My Place: Inna Hart

“We’d never been to Bristol before we decided to move here – we spent so many hours driving around to find the areas that we liked!” laughs Inna Hart, sipping a glass of water on a tall white stool in her pristine kitchen. The glass door by the Belfast sink is open onto the back garden and shards of sunlight fall on the butcher block counter top that combines a sleek inbuilt hob and a breakfast bar.

A large tree with deep green leaves bathes in the light from the open windows, while more plants on a shelf by the window gently trail their greenery down the white cupboard doors.

“I love my plants. Everything survives,” says Inna. “My mum says I have an aura!”

The bright kitchen is full of plants and rose gold accents

Originally from Russia, Inna and her British husband, Andrew, moved from Reading a little over a year ago. The house hunt dragged on, and they were reaching the end of their patience when their estate agent called with one more property. “This was our ‘mystery house’ and we fell in love with it,” Inna says. Their 1930s home in Downend has been renovated by the couple in record time but without scrimping on style.

“I love to try out new interior design trends,” Inna says. “Last week I had an urge to repaint the lounge and my husband said, ‘please don’t’! He goes away on business and comes back to everything having changed.” The trends are subtle: carefully-placed metallic tones run through the house, while there is a nod to industrial styling in the living room in the form of black metal bookcases that display some of the treasures the couple have picked up from travelling in Indonesia and Spain.

Industrial and metallic trends run subtly through the gold accents of the living room

Small reminders of Inna’s home country juxtapose the Englishness of this semi-detached family home. Her collection of first-edition soviet books, some with grand embellished covers, sit on shelves either side of the fireplace in the living room, keeping watch over a deep brown velvet armchair with Chesterfield-style leather arms. Upstairs in the master bedroom, a modern typographic print of a Russian phrase sits above the grey headboard. “It translates as, ‘take your clothes off and lie down’,” Inna says, almost succeeding in keeping a straight face.

The cosy master bedroom oozes understated luxury

Though Inna has always been creative – once tasked with designing a gallery wall at her school for an art project, she ended up redesigning the entire school, right down to the colours of the cutlery in the canteen – venturing into full-time design work is very new. “To be honest, I thought interior design was just rearranging cushions – I didn’t realise what they actually did. I’d spent my working life in offices, but when we moved to Bristol I wanted to convert my hobby into work.” After completing a course with the British Academy of Interior Designers in April, Inna posted on a local Facebook group, offering her services for free to build her portfolio.

“I didn’t think I’d get anything from it, but I was booked up for the next two weeks!” she laughs. “I was running around meeting people and looking at houses and managing a variety of projects. It’s going slowly, but this is how everyone starts. It’s exciting – I feel in my element when I’m doing this.”

Inna’s green thumb is evident throughout her home

While Inna’s business evolves, it is her house that remains a source of inspiration. “It feels like a home now. On our honeymoon I missed it!” she says. “We’ve got so attached to the place, and I think it helps when you do it all yourself. I always ask clients if they plan to do some of the work themselves – I think it removes some of the attachment and the personality if someone else does everything. You can say things like, ‘see that splash of paint on the shelf? That was me!’ and I really encourage that. What’s important is how you feel at home, more than how you’ve styled it.”

Find out more about Inna’s interior design work at www.ihinteriors.co.uk. To have your home featured online and in our print magazine, email jess@bristol247.com