Maxine Brady spent 27 years deciding which homes made it into the pages of the interiors magazines. Then she renovated her own Brighton cottage through exactly that lens. Here is what a location house looks like when it is designed by someone who has spent a career shooting in them.
The White Company. House Beautiful. IKEA. The Sunday Times. Multiple TV productions. Maxine Brady has styled them all, and she has the impounded courier van story to prove it. A conversation about craft, crisis management and why the client should never see the chaos.
Maxine Brady has stood on both sides of the front door: as the stylist choosing the location, and as the Host handing over the keys. Her advice for Hosts is warm, specific and occasionally bracing. Start with the crew, she says. Then leave them alone.
A practical guide for brands and businesses on capturing behind the scenes content – and why this kind of content is having a moment. Behind the scenes content is the cheapest content you will ever produce, because you have already paid for it. Here is how to stop leaving it on the floor.
Process is proof. When someone books a photographer, a stylist or a filmmaker, they are not buying a picture. They are buying judgement, calm and the ability to make decisions under pressure. Behind the scenes content is the only format that shows those things directly.
Photographing your home means taking a step back and considering the story your home tells. No home is static. Although a picture is still, we can follow nature’s lead and infuse it with life. By building a shot list inspired by the seasons, we can weave a richer tale of home.
For our latest journal piece, we wanted to lift the lid on the part of production that often only becomes visible when it goes wrong: logistics. So we sat down (over email, around busy transport schedules) with Robin Malyon, founder of Tic Tak, a specialist logistics company that has been quietly making interiors and lifestyle shoots run smoothly for more than three decades.
There’s an eye that comes from years spent on both sides of a shoot – and Katie Haynes has it. With a background in advertising and marketing, and now running a photography practice specialising in holiday lets and boutique properties, she’s uniquely placed to see what most hosts miss: that a well-styled, well-lit space isn’t just a great place to stay. It’s a great place to shoot.
“The vision was never just to create somewhere beautiful to stay,” Gem says. “We wanted it to become a place that people could feel – somewhere with texture, soul, softness and a bit of magic. A space where design, nature and real life could sit together without everything feeling overly polished or staged.”
Amy’s decision to open Farm View as a shoot location wasn’t an impulsive one. After ten years of considered renovation – choosing each finish, each texture, each moment of light – she began having professional photographs taken for her own Instagram account.
Tucked into the East Midlands, Minimal Mid Century DE73 is one of those spaces that photographers and creative directors return to again and again. It’s calm, considered and quietly extraordinary: a family home that doubles as one of the most versatile shoot locations on the platform.
Ask any photographer what they need most from a location house and the answer comes back the same way almost every time: good natural light. Not a ring light, not a softbox, not a beautifully painted ceiling — natural light. The kind that comes through large windows in the morning and wraps around a kitchen in a way that no amount of equipment can fully replicate.
© Styled Home Studios 2026
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