A Seasonal Spring Home: In Conversation with Slow Living LDN

It’s April and that can only mean one thing; it’s time for a Spring home refresh. But at Leisurely we think there’s much more to be gained than just sprucing up your home décor. Marking the seasons in the home can help you set intentions, get in tune with nature, and focus on the things that are most important to you.

We spoke to seasonal and slow living expert Beth Crane of Slow Living LDN to find out more about how to bring Spring into the home, and how to benefit from this most energetic of seasons.

Read on to find out how she turned her experience of burnout into a more considered and sustainable way of life, and her top tips for the spring home, with everything from spring home fragrances, to local blooms, and how going slow can help you make the changes you desire most in life.

Tell us about Slow Living LDN, what’s the inspiration behind your work?

After experiencing burnout whilst living in London, I remember thinking ‘there must be a better way’. Initially, Slow Living LDN was a personal project to help me refocus on my well-being and live with more intention, but I soon realised the slow movement aligned really well to my own values and I wanted to share the concept with others.

Today, the mission of Slow Living LDN. is to inspire more people to live better, not faster and explore the benefits of a slower, more seasonal and considered lifestyle.

What does Slow Living mean to you, and what are the benefits you experience from the approach?

At Slow Living LDN, we believe slow living is a mindset whereby you curate a more meaningful and conscious lifestyle that’s in line with what you value most in life. By slowing down to live in more self-awareness, I can spot when I’m not prioritisng what’s important to me and am better able to step back and make a change. I love this quote from Brooke McAlary’s book SLOW: “This isn’t a race with a start and finish line. This is slow, imperfect, intentional and evolving.” It’s a good reminder that life isn’t static, and sometimes we’ll have to work harder to bring ourselves back to our slow living mindset or values.

“By slowing down to live in more self-awareness, I can spot when I’m not prioritisng what’s important to me”

Do you have any tips for marking the changing seasons in the home? Or any rituals?

Embracing seasonal shifts at home is a great way to bring the outdoors in and foster a deeper connection with nature. These shifts can be subtle, such as bringing in vases of seasonal flowers, or changing the fragrances in your home to match the scents of the season. Or they can be more thorough, such as swapping in lighter textiles during the Summer, in place of heavier fabrics that kept us warm and cosy in the Winter. In Spring and Summer, I always have fresh British or homegrown flowers around the house. It’s my favourite weekend ritual to pick these from my small cutting patch, or buy them locally, and arrange them in vases and vintage bottles.

What are your top tips for the Spring home?

In colour psychology, green means harmony, rest, balance and growth. Bring some green into your home to usher in that feeling of new growth and rejuvenation. I love to add pots of hyacinths or narcissi, as these will last for weeks.

We can become desensitised to our surroundings, so Spring is also a great time to shuffle a few shelves or move around a piece of furniture or two.

What are your favourite seasonal highlights of Spring?

There’s nothing more exciting than Spring bulbs bursting into bloom. Many are planted in November, and spend the Winter developing their root systems and gathering energy underground. Much like those of us who go into hibernation mode in the colder months! It’s so uplifting to see the green shoots appear and it feels like the ultimate prize when they flower.

From wild garlic to asparagus, there’s also lots to look forward to when it comes to seasonal ingredients, some of which, like these two examples, are only around for a short period. I love to think of new ways to enjoy them.

What are your top slow living tips for anyone, no matter the location?

It doesn’t matter where you live, because slow living is about what a life well lived means to you as an individual. It means doing everything at the right speed, switching off auto-pilot, and making conscious decisions for your own well-being and that of the planet.

Lots of the advice around slow living often includes tips for what we like to call ‘everyday deceleration’ or actions you can take to slow down during your day, such as logging off from social media and technology regularly. These tips are important, but such guides often forget the ‘why’. Why are you seeking slow? For lasting lifestyle change, you have to put the work in to understand how you want to live, what’s important to you, and what’s making it difficult right now. You have to spend some time shaping your own slow living mindset.

“For lasting lifestyle change, you have to put the work in to understand how you want to live, what’s important to you, and what’s making it difficult right now”

Where would you recommend people to go to find out more about seasonality?

For supporting slow flowers, I’d take a look at Flowers from the Farm, a community of UK flower growers. When it comes to seasonal eating, there’s Slow Food UK and Love British Food. And of course, we curate inspiring seasonal stories and thoughts at slowlivingldn.com.

You can hear more from Beth and her approach to seasonal, slow living at www.slowlivingldn.com or find her on Instagram.