IH Design is based in Surrey near Hampton Court, founded by Isabel Haines (née Simpson).

Isabel is English – Australian, born in Paris, educated between France and England by way of the Middle East.

 “My appreciation for design and my education was shaped from an early age by my mother’s fantastic eye for period detail, form and colour and my late father’s keen eye for detail, custom and quality”

25 years of experience have spanned many disciplines.

An internship in Paris turned into a job working for renowned commercial architect Jean-Jacques Ory, pioneer at the time of modern office building design – artfully restructuring and incorporating period Haussmann facades in central Paris. He insisted she stay on and she did, working in France doing design & build and project management with SFICA and on to the biggest building site in Europe at the time with Euro-Disney Imagineering. Working with English, French and Italian crews on site, she stayed on through Opening in 1992 having headed the Interior Depts for 2 out of the 5 park zones.

Her career then took her back to London and into kitchen design and custom cabinetry design with Connaught Kitchens in the early 90’s. Recession had hit, and with it came innovation in modern and traditional kitchen design. Projects varied between custom handpainted cabinetry for Interior Designers in Belgravia to modern German kitchens in the country. An introduction to antique dealer Thomas Kerr prompted a move to L’Encoignure in the King’s Road and No.12 Cale Street in Chelsea as an antiques buyer and interior designer. And so started a decade long collaboration, supplying much of the Trade with antiques and working on turnkey projects as far away as Nantucket for private clients in London.

Regular trade customers and retail clients alike formed long alliances that have lasted to this day.

“Finding the right solution for the job, the joy of the right finishes and the satisfaction of a happy client is everything.”

Projects vary in scope from full project management and extension projects to interior design, selecting finishes, custom work, finding lighting, buying and selling antiques, papers & paints, curtain making, soft furnishing and arranging restoration work.

Services include doing Planning Permissions and Listed Buildings applications; ranging from design to roof and window proportions, selecting materials, introducing sympathetic details and providing drawings and meeting with the local authority planners.

Past and current projects include houses and apartments in Belgravia, London, Surrey, The Lake District, Scotland, Corfu, France and Nantucket.