I decided to start an interior design company in June 2002 following my love of working with space and light. As a small child, spaces would ‘speak’ to me and I could visualize shapes and structures within them. The reason for opening the studio space was to allow accessibility to the general public as well as enable me to invite existing clients to browse through fabrics and furniture whilst working on their schemes. The public can browse at random and see, touch and feel the products. I like to involve my clients in the decision making process – in reality they make the decisions – I take my lead from them. If I like my clients and they like me, we can then build an element of trust. Mutual respect is very important. My job is to make it happen using professional tradesmen and scheduling and project managing the job from conception through to completion. Each job is specific to taste, budge and need and are all tailor made to specification. The suppliers have all been carefully researched and selected, the quality of goods inspected for consistency. My clients in the residential market are home owners who have moved either into a new build or wish to refurbish their existing property. They tend to have good careers, nice cars and clothes and enjoy entertaining within their homes – therefore their lifestyle is of utmost importance to them. They want their homes and spaces to reflect who they are and where they are in life. They also have a need for a clutter free environment and wish to relax and take pleasure in their surroundings. The right accessories or finishing touches are essential to achieve this – rather like women shopping for the right outfit. To cost of getting it wrong can be huge. One of the biggest mistakes that most people make is in the purchase of large items of furniture such as sofas. The comfort, shape, colour and size all play a part and different people have differing tastes. It is more important that the furniture will fit comfortably into the room that it has been considered for. Large conglomerates such as DFS drive down the prices of the manufacturers and cut corners in the making of their product. It may seem like a great deal to the consumer but the truth is that the quality has been bypassed and the goods will immediately have a shorter shelf life. I specify handmade sofas, stuffed with horsehair and sprung using traditional methods. They can be bastardized to suit the size of the person using them and will look as good 10 years later, as long as they are maintained correctly. Although the initial cost may seem high, the investment long term is far less and they can be covered in a fabric of the individual’s choice. My aim is to provide a much needed advisory centre on design ideas so that people, if they need a helping hand, can get it without it costing them. Public perception of interior design is that it is very expensive and that they charge outrageous fees. I aim to make it accessible to all.