At home with Lulu Guinness

Fashion designer Lulu Guinness is famous for creating handbags popular with A-listers like Keira Knightley. But her embroidered bed linen has created a following in its own right. Guinness talks to us about cheap wallpaper, trends and why her bed is the centre of the universe.

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My house is...

very much a working home, not a show house. There are children (and a dog) running around, piles of homework are everywhere and an ex-husband who comes around all the time.

For over 20 years, I have lived...

in the same house off Westbourne Grove. At the start, we lived in just the basement while we gradually restored the five floors which were full of bedsits. It took a week of skips to get the stuff out, it was disgusting. It's an ongoing project we'll never really finish.

I started my business...

in the basement of my house when I was 29. I started with a concept of a briefcase for women which soon moved onto the rose basket bags that were very me. At the time, the handbag business was more artisan, more like being a hat designer. After a couple of years, I had my first piece shown in the V&A.

About 15 years ago...

Debenhams asked if I wanted to expand into homes which I did. At the time, nobody else was doing embroidered sheets. They were incredibly successful. So when I left Debenhams, people kept asking where to get them from. My bedlinen sold better than my handbags.

To update a room...

use wallpaper. I just bought the black and white cityscape design from Graham and Brown for my daughters' rooms. At only £30 a roll, you can afford to experiment.

Wallpaper can be really expensive. I have hand painted de Gournay wallpaper going all the way from my front door, up the stairs, all the way to the top of the house. It has thick green foliage at the bottom leading to blue sky with birds at the top.

Next season's trend...

is about becoming more personalised. I absolutely love my Fornasetti cabinet. I paid for it over months; it's a big piece in my kitchen and looks rather like a black and white building. I like a bit of wit and style. On my wish list is vintage Fornasetti. My piece is new and still cost £6,000. The old stuff is just beautiful but costs about £46,000.

My bed is...

the centre of the universe. It is sleigh-shaped and more like my kitchen table as it is where my children and dog hang out and where I have piles of work and magazines.

I am most proud of...

creating the rose basket. It is totally original. When I created it, I had a beautiful vase of roses on my table and thought, I want to carry a handbag around like that vase.

I used to like...

mirrored furniture before it was for sale everywhere. Once it became too easy to get - it's now on sale at Laura Ashley - the charm goes. It's a constant quest to be different.

The whole idea of my bed linen is...

incredibly good quality. Rather like my handbags, I do one collectable piece, sort of like an heirloom or vintage piece. There were 100 of the Birds of Paradise design which is a bed cover but can also be a wall hanging. .