20 questions...

12 Are you finding people are seriously into sustainability nowadays? Yes, most of our clients are conscious about their own footprint, and shopping locally is a great way to reduce that!

13 What’s the most ambitious project you have worked on? The home we’re just about to purchase, a centuryold traditional village house, which needs a new roof structure, lime plaster rendering, and new kitchen and bathrooms!

14 Do you work alongside builders or do you take it all on yourselves? We are very hands-on and do a lot ourselves; we bring in tradespeople and general builders/ contractors when needed.

15 How big is your own team? It’s the two of us, but we do have a few reliable people to help us out at times.

1 Where are you both from? Phil is from Cornwall in the UK and Cecilia from Gothenburg, Sweden.

2 When did you both arrive here? Cecilia has been here on and off since 2006, while Phil moved here in 2018.

3 What attracted you to the Algarve for your next chapter? Phil had always wanted to live abroad, and when he met Cecilia, it was an easy decision to make!

4 What professions were you in before? Phil had done roofing, woodworking and sales, while Cecilia worked onboard cruise ships before starting a property management and rental business in the Algarve.

5 How did you happen into the design sector? Cecilia, who studied interior design with Rhodec International, was increasingly asked to furnish rental properties.

6 What of your services are those most in demand? Painting (furniture, doors, walls), custom design work, furnishings/ interior design and lately, property styling, aka home staging!

7 What nationalities are your clients, in main? British, North American and Scandinavian, but we look after people from many other countries who have settled here or bought holiday properties.

8 How do they find you? Through word of mouth and Facebook recommendations!

9 Do they know what they want before you see them, or are they looking for ideas? People generally know what they want, and we add suggestions and ideas to that, to make it achievable.

10 Budgets - do you work to theirs, or have a free hand when you know what they want? An infinite budget would be great! But most people have a set budget, and it’s up to us to be as creative as we can within that budget.

11 Where do you buy from on a client’s behalf? For overseas clients we use a lot of online shops; if the clients live here we often go buying with them, visiting local shops, tradesmen and artisans. We also make our own lamps and lampshades, which we incorporate into our design and decor work.

16 Do you do outdoors work, like designing seating areas, building pergolas, etc? Yes, a lot of our custom work is deckings, pergolas and exterior storage units.

17 Do you work with/recommend other services, such as landscapers? We work with many different local companies and would recommend most of them to our clients!

18 Now staging – what exactly is it? Home Staging is when you prepare a home for a real estate sale. It can include decluttering, rearranging furniture, painting, maintenance and landscaping, making it as attractive to as many buyers as possible.

19 Can staging make a difference to an achievable sales price? Absolutely! Not only does it make the property stand out in a competitive market, but it also helps buyers envision living in the space, helping to sell faster and for a higher price.

20 What would be your dream brief? A top-to-bottom renovation, fully furnished and landscaped, preferably with period features to be restored!