I believe that everyone has the right to a beautiful home and it is my mission to help you achieve it - even if you have champagne tastes and a lemonade budget. In fact, I prefer working with lemonade budgets because the secret to good styling is that it needn't cost a fortune, it just takes a good eye. The smallest changes can make a big difference to how you live.
Whether you live in a 5-bed detached, a 3-bed semi, or a studio flat, every single one of you should be able to walk into your home, sit down, exhale, and say, "I love it here". I often go to friends' houses and start to feel envious of how they've done certain things, but always when I get home, I sit down, relax, and think "No, this is me, and I love it".
Your home should be identifiably yours; it should say something about your personality. Remember "Through the keyhole" (the Lloyd Grossman era)? That's what we're aiming for. I should be able to work my way through your home and it should tell a story about who you are and where you've been in life.
It's too easy to get hung up on Instagram trends. A lovely lady recently asked me to go and have a look at her house because she says she used to be brave with colour but she's spent too much time on Instagram and now everything in her house is grey. The good news for her is that she just needs steering back on course.
Trends are fine, and can introduce you to new ideas, but they are dangerous to follow as you will tire of them easily because they are someone else's ideas and you'll see many homes that look like yours. A lot of you will now be thinking: "But I don't know what I like!"or "I don't have any ideas". And to that I will say, yes you do, you just don't know how to articulate it yet. The job of someone like me is to extract that information from you and translate it into something tangible so that you can see what you like.
I am a great reader of people, and an actual translator of language, and that makes me perfect for a job like this. It is not my place to force my ideas and style upon you (I have quite strong tastes that would scare the living daylights out of most people!), it is for me to articulate to you what your ideas and style are. Home styling is not about creating a pastiche of a certain style, it's about taking different elements and layering them up to create your own style.
If you don't feel entirely happy in a room then it's probably because it's not the right colour, or there aren't enough layers of texture, or there isn't enough of the right kind of light, or the furniture placement is wrong. All these things are easily remedied and don't have to cost a fortune, you just have to know what you're doing. Luckily for you, I do: I have the vision so that you don't have to.
Have a good look at your home and let's get some little post-lockdown projects started. Having a home (or even just one room) you love will make a difference to lots of aspects of your life and we could all do with a boost right now!
Let's hope that post-lockdown life brings each and every one of you positivity, good health, and a home that is your happy place.