John Sankey

There comes a point in almost every clear-out when the easy decisions have already been made. The clothes nobody wears have gone into bags. The broken things have finally been thrown away. The drawers are beginning to close properly again.

Then somebody picks up something that appears to have almost no value at all, and quietly puts it back.

It might be something made by a child years ago. A photograph that has followed the family through several houses. An object nobody particularly remembers buying. Its usefulness may have disappeared long ago. That does not seem to help when somebody suggests getting rid of it.

Season Two of Sankey Sunday began with a question about how a home is made. Over the weeks since, we have looked at rooms, choices, habits, furniture and the ordinary things people gather around themselves. But much of what eventually matters seems to happen after those decisions have been made.

Issue 015 is about what time does to the things that stay — and it brings The Making of Home to a close.

What's the thing in your house that nobody is allowed to throw away?

Continue reading https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/why-we-keep-some-things-forever-2/

Matching and belonging are not quite the same thing.

An inherited chair beside a newer sofa. A painting that introduces a colour found nowhere else. Something loved enough to bring home despite everybody else's uncertainty.

This week's Rare Access story considers the things that do not quite match, but somehow make the room feel more like home.

Discover The Things That Don't Quite Match:
https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/the-things-that-dont-quite-match/

Scott Bell has been upholstering furniture for 26 years.

That is long enough to learn almost everything you might reasonably expect an upholsterer to know. It is also long enough to discover that artificial grass is surprisingly good at hiding staples.

Meet Scott in this week's Sankey Special.

Read Artificial Grass, Staple Guns And Bad Music:
https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/artificial-grass-staple-guns-and-bad-music/

The most personal homes contain things nobody else would completely understand.

Not because they are especially valuable, but because the people who live there know why they matter.

This is the story of the Presbytery, an unexpected decision and nearly nineteen years spent creating a home that could belong to nobody else.

Read the story:
https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/a-home-that-could-belong-to-nobody-else/

A house learns its people slowly.

Temporary decisions become permanent. Awkward furniture becomes indispensable. The things that never quite fitted begin to shape how the home works.

Sometimes a house becomes truly yours not when everything is finished, but when life has had enough time to rearrange it.

Read How A House Learns Its People:
https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/how-a-house-learns-its-people/

There is probably something in your home that you would never have chosen.

A picture. A chair. An ornament. Something one person loves while everybody else quietly rolls their eyes.

But what would the room feel like if it disappeared?

The Things We Make Room For is about the objects that belong because they matter to someone we love.

Read the story:
https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/the-things-nobody-else-would-choose/

What do you remember about a home you knew well?

Probably not every wall, curtain or colour. More often, it is the drawer that always stuck, the clock that ran fast or the chair everyone knew belonged to one person.

In the opening story from Sankey Sunday Issue 014, we explore why memory gives importance to the smallest, most peculiar details.

Read The Homes We Remember Most:
https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/the-homes-we-remember-most/

Three Orwells, brought together to answer a question interiors people ask constantly: can stripes and plains share a room?
A Grand Sofa in Lady Ottoline Cornflower, a Large Sofa in Cosy Threads Husk, a 150cm Loveseat in Blanket Stripe Navy. Each is available now.
Explore Rare Access — https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/rare-access/

He looked at around fifty houses before he bought one. Not listings glanced at online — homes considered seriously enough to go and see.
By house thirty or forty, he wasn't looking at more houses. He was learning what mattered.
Read the Story → https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/would-you-choose-it-again/

Some pieces are chosen twice. Once by the maker, and once again by a camera.
This Gibson was selected to sit in a photography shoot — a plain weave chosen precisely because it let the chair's shape do the talking. Fully sprung seat, hand-buttoned back, Antique Oak legs.
It is available now through Rare Access.
Explore Rare Access — https://www.johnsankey.co.uk/product/gibson-chair-ferrar-dijon/