People often ask me about the process involved in bringing interior design projects to life when working with clients. In this article, I’ll give you some personal insights into what goes on in my head when I am commissioned for a design project, whether for a private individual or business. A close relationship invariably develops with the project commissioners following a long and intensive creative process. Welcome to a behind-the-scenes look at how a project is born!

With the days growing shorter, it’s time to talk about lights. This key element in any home improvement project strikes terror into many of us. For proof, look no further than those bare light bulbs still hanging from the ceiling several years after you’ve moved house… The famous Danish designer Poul Henningsen was already mocking us about this a century ago: “Furniture, style carpets, everything in a home is secondary to the importance of lighting. The correct illumination of a room does not require money, but insight.” So, prepare for your very own “Fiat Lux” moment…

Another one of those Anglicisms we’ve adopted in French, embracing the upbeat spirit of our English-speaking friends. We say “waouh” (and not “Yahoo!”, in the manner of my grandmother enjoying the Internet for the first time). Our Larousse dictionary describes it as an expression of “surprise mixed with admiration”. How, then, can we achieve this holy grail of interior design? Here are some ideas to hopefully bring the “wow” effect (or “eureka”, if you prefer) into your home.

A personalized, tidy children’s room? Dream on – surely that only exists in the magazines!? No, dear reader: this challenge is achievable, with the help of your child! Here’s how to achieve a harmonious result to suit you both. Listening, caring and DIY are the order of the day! Try this experience with kids aged four to ten.

Food: a quintessential source of comfort for which we’ve felt renewed fervour in recent months. Some of us have tried our hand at breadmaking. Others have taken the opportunity to rethink the way we eat and source local products. Others have reinvented day-to-day interiors with beautiful table settings, claiming our right to continue enjoying life to the full! Let’s decode our kitchens’ role in all this…

My late grandmother, Simone, liked to close any kind of aesthetic debate with the wise saying: “each to their own (bad taste)!” In other spheres and other times, Nietzche maintained that “bad taste has its rights no less than good taste” and Galliano ironically retorted: “I prefer bad taste to a total absence of taste!” I propose we debate this vast subject in the field of decoration and furnishings…