The Perfect Home is a major 3 x 1 hour documentary series on architecture and interior design. It starts off with the issues we all care about - what should the kitchen look like? What colour should the sofa be? What's a nice house? But rather than tackling these everyday concerns in the manner of a make-over programme, The Perfect Home uses them as a starting point for in-depth and highly informative journey through the philosophy and psychology of architecture and design, Western and Eastern.

Alain de Botton looks around unusual and beautiful houses. He talks to the people who live in them, rather than architects, about the experience of living there, the moods and atmospheres their houses create, their inspirations and aspirations. He draws out from this the key ideas which can help us decide what it is we’re really looking for from our own homes. John Ruskin said that a building shouldn’t just provide security and shelter, it should also ‘speak to us’. What do we want our houses to say to us? What messages does architecture tend to tend to convey, and why do they matter?

The Perfect Home was first broadcast on More 4 and Channel 4 in May 2006