This week has seen me mostly getting my old marketing hat on again. Cue lots of grinding noises as the old cogs crank back into action. Marketing used to be my day job, I kind of fell into it but I always loved it. I got to work with some great products from fashion to exhibitions, hotels to jobs and the industry changed massively while I was working. When I started, dare I say it, online marketing was totally new (crikey I’m showing my age now!). But now I get to do the job I’ve always dreamed of - making houses into homes. What’s more I get to market myself a bit too, so I get the best of both worlds. I’ve been introducing myself and my new business to lots of new people this week which has been super exciting, with lots of people asking about how the business was set up, why it’s different and the kind of design I do. I feel like I’ve been telling my story all week, but I realised that it’s quite different from lots of other designers and it would be quite nice at this stage to make a note of it. So indulge me for a minute or two while I tell you a bit about me, The Sussex Home Stylist and what we do down here in sunny Sussex.

The gorgeous flat in Belsize Park, North London

I have always loved making home. One of my earliest memories is visiting my Auntie’s flat in Belsize Park, North London. It was a top floor flat in a leafy road over looking a beautiful Church. I can remember walking in, it had huge high ceilings and big sash windows in the living room. My Auntie has always had exquisite taste and I remember being blown away by how elegant and beautiful the space was. What’s more my cousin had a studio in his room which I thought was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I still hanker after a studio like it. I must have only been about seven - the same age as my daughter is which now seems to be ridiculously early to be appreciating anything other than where the next bag of sweets was coming from!

As a kid I was never into playing barbies until I got given a barbie house. I spent ages laying the house out and making things to go in it. Then at the weekends my cousin and I would sit with an Argos catalogue and plan all the things we were going to buy to go in the flat we were going to share as soon as we were old enough. I loved every minute of it. Sadly I never did get to share a flat with my cousin but we did end up going sofa shopping together and bought the same sofa for my flat and her house, so the dream kind of came true!

As I got older I got to play house with the real thing. I worked my butt off to be able to afford my first flat in north London. The block was pretty rank but it was a beautiful property with big windows and high ceilings. I loved it and had such a tiny budget to do anything to it that I learned how to do things myself and wasn’t afraid to get my hands dirty. I hacked up Ikea curtains, mixed my own paint colours and made my own artwork to get the look I wanted on a budget I could afford.

I got myself a new job as a brand manager working in Soho which I loved. I got to work with some awesome people, one of whom ended up being my husband. He was the sales manager at the time leading a team of lairy, loveable reprobates and we had a ball. Rob had just bought a house with a friend in a tiny village tucked away in the South of France and our first holiday saw us both in our swimmers in 30 degree heat, singing to Lily Allen and painting and DIY-ing the house to get it ready. We drove a big van down full of everything from Ikea beds to crockery and book shelves. Now I know this would be most peoples idea of the worst first date ever but for me it was a match made in heaven. We decorated by day and ate Baguettes and cheese, drinking the best Cotes du Rhone wine I’d ever tasted. We made the place a home and we had the most lovely times there.

It wasn’t long before I made the big move in with him to….gasp….South London. Now anyone whos ever lived in north London knows that it is just not the thing to do to move south. It’s like changing football teams. My Dad assured me I’d get a nose bleed as soon as I got to the river. The good news is I made it and I moved in with him before selling up and buying a gorgeous place not too far from Wimbledon Common, which I totally fell in love with. My husband is a dab hand at anything DIY ( he’s nice too - that wasn’t the only reason I married him!) and we worked hard to make our house lovely before our first baby arrived. Not long after we welcomed baby number two we made the big move out of London and down to the coast. We got a lot more space for our money and the lovely village we found in the South Downs offered us everything we’d ever wanted; To live near a cool city (Brighton) near to the beach and right in the countryside surrounded by trees. I have to say we’ve never looked back. You can see the stars out here - like really see the stars! Between us we’ve updated our home which previously had a big flood and needed quite a bit of work doing to it. I’m not quite sure how we did it with the two kids as young as they were but we got there slowly but surely.

On our way down to sunny Sussex. I was so tired!!

I stopped working in London when we moved down and spent some time being a Mummy, while training at a local college in Interior Design in the evening. It had always been a dream of mine to do it but I’d never had the time before. For the first time I was surrounded by my kind of geeks - the kind of people who can spend hours talking about wall paper and colour, textures and light. They all DIY’d just like me and weren’t scared off by a floor plan. I fitted, and for the first time ever I was the nerd of the class. I loved it and I worked hard.

I was desperate to get some experience and I found an amazing local designer who I worked with for a while. She acted as a mentor and taught me so much. I was sure it was the industry I wanted to be in without a shadow of doubt. I loved working in design and my passion lay in making something out of nothing. I’d always been on a tight budget and so had most of my friends and what really made me tick was working a way to get the look I wanted without breaking the bank. A way to get a champagne look on my lemonade budget. Understanding what was worth an investment and where you could afford to cut a budgetary corner.

Some friends of mine needed some work done just as my littlest started school, and they asked me if I’d do it for them. I was nervous as hell but they were my first proper client and they gave me the confidence that I needed. I’ll always be so grateful to them for trusting me. Seeing my designs come to life properly - actually for a client, was the best feeling ever. I set up on my own. I was just about to launch and bloody Covid hit, and hit me. Just before lockdown I was in bed for two weeks, I felt dreadful. I soon recovered and as soon as I was back up and running all I heard was people talking about updating their homes that they’d spent so much time in over lockdown. So I bit the bullet and launched my website, now offering online design packages to work around Covid. And here I am, making a note of what I do, how I do it and talking about the things I love.

So how exactly does low cost design work?

What I really want to do is bring fab design into the houses of people who can’t, or don’t have time to, put it together themselves. There are lots of people out there who aren’t scared to pick up a paintbrush but they just don’t know what colour to paint their walls. They know what they want their room to look and feel like but they don’t know how to get there. They want to re-love their home again but they don’t have a huge budget and wouldn’t even think of hiring an interior designer or home stylist for their renovation as they’re too expensive.

This is where I come in. It was always really important to me to be able to offer a really affordable option - that’s my Home Style Report. Starting from £189 per room. It’s an online report, so perfectly Covid safe. I chat to the client over facetime or Zoom, I see the space and ask a million and one questions about the space and how its used. The client sends me lots of photos and measurements where required and I then send an online report with my recommendations for the room looking at style, colour, layout and accessories. It includes a mini mood board so nothing can get lost in translation and my client can see the look that they’re trying to achieve. I do my very best to re-use and repurpose as much of what exists as I can to keep costs to a minimum and make the design as sustainable as possible.

Then its up to the client what happens next. One option is to add a sourcing package on to their Home Style Report which will provide a list of everything to buy from paint colours to furniture with a link online to purchase everything in a couple of clicks. The second option is that the client sources the furniture etc for themselves. When it comes to bringing the design to life, again its up to the client. Some of my clients are a dab hand when it comes to DIY and like to do it all themselves, some people want me to arrange the work for them. The work itself can be anything from a living room design to a whole house renovation, from creating an open plan living space to building a double story extension. I work with a team of reliable builders and tradespeople to offer a full design service and get the job done efficiently and cost effectively.

I hope that explains what I do. I’m hugely passionate about it. One of my friends once told me that they hated their home, they just felt stressed in it because it wasn’t how they wanted it and they didn’t know how to change it. That kind of thing breaks my heart - as far as I’m concerned your home should always be your sanctuary. A place where you feel safe, comfortable and happy. Whatever happens outside, everyone needs somewhere they love to come home to. When you walk through the door you should get the same feeling as when you put on your favourite pair of comfies and if you don’t then it’s not difficult to change, let me help you! I promised my friend that I’d help her re-love her home and since then that’s what I’ve been saying that I do. Helping people to re-love their home again without them spending a small fortune. To bring their personality into their home and to make it a place that they want to be. If I can continue to spend my time doing that I’ll be as happy as a pig in the preverbial!

The Sussex Home Stylist - An Introduction