uFurnish.com Founder Deirdre Mc Gettrick sat down with Claire Champion - 2025 uFurnish.com Home Awards Winner to talk all things interiors inspiration and advice for those on their own interiors journey.
Name: Claire Champion
Instagram handle: @charnwoodtowers
Location: Chester
Sum up your home interior style in 3 words or less: Nostalgic , welcoming, characterful
What’s your favourite item in your home?: Our beautiful mid century parquet floor which runs through most of the downstairs rooms. Decades of use have given it warmth and character, and I’m choosing to ignore the scratches I’ve added through the endless rearranging of furniture.
If your home had a theme song what would it be?: I’m rubbish at stuff like this so I asked John (my husband) and he said Pharrell Williams ‘Happy’ because that’s how our house makes him feel. I mean it might be a literal interpretation of the question but I don’t think I could have wished for a better answer really!
“Toilet roll over or under on the holder?: Over, I’m not a monster.
Do you place your cups and glasses facing up or down in your cupboard?: Ha, trick question! Daily use ones always facing up, occasional use facing down. Wow I didn’t realise I had a glasses storage policy until now.
What inspired your home’s interior style and how did you bring that vision to life?
Our interior style is heavily influenced by our home’s age. What was a dormer bungalow built in the 1950s, we’ve made the best use of the remaining features, such as large windows and the parquet flooring and gradually thrifted and upcycled pieces from that era. That said, we’ve not stuck slavishly to mid century design, but we’ve mixed and matched with more contemporary pieces. So long as they have clean lines and warm tones they tend to work for us. We also extended the house both upstairs and down, and while there are no architectural references to the era in the extensions, we’ve compensated with our furnishings and decor to create a cohesive flow.
How did you balance your design goals with your budget and do you have any clever hacks or cost-saving tips for readers?
Anyone who follows me knows I rarely spend money willingly (except on expensive wallpaper which is my biggest weakness) so the majority of our furniture is actually second hand. There’s no snobbery here though, I'm a huge fan of IKEA and have upcycled so many pieces from there including our shoe cabinets and wardrobes, there’s tutorials on my Instagram for these, as well as details of how I transformed our high gloss kitchen into a green shaker kitchen for £600 (see I told you I’m thrifty)
What has been your biggest challenge designing your home and how have you overcome it?
Social media is the most amazing resource for design inspiration, ideas and hacks but it can be challenging not to constantly compare and feel that you’ve come up short. Staying rooted in my own sense of style and what works for us whilst taking inspiration from the interiors community is not always something I’ve got right but I’m getting better at having the confidence to do my own thing.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting their own renovation journey what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to get it wrong. There are too many decisions in a reno to get every single one right, and it really doesn’t matter if you redecorate a room four times before it feels good. I’ve made some big mistakes, notably a brand new kitchen and bathroom both of which I hated once installed, but I worked with the decisions and made them both into rooms I was happy with.
Is there a particular space in your home that you’re most proud of and why?
I think it’s probably our living room. It’s a room that we both find peaceful and calming to be in, filled with pieces I’ve made or thrifted, it feels like somewhere I’ve got the balance right. Oh, and it’s got a copper leaf arch, which has to be one of my homes’ most distinctive features.
Where do you find your inspiration? Are there designers, Instagram accounts or brands that influence your style?
Nostalgia is a big influence on me. I love finding pieces which connect me in some way to the past, for example one of the lampshades in our living room is the one my parents had in my childhood home. As a plant lover, biophilic design plays a big part too. From more literal references such as bamboo and palm prints through to earthy colours and natural materials such as wood and stone there’s a strong sense of a connection to the outside world.
There are loads of brands that inspire me such a Birdie Fortescue, Pooky, Made.com but my budget often sits below their price points so aside from buying the occasional pieces from them I tend to use them for inspiration and try and find my own take on their styles.
What's the next interiors project you want to work on?
I’m starting to plan a rip out and redesign of our old kitchen, which was my biggest design mistake before I rescued it with a DIY makeover a few years ago. I think the time has come to try again and make it into a space that functions better for what we need as well as better reflects our design style. As usual, I’ll be keeping both eyes firmly focused on the budget and looking at ways to create a bespoke finish for less.
Each month we'll be interviewing one of our uFurnish.com Home Awards finalists asking them all about their home renovation journey, their inspiration and more so be sure to come back each month to learn more. Find out more about our Home Awards here, follow us on Instagram here for more inspiration and updates and subscribe to our emails here for weekly offers and more.