Add Character To A Home for Now

From banning the ‘big light’ to relying on textiles and rugs for an instant interiors boost, Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin, of lifestyle brand Earl of East, discovered while researching their book ‘Home for Now’, that rituals, lighting and scent have the power to transform a rental into something that truly feels like home. As they put it, “Identity in a home isn’t really about what you own. It’s about what you choose to see and the rituals you live by each day.”

Observing how many like-minded friends were shaping rented spaces into something personal, the pair set out to celebrate these inventive approaches, demonstrating that “you don’t need permission to make a space feel like yours.”

At Aucoot, we’re continually drawn to the character of the homes we represent and the stories they hold. As renting becomes an increasingly common way of living, it feels ever more important to explore how individuality, culture and a sense of life can be expressed and elevated in any space.

Honestly, it came from years of lived experience and a lot of conversations.  We’ve spent most of our adult lives moving between homes, cities and spaces that were never quite ours, at least not permanently. In many ways, we’ve built Earl of East in the same way – opening stores, moving locations, always thinking about how to make somewhere feel warm and personal even if it’s temporary. Over time, we kept hearing the same thing from people who came into our shops. More people were renting, more people were living between cities, and there was this real desire to make wherever they were feel like their own – but also this hesitation, like they had to wait for a forever home before they could really invest in a space. We just felt like no one was talking to those people. So much of what you see in coffee table books is about finished spaces, grand renovations, forever homes. It didn’t reflect the reality of most people we knew. We wanted to change that.

Scent is always first for us. We use different fragrances and formats in different parts of the home and at different times of day. There’s one for the morning when we’re working, and a different one for the evening when we want to wind down. It’s a really simple way to mark a shift in mood without changing anything physically. Lighting comes next — we haven’t used an overhead light in years, genuinely. It’s all lamps, candles, warm bulbs. The bath has become a ritual too – phone out of the room, good products, time that’s just for switching off. These aren’t grand gestures. They’re the small, repeatable things that make a space feel like yours. And actually, one of the things we found across the book was that almost everyone, in some form, did exactly the same. Danielle, one of our contributors in London, lights her signature candle before she unpacks a single box in a new home. That absolutely resonated with us.

Textiles, without question. A good rug, a familiar throw, cushions in a palette you keep coming back to – these things do so much heavy lifting in a new space. You can have landlord-white walls and still make a room feel completely yours if the softness and the colour is there. And then scent – even something as simple as a familiar candle burning from the first evening changes the whole atmosphere of a room.

It’s probably the single most impactful thing you can change without touching a wall. We saw it across every home in the book – nobody was using the big light. Not one. People were using portable lamps, plug-in uplighters, candles, warm-toned bulbs. And the effect was transformative. Lighting does two things simultaneously – it creates atmosphere, and it creates zones. One of our contributors Drew in Brooklyn had a converted storage cupboard as a playroom for his kids and he made it feel magical with layered lighting. It’s one of those things that costs very little relative to its impact and is completely reversible when you leave.

It really depends on your landlord and your confidence in having that conversation. What we found – and it was a really interesting cultural contrast in the book – is that American renters are far more likely to negotiate with their landlord around permanent upgrades. One contributor replaced a popcorn ceiling in exchange for a rent reduction. That kind of proactive approach isn’t as common here in the UK. If you can’t paint then there are still so many ways to bring colour in without touching the walls – we saw large-scale prints, colour-block blinds, and lots of layered textiles. You don’t need permission to make a space feel like yours.

Display the things that tell your story. Books, vinyl, ceramics from places you’ve travelled to, flea market finds, photos –  these things communicate personality immediately and cost almost nothing to move. We talk about “memory anchors” in the book – smaller objects that carry real continuity from home to home, even when the bigger furniture changes. Open shelving is brilliant for this. Then there are the rituals – the scent you burn, the way you zone the light, the habit of putting something you love on display the moment you move in. Identity in a home isn’t really about what you own. It’s about what you choose to see and the rituals you live by each day.

The high-low approach is something we’ve always believed in – and it runs through almost every home in the book. A £5 flea market chair next to a really considered, well-made piece of furniture. An Ikea frame around something you found at a car boot. Expensive and cheap sitting happily side by side. Then there’s the idea that you have to ‘fix’ what you don’t like. Some of the most inspiring homes in the book did the opposite – they leaned into the quirks, celebrated what a previous tenant or decade had left behind, and built something personal around it rather than trying to erase it. A bathroom tiled in the 1950s isn’t a problem to solve. It’s a starting point. You just build on what’s there rather than tear it apart.

For us it comes down to intention. Living well in a rented space isn’t about how much you spend or how perfectly curated everything looks – it’s about the choices you make every day to feel at home. It’s the candle you light in the evening. It’s taking your coffee slowly in the morning rather than rushing past it. It’s knowing which lamp to turn on when you need to feel calm. We always celebrate ritual over routine – not because rituals have to be elaborate, but because small, repeated acts of care for your space and yourself genuinely change how you feel. The book is really a document of that across 45 different homes and lives. People living well in a basement flat, in a studio, in a place they knew they might leave in a year. That, to us, is what living well looks like.

The plug-in uplighters we saw in nearly all the US homes – we’re absolutely doing that. In the UK we tend not to think about them as much but they’re such an easy way to add warmth and depth to a corner. We also loved seeing how people used a consistent colour palette carried through cushions, objects and textiles to make every new space feel coherently theirs, even with white walls. That’s something we already do intuitively, but seeing it documented so clearly across 45 homes really reinforced it. And the idea of treating quirks as focal points rather than hiding them. Leaning into what’s already there rather than trying to neutralise it. That’s a shift in mindset as much as anything practical.

There are ceramics we’ve had since the very early days of the brand that have been in every space we’ve lived and worked in. A few pieces of art that have moved with us across addresses. Good linen – once you have it you don’t leave it behind. And scent, always. The same fragrances and the same rituals, even in completely different spaces. It’s interesting because when you think about what actually makes a home feel like yours across many moves, it’s rarely the big furniture. It’s those smaller, cherished things – a piece of pottery, a print, a textile – that you carry forward. They’re the thread of continuity.

Absolutely, and we think the timing of this book reflects that shift. There’s a generation of people – particularly in cities like London and New York – where homeownership by their early thirties is simply no longer the default expectation. Renting isn’t a waiting room anymore; it’s just life. And once you accept that, the psychology changes completely. You stop holding back. You start investing in the space you’re actually living in now. We also think there’s been a broader cultural shift around access over ownership – Spotify, car leasing, clothes rental – that’s made the idea of impermanent use feel much more normal. What we discovered across the book is that people have found genuinely creative, practical ways to make a rented space deeply personal. The hesitation is fading. And honestly, it’s about time.

Lighting, honestly – swap a cool overhead bulb for a warm one, or just plug in a lamp and stop using the big light altogether. The change is immediate and it costs almost nothing. After that, scent. A candle burning from the first evening in a new space does something genuinely powerful to how you feel in it. And then a rug – particularly if you’re bringing one from a previous home. It anchors the space, adds warmth, and immediately makes a room feel considered. None of these require a landlord’s permission. But together they completely shift the atmosphere of a space. That’s really what the book is about –  it’s not about grand gestures. It’s about the small, cumulative decisions that add up to feeling at home.

Thanks for Paul and Niko.

You can buy ‘Home for Now – Living well without staying long’ here.