Hilary Duff’s House Rules—Land Where You Like, and Create Your Own Atmosphere

Hilary Duff has earned the right to be a little particular, and she’s not apologizing for it. Duff may be a busy mom of three (soon to be four—she announced that she was expecting in December), but she still carves out space to curate an atmosphere that works for her, even if that curation happens once the kids are off to school.

Better Homes & Gardens spoke with the actress, singer, producer, and author—who added chief brand director to her impressive resume with Below 60°, an air fragrance brand that launched last November—about her house rules, how she sets up a space where she can unwind, and more.

Read on for more about Duff’s rules for the home she shares with husband Matthew Koma, a singer-songwriter, and their family.

Hilary Duff’s House Rules

Q: Are you a shoes-on or a shoes-off household?

I want to get better about that—how do I get better about that? [Laughs]

It is disgusting to think that we’re taking our shoes and walking around, and then we’re taking them off and we’re walking around, and we’re barefoot and then we’re putting our feet in our bed. I love to sit on the floor, too. When we have friends over, usually I give everyone our couch and I sit on the floor. It’s disgusting. I have three dogs. I have nine chickens. [Laughs]

Q: So what are some of your house rules?

Mine is more just trying to get my kids to put their stuff on the stairs instead of just dumping it where they come in. I feel like they just step out of their shoes mid-walk, and it’s in the walkway, and their bags just get dumped down. I want their lunchboxes put in the sink—and I don’t even make them rinse it out. I will do it, or someone will do it, but don’t leave it in your backpack.

Q: Does scent play a role in how you unwind at home?

It absolutely does. But I don’t think it’s just unwinding at the end of the day. I think it’s something that I like to—when I get my kids off to school, I love to poke around my house and get things in order. And it’s not about cleaning, it’s more just how I like things and what I want it to smell like, that’s all a part of it. What do I want the lighting to be like, even during the day? I’m conscious about not leaving my lights on all day, but I want this particular lamp on, and as I get older I think I’m more particular, but it’s nice to be that way. [It’s] my space, and I feel more myself in something that’s curated by me. And it’s good. It’s the same feeling as pouring a glass of wine at the end of a long day, and even just the one sip and the smell, you’re like, ‘OK, I’ve arrived. I'm here.’ And I think the same thing goes with creating your atmosphere.

Q: Do your rules change if you have guests coming over?

[Laughs] Yeah, because if no one’s coming, we’re probably eating in front of the TV.

Q: How so?

Depending on how many people are coming, we’ll sit at our long table. And sometimes we’ll sit outside.

My husband is putting his new record out, and he wrote this line in a song that was something about burning incense in the backyard, and I was like, ‘I didn’t even notice that you noticed that I did that!’ And he was like, ‘Of course I did.’ I’m like, ‘You didn’t say anything about it!’ And he’s like, ‘I’m saying it in the song. Isn’t that good enough?’ [Laughs] I guess.

I know that the things that I do are appreciated in the house. He would never think to do any of the things that I do. But I think the same goes for the kids. And yeah, whoever we’re entertaining or what we’re doing—sometimes we’re having game night, and we’ll usually sit on the floor around our big round coffee table in our living room. Sometimes we want to open up all the doors and eat at the long table.

We have this amazing fishmonger in the valley where we live, and we’ll go pick up these hand roll kits and we’ll just put it all out, and the fish is cut up so nice, and there’s all the accoutrements and the fresh seaweed paper, and that’s a really fun thing. But people just land where they land after they make their plate or their hand rolls, you know, and so I think it just really depends on what we’re doing, but it’s nice to have a space that can shift and change and you’re always, you know, thinking of new ways to use it.