The first home I remember was in Lincombe Hill in Bath. It was a big Georgian townhouse that my parents spent years doing up — it was a real labour of love. The rooms were huge, with high ceilings — I remember seeing Dad up two sets of ladders, working away at the cornices. He’s an interior architect, so he loved taking on those kinds of projects.

The house also had an enormous basement kitchen with a jukebox, a bread oven and a safe. Mum was a fashion illustrator and at one point she was doing a project for Rolex and had tens of thousands of pounds worth of watches stored in there.

The house I live in now, in south-east London, used to belong to my parents. It’s a Grade II-listed building and I lived here from age 14 until I graduated from St Martins. Mum loved interior design and it was a running joke with my school friends that I wouldn’t know what I’d be going home to — by the time I got back, she’d have painted a wall bright pink or chocolate brown and moved all the furniture around.

The picture above the fireplace in our front room is one Mum painted, inspired by one of my scarf designs. She did six in total and we displayed them at a pop-up shop we ran in Covent Garden this summer.

In 2004 my boyfriend — now husband — Chris was offered a job in San Francisco. It was an amazing opportunity to do graphic design for Apple so I went with him. I’d graduated six months before and felt ready for an adventure. We were lucky enough to get a lovely rent-controlled apartment in the Noe Valley, which dated back to the 1900s. All the floorboards had been laid by hand, the doors had these big brass handles, and I was completely taken with it.

San Francisco was brilliant for picking up furniture and bric-a-brac. We’d spend weekends combing through flea markets for vintage chairs and fruit crates. I found it so inspiring — all these amazing buildings painted in bright pastel colours. It was a great place to develop as a designer and hone my aesthetic. I launched my label in San Francisco and recently designed a set of scarves named after its streets.

We moved back to the UK in 2012. There were lots of reasons: we wanted to buy a house and start a family, Chris had been offered a job here, and fashionwise it made sense for me to be in London. Coincidentally, my parents had decided to move to the country so it was perfect timing — now our son Art is in my old room.

It’s lovely because it feels like a bolt-hole for all the family to return to. We have lots of heirlooms, including some beautiful kitchen scales Mum bought in the Seventies and an Anglepoise lamp that belonged to my grandparents. I like having this sense of continuity.

As Chris and I are both designers, our gifts to each other often reflect this. I’ve given him a Mondaine Swiss Railways clock and an Eames rocking chair; he gave me a set of prints by the fashion illustrator René Gruau and an incredible Lloyd Loom chair. We also have lovely pieces designed by friends, like the wooden dolls in the bedroom.

The most precious, though, is a set of leather-bound albums. One is full of photos, another has all the cards Chris and I have made each other over the past 10 years, and the last is a guest book from our wedding, in which we got everyone to draw a horse.

We don’t really have any house rules, except that the kettle is always on. We like to have a very open house, with lots of people around the table for endless cups of tea.

Also ReaD: http://www.kissydressinau.com

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