Residential & Home interior design

Interior design for homes and residential buildings

Your house isn’t just four walls and a roof, it’s your home; a place of sanctuary, somewhere to relax and spend time with loved ones. In many ways it’s an expression of who you are and a reflection of your heritage and style.


When it comes to interior design for residential buildings and homes, I focus on helping you discover and realise your vision for your space, amplifying your ideas and ensuring they fit perfectly with your home’s heritage and unique character.


We’re very lucky to be surrounded by a wealth of tradition and stunning historic properties in Bristol, Bath and across the West Country and I love helping marry traditional spaces with crisp, clean interior design, celebrating the best of both.

The Pool House

Residential interior design built around you

My approach to interior design for homes and residential properties is consultative at its heart. All my projects start with a discovery phase where we dig into your vision for your home, and then work together to develop conceptual designs.


I’m with you every step of the way, from design, to procurement, to adding those final finishing flourishes that bring the whole thing together.

Who I work with

Whatever your property, I can help you realise your vision and bring your space to life. I offer residential interior design services for:

 

I am happy to work on everything from aspects of a room to a whole property. Get in touch for a free, no obligation 30 minute discovery call to see how I can help your space come to life.

My Process

01

Initial Consultation and Fee Proposal

All work starts with a complimentary 30 minute chat to learn more about you and your project. We’ll discuss which service suits you and then we’ll be able to send a fee proposal. For larger projects meetings will take place before fees are outlined.

02

Concept Design

Concept design defines the function and feel of an interior design project. Using the information from our conversations and my own research, I will enhance your ideas, experimenting with layouts, sketches and mood boards. This will help us to explore ideas for the look, feel and practicalities of your space, getting lots of feedback from you so we can agree a clear direction.

03

Detailed Design

Detailed design takes the concept we have agreed on and develops it into something that can be implemented. This is through CAD drawings, sourcing furnishings, joinery, flooring and paint finishes, switches and sockets and all details down to the most minute. This ensures that everything has been thought of and the end design will entirely meet your goals. At the end of this stage you will be able to seek tenders from contractors, and have fixed costings for your project.

04

Procurement and Implementation

Your design will come to life as it is implemented by your contractor and other specialists. We oversee the implementation of the design, ensuring the contractor and project coordination teams have the information they need. At this stage we may also provide a procurement service to obtain furnishings and fixtures for your project.

05

Completion and Styling

This stage adds the finishing style touches, elevating the final finish by helping place soft furnishings, decorations, artwork and other accessories to ensure everything is looking the best it possibly can.

FAQ

Lots! After our initial chats I’ll go away and do research, coming back with some big ideas for how the space(s) could work, along with loads of pictures and ideas for details which we will review together. Here I’ll get your feedback which I refine into a clear direction we’ll discuss again After this I’ll source the items we’ve agreed, presenting you with choices along the way. You’ll find as we get further in, we are just narrowing in on the vision we’ve already agreed, so there are no surprises.

Many clients do not stipulate a fixed budget, though some do have a maximum figure in mind. I find everyone has a sense of seeing the value in spending in some areas and being more prudent in others. I am practised at working out where this line lies with individuals and will ask questions early on which help me to gauge this. When designing and sourcing for full-service residential projects we mainly look to the middle to upper end of the market.

We do not appoint any contractors. We have got relationships and are happy to share details, but you are required to do your own due diligence and obtain a number of quotes before contracting anyone. We offer a procurement service for furnishings which we can include as part of our proposal.

It depends on the scale, but a few months is typical. As a minimum, I require several weeks between the stages outlined in my process, so the fastest a design could be turned around is 6 weeks. Sometimes projects extend to six months plus or even years if we work rooms by room, or if there are delays with contractors coming on board and the designs get implemented. Generally, the sooner I am involved, the better.
Yes! I don’t really buy into replacing everything as it can be wasteful, and often people have lovely things, which tell the story of their lives. Early on, we will review your existing items and work out what we can keep, what we can refresh and what (if anything) won’t be carried forward.
Making sure the design is centred around what you like is at the heart of my practise. In our initial conversations and my client questionnaire I ask a lot of questions, these dig into what you like, how the space needs to work to fit your lifestyle and allow me to come up with new things you’ll love but you haven’t told me explicitly.

kind words

★★★★★ 5/5
"We had never used an interior designer before and I wasn’t entirely sure we needed one. However, having seen everything that Gemma has added to our project, I would now always recommend people consider using an interior designer when undertaking a building project of any substance."
Eleanor Heck
★★★★★ 5/5
"Gemma has been a wonderful help in the renovation of my central Bath apartment. The Georgian features of the apartment dictated somewhat the style the apartment needed. It was quite daunting for me, as I wasn’t used to this period and so I approached Gemma to help."
Victoria Gage
★★★★★ 5/5
"Working with Gemma on this project helped take the stress out of this large renovation and got me to view the house as a whole rather than looking at one thing at a time. Everything was really clear and organised which helped a lot with the builders. Gemma had great ideas and a lot of creative solutions which really helped me get the most out of my budget."
Alex Holbourne