Edinburgh is full of characterful spaces. Tenements layered with history, artist studios above shopfronts, family houses overlooking the sea, and compact creative flats where every object feels intentional. These are homes with depth and life in them, but they’re rarely shown with the care they deserve.

NOSTALGIA, a Leith-based filmmaking project, set out to give these spaces a different kind of attention. Run by filmmaker Ilya Ilyukhin and producer Elena Khokhlova (a creative couple based in Leith), the YouTube channel shares short documentaries about the connection between people and the places they call home.

“We’re not looking for perfectly staged interiors,” Ilya says. “We’re looking for soul — the atmosphere of a room, the way someone arranges their belongings, the traces of everyday life that make a space feel truly lived in.”

Each film is shot with natural daylight, vintage lenses, and a delicate, observational style. Nothing is staged or polished; homes appear exactly as they are, with all their personality intact. The result is a series of space portraits that sit somewhere between documentary and visual poem — slow, thoughtful, and rooted in genuine human stories.

Since launching in October 2024, NOSTALGIA’s films have reached almost a million views on YouTube and taken the project across Scotland, England and Italy: from a blacksmith’s quirky flat in Abbeyhill and a Victorian family home in Portobello, to a West End flat in Glasgow that’s kept a couple young for twenty years, a 300-year-old London cottage that feels like a stage set inside, and a childhood home on the Grand Canal: found thanks to a Netflix documentary. Every location brings its own rhythm and emotion.

Lena says, people often tell us their home is ‘nothing special’. “But there’s always a detail - a favourite chair, a colour on the wall, a window view only you notice at a certain hour - that becomes the emotional centre of the whole story.”

NOSTALGIA has resonated with viewers looking for something gentler online. Instead of glossy home tours or renovation talk, the films focus on:

real homes and real people

lived-in character, not perfection

honest personal stories

atmosphere, light, and texture

the beauty of everyday spaces

As the channel grows, Lena and Ilya continue to look for homes with personality - quiet or bold, minimal or eclectic - as long as they feel soulful.

If your space has a story (and every home does), NOSTALGIA would love to hear from you.

Info: studio@getnostalgia.com, films: youtube.com/@nostalgia.corporation