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What drew me to my home was the original fittings and the working fireplace<\/a>. Before my husband and I bought the house \u2013 a Victorian semi built in the 1860s \u2013 I owned a modern flat in central London. We didn\u2019t live together until after we married so this house certainly feels like home.<\/p>\n I love each and every room for different reasons but in the winter we spend most nights in the \u2018withdrawing room\u2019, as we call it. It contains sculptures and artworks that I have collected on my travels around the world. It\u2019s a small room with an open fire, a sofa, a library of books<\/a> and my writing desk. It is intimate, beautiful and cosy.<\/p>\n You might also like<\/strong> Annie Sloan\u2019s colourful Victorian house<\/a><\/p>\n I collect artefacts when I travel as I love meandering among antiques stalls<\/a> and galleries when I\u2019m away. I once walked into a gallery in Bali and found a very old stone piece that the owner told me had been recovered from a temple. It depicted a pregnant woman and was incredibly heavy. It took five weeks to ship it home but I adore it. A few months later I miraculously became pregnant at the age of 41, after IVF had failed.<\/p>\n At the top of my interiors wishlist has to be reupholstering<\/a> the seat of an antique<\/a> French chair. I have yet to find the right fabric \u2013 I\u2019m looking for something pink or orange to contrast with the white walls in the hallway where it lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The first piece of furniture I ever bought was a beautiful modern chair for my flat. It has square legs and arms and a soft cream suede seat with leather thongs as rungs for the back. It is so comfortable. It now sits in our bedroom and I like the juxtaposition with my antique furniture<\/a> \u2013 also in the room is a very old French bed with the traditional bed knobs and frame.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You might also like<\/strong> a timeless renovation of a London Victorian home<\/a><\/p>\n The artist I most admire is Patrick Mavros, a sculptor from Zimbabwe, who has a store on Fulham Road. He sponsors women with HIV in South Africa, so they can learn how to create the most extraordinary pottery. Their pieces have become so sophisticated that [luxury scarf brand] Herm\u00e8s has expressed an interest. I have a crocodile jug that I keep high up, away from my exuberant four-year-old son, Wilbur.<\/p>\n I love making the connection between traditional and modern and blending the periods. For example, my kitchen<\/a> is Scandi in its look but with a traditional Downton Abbey<\/i><\/a>-style Tom Howley kitchen painted in Farrow & Ball<\/a>\u2019s Cornforth White. Then I have an African stool and a stone head from Zimbabwe that sit alongside in the area with a sofa. I love the pops of dark brown against the whites and greys.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You might also like<\/strong> a Victorian property with vibrant, vintage decor<\/a><\/p>\n If my home were on fire, I would save my wooden artefacts \u2013 the traditional paddle I brought home from Borneo and the African mask I traded for a dress in Mozambique.<\/p>\n