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Miquita Oliver reveals the surprising Christmas decoration she uses year-round
As part of our interview series, My Happy Home, Miquita Oliver talks about her colourful childhood home, love of secondhand shopping, and the celeb icon who inspires her.
Miquita Oliver is a television presenter who rose to fame co-hosting Channel 4’s Popworld with Simon Amstell from 2001 to 2006, and has since presented Sunday Brunch and Steph’s Packed Lunch. She recently starred in BBC documentary series, The Caribbean with Andi and Miquita, with her mother, chef and Great British Menu judge, Andi Oliver.
Miquita has recently teamed up with Gumtree to champion their Consumption Rebellion movement, encouraging people to shop secondhand to help the planet. She lives in a flat in Clapton, east London.
What makes you happiest at home?
MO: Looking out of the window at the swans on the river. I'd never lived near water before this and it’s extraordinary – it’s just so healing and a really beautiful thing to always go back to. I moved here last June and I didn’t see the spring last year, so watching spring happen has been amazing. I’m 39 years old and I feel like this is the first spring I’ve ever seen. I’m very attuned to it and it makes me really happy to watch the seasons change.
I also find getting the lighting right makes me happy. My makeup artist and best mate Natty is Swedish and I have a lot of Swedish family, and they always have adventljusstake at Christmas – it’s basically a tree of battery-operated candles. I have three of them year round and they look so pretty. I also have a salt lamp; I know a lot of people have them, and I always saw them and was not bothered, but now I just find it the most beautiful, healing light.
Tell us about your childhood home
MO: I grew up in a beautiful flat in west London on Powis Terrace, just off Portobello Road. Because we had such a nice flat I thought we had money, but it was a housing trust flat and we really didn’t have any money at all, but we had this brilliant house for 14 years.
It housed everything. A lot of hard things happened while we were there – my mother’s brother died when I was five – but then some great things happened. My mum was only 20 when she had me, so we grew up there together. It was the house where our lives started. We were very lucky, and that’s why social housing is so important, it saved our lives.
Inside it had these huge rooms with cornicing. When my mum got her first TV show and we got a bit of money, my auntie Sandra came round and we painted every wall a different jewel colour – turquoise, maroon, orange, all these incredible indigo blues. I grew up with all this colour in the house, but I always wanted it to be white with Venetian blinds and a plant – like a weird office! I think it was just my version of wanting order and structure because my mum wasn’t very like that then.
When you get home, what is the first thing you like to do?
MO: Turn on the lights. I’ve learnt a lot about lighting since living on my own for the first time. I realised I’d been living with so much bad, wooden furniture that belonged to previous flatmates that I hated, so I just thought, what would it be like to not have furniture you hated and have things you love? So lighting was the first thing I did. I didn’t realise before that you could put any light fixture in; I thought you just had to get a light bulb and buy a lampshade.
So I started looking around and that’s when I fell in love with Gumtree – it's just the most fun! I have lights in the corner now. My friend Grimmy [Nick Grimshaw] and me are obsessed with side lighting: don’t light a room from above, always from the side. Then I sit on my sofa and truly feel very content.
Which room do you spend most of your time in? How did you decorate this space?
MO: My dressing room, which I love. I used to have rails and rails of clothes in my bedroom, but because clothes have almost become work now, I just felt like I was staring at work every time I woke up. It’s a real luxury to have a bedroom that has no clothes in it – I am very lucky.
The dressing room is really functional and very organised – it’s my pride and joy. It’s categorised and has a view over the water. There’s a lot going on in here, so to have peace around it is just what I need.
Describe the view outside your bedroom window
MO: Every room looks onto the water, so it’s just stunning. I love the view from my bedroom window, there are loads of rowers, so I wake up to this really nice rhythm of the oars. When the sun’s out, the water glistens and the birds are singing, it’s just heavenly.
What would we find in your bedside table?
MO: Magazine supplements – I love a supplement! Almond oil, because I cover my body and face in it before I go to bed. I always have a vase of flowers, candles – I have a lot from Mama Moon, an east London witch – and incense.
Then there’s my Buddhism Day by Day book. I read it every day for guidance. My cousin got it for me a few years ago when I was in hell and it really saved my life. I do a lot of magic and spiritual practice with all my friends, but I think you need to remember to do it even when you’re not in hell – it’s not just to rescue you, it’s a good way of living.
What's the best decorating advice you have ever received?
MO: That you can have anything you want. I think I was always settling for things that were a bit like something someone liked, or what another flatmate had, but now I’ve realised I don’t have to have something I don’t like – get something you love.
You have to listen to yourself when you’re buying furniture and trust your gut and instincts. Buy what you love, not what you're being told you love. There are a myriad of reasons that you’re drawn to things and that’s really exciting.
What's the best home bargain you've ever snapped up?
MO: My coffee table, which I found on Gumtree, was a total bargain at £150. I thought I was going to have to spend about £600 to get a really nice one, which just felt ridiculous. I didn’t know until I saw it that I wanted a glass top, because then you see all your magazines and books and can double layer and have books on top as well. It’s a gift that keeps on giving, and it's my best furniture find of the house, definitely.
What is your most treasured possession at home? Why is it so special?
MO: A picture I have of my grandma when she was 16 in Antigua. We’d been talking about blowing it up as a family for so long, then we finally got around to doing it for a TV show. I also have my mum’s magazine cover near it in my office.
I think those photos of where we’re from and who we are, and the photos of what mum and I are doing out in the world now and all the things we have done, are the things I really treasure. Even if I was living in a tiny little squat and I had those things, I’d feel really comforted and safe. I think it’s really important to be around something that reminds you of where you come from, the people you come from and the things they did before you. It gives you a different drive for everything you do.
If you could have a snoop around anyone's house, whose would it be and why?
MO: Oh my god, so many people… Jeremy Irons, who has a castle in Ireland that I’ve looked at a lot, and Barbra Streisand, who taught me a lot about having anything you want. She has this book, which is so good, called My Passion for Design, all about her home in California that has a street of shops in it. Instead of putting all her stuff in storage, she made a Victorian lace shop, a doll shop, a sweet shop in her house – it’s mad!
Barbra is all about doing everything exactly how you want, and she really cares about beautiful pieces of furniture and their history. Her home is a massive barn but inside it looks almost like the Beverley Hills Hilton – it’s very classic with great colours, very safe and warm. I love Barbra Streisand because she’s so strong and smart, and wasn’t defined by lots of things that could have defined her; she carved her own path.
What would top your list for the worst decor trend?
MO: Even though I’ve got a lot of Swedish family and quite like Swedish architecture, I don’t like too much Scandi minimalism. I think it just looks un-cosy and hard, and it's a bit blank for me. I like more opulence, luxury, detail and history.
Are you green-fingered?
MO: Yes – my balcony is called Moon Bar because it has the most extraordinary view of the moon. Before living here, my previous flatmate was a florist, so she made our flat really beautiful with plants and flowers. When she moved out I had to teach myself the basics of repotting, finding what you like and how to look after it.
Last summer, my auntie helped me build a herb tower. It was a wooden construction with rosemary, thyme and mint. It was beautiful and I used it to make teas and cocktails. I really enjoy gardening. My grandma does too, and my parents have just moved to a new house with a big garden so there’s been a lot of garden chat in the family.
I’ve also just got an app called NatureID where you take a picture of any plant or tree and it tells you what it is, so I’ve been boring people with that. Now I’m starting to know what different trees are – it’s nice to know and not just look.
Find out more about Gumtree's Consumption Rebellion here.
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