My home: Yasmina Lambert

Jewellery designer Yasmina Lambert lives in a colourful and quirky home in Bishopston with her husband and their three children.

We moved to this house six years ago. A friend of mine saw it and mentioned it to me, thinking we would be interested in its large garden even though we had no intention of moving from St Andrew’s. As soon as I saw the pictures of the house on the internet I fell in love, a feeling that grew when I saw it in real life. 

When we moved in, the house was in great condition, so there was hardly anything to change. The large, light and spacious kitchen-family room extension had already been built; the kitchen itself is a perfect and practical combination of high-end elements and high street – Ikea units with solid wood surfaces and dark tiles. Six years on, I still love this room. New additions include pictures on the walls and scaffolding board shelves – I like the contrast between the sleekness of the kitchen units and the battered texture of the shelves. 

Slowly, we changed a few things to make our mark. Every wall in our previous house was white, so I wanted to change that in the new house and experiment a little bit. I bought plenty of paint samples, tried them out, but went back to white in the end. It is the best background, bringing so much light into the house and acting as a great canvas for all the colourful pictures and furniture we have. The main bathroom needed a bit of colour so we added Moroccan tiles around the sink. I love vintage and ethnic fabrics; there are plenty of Moroccan rugs on the floors and Indian blankets on sofas and beds. Bright cushions can transform the whole feel of a room. Velvet and embroidery is a great mix. 

Home is a refuge and a safe place that reflects my personality, a place that I nurture and enjoy. But it’s also where I work. I run my jewellery business Atelier Purple from home, making all my jewellery from a workbench in the family room, near the kitchen area. I work mainly when the children are in school and sometimes in the evening, but when I work with the kids around, the temptation can be too great for them and tools go missing!

Pinterest is one of my favourite sources of inspiration. It is fantastic, free and saves on buying expensive magazines. While decorating, I created my own inspiration board. And when I ran out of posters and paintings, I asked my kids to make a drawing: nice, inexpensive art.

When I haven’t been able to find what I want in a shop, I’ve bought wardrobes and cabinets and painted them off-black or dark grey; the result is always very satisfying. Skips, too, can hold treasures. Once, I found some 1960s rosewood Danish designer chairs. They were beautiful but their three legs were totally impractical. Every child in the house fell off them! 

I have found lots of what we have in the house through digging around at vintage fairs (although they can be a bit expensive). The best place to shop for furniture is eBay – my proudest find is a 1960s sideboard I bought for just £30 – but in Bristol my favourite shops are Archers & Co (24 Alma Vale Road) for modern furniture; Bouton (43 Alma Vale Road) for vintage and antique; Re-psycho (85 Gloucester Road) for retro furniture; and any of the city’s charity and secondhand shops.  

My home in five words:

Light

Spacious

Colourful

Lively

Creative

 Photographs by Mano Basu at www.goodspaces.co.uk