What a kitchen should smell like: a conversation with Bella Middleton, founder of Norfolk Natural Living

Bella Middleton, founder of Norfolk Natural Living, talks sinks, scent, moths and the one Norfolk smell she has never managed to bottle.

“Everything can be spotless and smell wonderful. You don't have to choose.”

Bella is the founder of Norfolk Natural Living, a natural home fragrance and cleaning range she started at her own kitchen table, built, she says, out of necessity as much as inspiration.

Like Naked Kitchens, the business is rooted in Norfolk, and built on the belief that a well-kept kitchen changes how a home feels to live in. Ahead of the launch of Norfolk Natural Living's new Christmas scent, we asked Bella what should live beside the sink, how to scent a room without fighting the cooking, and how to care for oak, walnut and painted cabinetry.

What lives beside your sink? Which of your own products are permanently out on the counter?

Dishwash, always. I properly dislike doing the dishes, so I want it to help however it can. It's natural, it won't harm the fish, and it doesn't look like the bright green stuff most people have under their sink.

That's actually one of the reasons Norfolk Natural Living exists at all. I'd just had my son, and suddenly there were far more dishes and far less time. I couldn't manufacture more time for myself, but I could make the chore itself more pleasurable. Design matters here too. Having a pleasurable space makes a difference to your wellbeing. It's the heart of the home for a reason.

The whole business started at your kitchen table. What's your own kitchen like?

It really is the heart of the house. I've got three children, so there's a lot of baking and a lot of mess. It's a mix of modern and old English, and I've got an Aga I'm properly attached to. It's always on. My mother-in-law can't work out how it functions, but I find it very simple: leave something in there, even burn it, and you'd never know.

What should a kitchen smell like?

Ours has a high, pitched ceiling, so it's a hard room to scent evenly. When you're cooking, or baking bread or a cake, that smell fills the whole space and it's wonderful. Burnt toast does exactly the same, unfortunately, and just as fast.

That's when I reach for a candle, because as it burns it's absorbing the bad smell, not just masking it. I light one most early evenings now the light's changing, when it's stew and one-pot season. I don't want a candle competing with what's actually cooking, though. Onions are the one exception. Nobody's precious about that smell, so light as many as you like.

Does that change as you move through the house? A boot room, a utility?

It comes down to which format suits the room. A reed diffuser is quiet. It just sits there working away, which is perfect somewhere like a crockery cupboard, so every time you open it there's a small surprise.

A boot room needs something sturdier: wellies, damp coats, no real shelf, and a reed diffuser is asking to be knocked over. I'd use an electric diffuser there instead.

Room mist is for the immediate moment, guests arriving, a teenager back from a run, when you want something quick and deliberate rather than ambient.

What's the difference between scent that reads as intentional and scent that reads as accidental?

Intentional is the diffuser hidden in the cupboard, the thing you almost forget is there until it does its job. Accidental is burnt toast.

Which of your products would you recommend for cleaning oak, walnut and painted finishes?

Multi-surface covers all three, and it lifts grease too.

For a stubborn stain, scented vinegar works well, but only on the right surface. It's acidic, so I'd never use it on natural stone, marble, slate, anything like that. It's fine on quartz, because quartz is so hard, and it's good on limescale and windows.

Alternative bleach is the one for real stains: ceramic, grout, anything stubborn. Mix it with a little water into a paste and it lifts a huge amount, and it's safe on an Aga too.

For soft metal, stainless steel and handles, a wet copper pad is non-abrasive and won't scratch. And if you're really scrubbing, ketchup on a worktop, that sort of thing, dishwash and a bit of arm strength gets in there.

Wardrobes and moths. Is there anything that actually works?

Micro wasps, genuinely. They're smaller than you can really see, they live on moth larvae, and once the moths are gone, they die off too.

Alongside that, wash anything before you pack it away. Moths are drawn to dirt, grease and sweat. Our cashmere shampoo has a cedar base, which they hate, and cedar-lined storage does the same job passively. We also do a cashmere refresher, and cedar balls with a bit of sandpaper included, so you can rough up the surface and pop them in a pocket or a shoe.

A boot room is exactly the environment moths love: dark, sweaty, undisturbed. That's where I'd use all of it hardest.

What's the one thing people are still cleaning with that they should have thrown out?

Chlorine bleach. There's no place for it. It's toxic, it releases dangerous fumes if it comes into contact with urine, and it will permanently stain stainless steel. Drip marks that never come out, on a sink, a splashback, handles. Most stains will actually lift with a natural alternative that won't harm the fish, so there's rarely a reason to reach for it.

And there's a second argument for switching. If your home smells like a swimming pool because of what you clean it with, that's the wrong trade. Everything can be spotless and smell wonderful. You don't have to choose.

You've made Christmas versions of the everyday things, the multi-surface and the dishwash. Why do that, rather than just candles?

We do candles too, but I didn't want the ordinary jobs to break the mood. It's Christmas, the tree's up, and then you're at the sink and suddenly you're back in an everyday scent.

Spirit of Noel is sweet orange, pineapple leaf, cinnamon, vanilla bean, sandalwood and amber, so the washing up smells like the rest of the house feels. It keeps you cocooned in it rather than stepping in and out.

Norfolk is in both our companies' hearts. Which part of it is hardest to translate into a product? Is there one you've tried and never got right?

Coastal Walk was my first scent, built around the walk to Holkham beach. The woods first, tall pines and oaks, then that big open beach, always blustery, always cold, the wind in your hair and the waves going. It's got pine, sandalwood, fresh, invigorating notes, and I wanted that scent right across the range.

The one place it wouldn't go was scented vinegar. I properly tried, and it just smelled of fish and chips. Salt air and vinegar make sense on a beach and nowhere near your hands. So that product is Rose Garden instead. A completely different scent, but a beautiful one.

Norfolk Natural Living's Christmas range has just launched, including a festive edition of the dishwash and multi-surface featured above. You can find the full range on the Norfolk Natural Living website. To see how we design kitchens, boot rooms, utilities and wardrobes around the way people live, explore our portfolio or book a discovery visit in one of our showrooms.