I love homes; I have forever loved home magazines and dream of beautiful interiors. I have clippings of homes from my parents’ Telegraph colour supplements dating back to the 1990s in scrapbooks; but that’s how it all started…my amateur interior designing.

Tip#1: When planning a room pick an object you love and want to be reflected throughout your design

We recently completed decorating our kitchen…this all started life as inspiration taken from a retro teapot and crockery collected over the years from charity shops. I love them because they reflect the 1960s and are nostalgic which I think work really well when juxtaposed with utilitarian kitchen ware…

 Tip#2: Be inspired by beautiful spaces…

The Albion, Shoreditch London/ Hubbard and Bell The Hoxton, Holborn/H&H Amersham

These images form your mood board and can be used and constantly referred back to when making every decision in your design.

Tip#3: Highlight the key elements of your design

In a full design this would be the walls, floors, ceiling, lighting, furniture, window treatments. In the case of our kitchen it was just walls and lighting as we were keeping the existing kitchen units etc. Each decision should be referred back to the mood board…do they reflect your initial inspiration.

Tip#4: What problems do I need to solve with my design?

I wanted to make the space more cosy (Hygge), find some pendant lights and add colour and pattern…

Tip#5 Get samples to build up a sample board

This is my hobby!…when I have time…researching online, magazines and shops…

First stop was to find some wallpaper that would reflect the mood board…

Love at first sight!…Cole and Son wallpaper Albemarle Piccadilly 94/8043

As a friend said to me ‘I’m sure I had tiles like this when I was young!’ Mission complete; retro nostalgic and beautiful colours.

Next I wanted to find paints that would compliment the wallpaper without distracting from it or overwhelming the space. After many sample purchases, painting pieces of card and placing them around the kitchen, I went for Farrow and Ball’s Strong White for the ceiling and walls.

Ceilings being painted the same hue as the walls to create a seamless look…in a space with a pitched roof and lots of lines. For the television/play/snug area we went for Farrow and Ball’s Vardo; my son mixed a colour just like this when he was painting and then we found it…we had to paint a wall in it and it creates a lovely cosy feel and draws on the wallpaper…

Lighting…a great believer is upcycling I was determined to find pre-owned pendants that would fit with the scheme and draw on the utilitarian style I love…we found these pendants on eBay…Benjamin factory lights…we then bought the lighting accessories from the vintage and industrial lighting company Skinflint (www.skinflintdesign.com)…they also have a fantastic range of lighting all beautifully reconditioned.

I then made a sample board with these wallcoverings and lighting choices and placed them alongside images of the existing elements of our kitchen to see how they worked together before taking the plunge! I like to use the wall coverings as the back ground and place the different pieces of furnishings in roughly the position they will be in the space.

We eventually went for it and decorated our kitchen…

The blackboard was from an eBay seller; Love litter and very useful for organising my life…I think?!…work continues on our snug area…using our mood board and sample board…we were are hopefully creating a Hygge-inspired cosy family area…