Barbie and Home

The cleaning products that make me think of home would be Cif and Mr Muscle polish. My mum uses Cif for everything around the house and I use it to clean the piano's now neglected keys. Also an image from my childhood is my mum polishing the coffee table in the lounge, because I used to live off that table, eating off it, making it into a house for my Barbie (!) and its most treasured function was as my 'Art Table' so it was always covered in paint and glue (this was right up to my A-levels!!) and therefore needed to be cleaned often.

I don’t have a slinky.

The home I would like to live in when I’m 50 would be right in the centre of London (provided I either A: become a millionaire, or B: marry one). It would be a unique building, either really old like a renovated chapel or warehouse - lofty, spacious, at least 4 floors, huge arch windows and brickwork, or a really modern building designed for me by a famous architect, that looks more like a sculpture than a house. It will be really stylish but still homely; there will be elements of me and my family in the decor rather than it looking like it's fallen straight out of a design catalogue. It will have featured in a Sunday newspaper 'Homes' magazine. I will try my best not to clutter it with too much stuff but there will be elements of mine and my family’s life in every room ... statues and trinkets collected from global travels ... real works of art on the walls ... photos and postcards everywhere ... theatre programmes/posters ... (all very tasteful, of course!)

Lastly there has to be a studio in the house where I can escape to do my art (call it an extension on the coffee table) preferably in a loft with huge windows from where if you squint you can see the Thames. One thing that differs from everyone else’s idea of their future home is that when I picture it I don't really imagine my family to be there, I suppose I am presuming that by that age the last of the kids will be at uni or will have their own house. Just me and hubby number two growing old together. That’s not to say it wont always be full of people and family who are visiting or over for dinner (I like the idea of having a 'granny flat' so loads of people can stay!) Oh and I forgot to mention the baby grand. Very important.

Rachael Smith