About us

A warm living room with a grey sofa, leather pouffes and a wooden coffee table

How it began

A cold terrace, a pot of tea and far too many paint charts

Live Providence started life as a notebook. Harriet had just bought a two-up two-down Victorian terrace with original cornicing, a chimney breast in every room and absolutely no insulation. Every weekend brought a new question: Should we keep the picture rail? Why is the bay window always damp? What colour works in a north-facing hallway?

The answers — some learned the hard way — became the first posts. Rowan, a friend from the Sunday car boot circuit with a gift for rescuing tired furniture, joined soon after. Today we publish a new long-read every week and the journal holds 20 stories, with many more on the way.

Our name is our philosophy. Providence is the old English virtue of looking ahead and taking care: mending rather than replacing, warming a house before winter arrives, choosing things that will still be loved in twenty years. Live is the other half — a home is for living in, not for keeping perfect. Live well, plan kindly: that’s the whole idea.

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What we believe

Three principles behind every story we publish.

Real homes, real budgets

Most of us rent, live in older houses or decorate a room at a time. We write for real British homes — with real constraints — not for show homes.

Honest and independent

We only recommend what we would use ourselves. When a story contains affiliate links or a partnership, we say so clearly. Read our editorial policy.

Make do, mend, enjoy

Second-hand first, quality over quantity, and a great deal of joy in a well-mended armchair, a jar of foraged twigs or a freshly painted door.

The team

Who writes the journal

Founder & Editor

Harriet

Harriet has lived in a Victorian terrace, a 1930s semi and a draughty Cornish cottage, and has painted every one of them at least twice. She writes about colour, comfort and the small rituals that make a house feel like home.

Contributing Editor — Restoration & Practical Home

Rowan

Rowan is happiest at a Sunday car boot at 7am with a flask of tea. A self-taught restorer, Rowan covers second-hand finds, DIY, damp, draughts and every unglamorous job that makes a home work.

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