorskhire town after dropping my two sons off at school.
2. Laying a table with linens, candles and well worn crockery before my partner serves up a meal (he cooks the food, while I eat it, draw it and write about it).
3. Curling up in between clean sheets on a dark winter night, with a perilously high stack of booksand a steaming mug of redbush tea next to me.
Interview by Katharina Geissler-Evans, heiter
Images by Java Bere – the images of Java’s home were first published in Homecoming, heiter 2, that is available now.
