Nina believes the home is a personal sanctuary in which to rest and rejuvenate - a healing place for mind, body and spirit. She trained under a Chinese master to learn authentic feng shui, which concerns the relationship between our homes and us, and which is about matching people to their homes and workspaces. She works with private individuals and also with businesses, where she helps business owners and managers develop a more positive image, improve staff morale and customer relations, promote team work and increase output, and transform public and staff areas into a more pleasant environment. Her clients appreciate her work because it has such a positive impact on their lives.

"The unique perspective brought to the project by Nina’s extensive knowledge and experience of interior design coupled with her understanding of feng shui has resulted in the creation of an amazing home where the emphasis is on relaxation and rejuvenation."

Nina ensures her schemes are specifically tailored to meeting her clients’ tastes, needs and preferences - from detailed drawings right through to design implementation. Having travelled extensively and lived in several countries, she brings an international style to her work so that her interiors have universal appeal; they aren’t too summery or too wintry, too feminine or too masculine, too young or too old. Her trade mark is to create an effect of subtle suggestion rather than the obvious. She sums up her design style as ‘Calm, elegant and desirable’.

“Nina is like a one stop shop. It’s amazing what she can do with a few subtle changes and the difference it can make to a room.”

In areas such as kitchens and offices Nina places great importance on a clutter-free environment with lots of free work surfaces to promote clear thinking, quick decision-making and speed tasking. In bedrooms she uses subtle textures and colours to appeal to the emotions and the senses, in bathrooms she uses natural products and materials to promote a sense of peace and tranquillity, and in living spaces she creates a sociable space that encourages a good atmosphere and great conversation.

"I could not have expected anyone to formulate a kitchen design as appealing to the eye or as unique as Nina achieved, and I would also like to highlight the amount of time Nina spent outside of office hours to ensure that the design was executed with precision by all contractors on time."

For styling any interior, Nina feels that colour, warmth and practicality are three important considerations, and that calm colours teamed with an accent palette of winter berry colours is ideally suited to the Irish climate and light. She usually selects soft muted colours (such as stone, cappuccino and pale grey-green) for a gently blended background and then adds certain proportions of rich colours (such as burgundy, olive, pumpkin, grape or aubergine) and luxurious textiles.

The room’s décor was changed from dull and dark to a timeless scheme and a relaxing place in which we enjoy spending time. Through her professional services she has enriched our home.”

Nina loves finishing touches that add sparkle; she looks on accessories as ‘jewellery for the home’. She doesn’t believe in revealing everything to the eye in one glance and thinks there should be enough visual interest to hold someone’s attention no matter which aspect of a room comes into view. She says ‘Aim to get the proportions and style of a space correct and then make the scheme truly outstanding by using the right balance of colour, texture and pattern’. She adds ‘Choose simple and timeless for the main aspects of an interior, as it’s cheaper and more practical to update the accessories than to create a whole new scheme’.