Magazine feature page 1

Insider Info

THE HOME A three-bedroomed semi-detached 1920s house in Epsom, Surrey. WHO LIVES HERE? Claire Palma, who runs her own interior design company, her husband José, who works for a shopfitting firm and their daughter Daisy, two.

WHERE DO YOU LIKE TO SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME? ‘The kitchen – I think we got it spot on,’ says Claire. ‘I like the fact that it’s light, warm and a great space to work in. It’s lovely when we have people for dinner and they are sitting in the lower section and I’m in the top, cooking, because I can still have a conversation.’

HOW DID YOU ORGANISE THE WORK? ‘We followed all the rules – started at the top and worked our way down. We gutted the house from top to bottom and everything was done: new windows, central heating, all the floors have been up and every single room has been decorated and carpeted.’

Designer Style Tips

We made our home lighter
      and brighter

Claire was overwhelmed with ideas when it came to decorating her new property...

If your day job is designing and decorating other people’s homes, it’s easy to think you might have a head start when it comes to your own.

However, when interior designer Claire Palma moved into her 1920s semi in Surrey, she had so many ideas it was a case of inspiration overload.

‘It is so much harder when it’s your own house,’ Claire laughs. ‘I can step into somebody else’s property and I instantly know how I am going to decorate. I always go by gut instinct. When I have to choose for myself, it’s difficult to make a decision.’

Claire and her husband José bought their last home, a modern apartment in a former hospital conversion, off-plan, and loved being there, but they both agreed they were ready for a change, so when they spotted this house, with its large bay windows and 280ft garden, they were determined to snap it up. ‘I wanted to be able to open the doors and walk out into the garden, just to have that freedom, and because our apartment was on the second floor we didn’t have that,’ Claire explains. ‘We looked at lots of properties and the reason we liked this one was because it had the potential to extend.’

To contact Claire’s interior design company Inspirational, call 01737 351870