I often get asked what inspired the name of my business. Little Acre is the name of our first UK property, our home. Little Acre is a circa 1926 bungalow in the Surrey Hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty.

After finishing up my business in Australia, and taking a few years out to settle my family in the UK, I wanted a name that reflected my new found focus. We extensively renovated Little Acre and it was a real journey, I had none of my usual go to contacts, suppliers or trades people. Building practices are different, processes are different. Products have different names. It was suddenly about keeping heat IN and not out. I really had to learn quick.

But it wasn’t just that… when we moved here my husband and I said we both wanted to embrace a quintessentially English country lifestyle. We didn’t want to move here and live the same as we had, we wanted it to be different. We had long fancied more land, space to grow more produce, farm shops versus supermarkets, country lanes versus busy streets, rural versus suburban. So sitting on just under an acre, backing on to fields for as far as the eye can see, this property had to be ours.

When we moved to England, everything was new and challenging. It was important for me to create a place for the family that was ours, that was familiar, a place to retreat to, more so than ever before. It’s this that fuels my work, helping to create this for other families, whether it be a two bedroom semi, an industrial loft, or a new build, it doesn’t matter. So the name Little Acre stuck, and now I’m delighted to help clients create their version of Little Acre in whatever shape that may be.

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From a young age I have loved to cook. As the eldest of five children there were always plenty of volunteers to try my creations and nothing ever stayed around for long. The buzz I got from making my Mum’s birthday cake of my Dad’s favourite oaty biscuits was addictive and cemented my love of cooking.

As I grew up it was my room mates that I cooked spaghetti carbonara for at 3am after a big night out. My husband that I wooed with my culinary prowess, followed by my babies that I tempted with tasty purees. Now it is my three teenagers that mumble ‘thanks mum’ through mouthfuls as they pass through the kitchen.

I am utterly and completely addicted to cooking as a way of expressing love and care, of nurturing and providing. There is so much in this world that I cannot control, none of us can, but I can cook and put smiles on faces, and you know what…sometimes that’s enough.

So I invite you to check in from time to time, my recipes will always be simple, accessible and delicious.

Jude x

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Grey is in essence a neutral colour. It is often referred to as a colour without colour, because it can be composed of just black and white. However this is quite simplistic.

Grey is a result of mixing any two complementary colours that contain roughly equal parts red, blue and green. This is why grey can be a difficult colour to get right in an interior scheme. Grey is never just grey.

Grey can throw blue, lilac and green. A grey with a slightly higher concentration of brown will be much warmer than one that contains more blue. In my experience grey as a colour scheme can be quite divisive. People are either camp grey or camp beige.

There is a colour however that bridges the grey beige divide. Introducing Little Greene’s French Grey Pale. A delicate soft warm grey that is neither battleship grey nor boring beige. Get yourself a tester by visiting https://littlegreene.com

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This recipe is incredibly easy and versatile. It an be used on banana bread, pancakes, or waffles.

Simply place 1/2 cup of room temperature butter and 1/4 cup of maple syrup in a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until butter goes light and fluffy.

You can simply place in a small dish and refrigerate until it firms up a little.

I usually make it in greater quantities, then I roll it into a sausage shape on some baking paper on the bench, then I wrap it tightly in cling film twisting the ends tight and place in the fridge . It will harden into a lovely French style log of butter. Ready for when ever you make banana bread or pancakes.

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Once relegated a low position on the to do list of property renovators and interior designers the master bedroom now sits right up there on clients wish lists. Words such as sanctuary, peaceful, retreat and so on feature regularly in discussions. 

When meeting with clients what becomes evident is the differing requirements of both sexes. Men shudder at the thought of pink, no matter how pale, florals no matter how subtle, and anything crystal. Whilst women are seeking an upgrade from the striped navy flannelette of their partners bachelor days.  We have arrived folks, at the Challenge of the Gender Neutral Bedroom. 

Ok, so humour and stereotypes cast aside, the question still remains. How do we achieve gender neutrality without sacrificing style?

The answer, in my experience, lies with texture, subtlety and the juxtaposition of patterns and colours that have traditionally been labelled masculine or feminine . You can add a floral motif on an all white pillow case. You can add a delicate touch of flesh pink in the thin stripe of a fitted sheet, and team it all with pale grey knitted cushions without over doing the femininity.

In the same way you can layer more masculine shades in less typically masculine ways. Team a striped all white duvet cover and a mustard yellow blanket in the softest of wools, with an abstract floral pillow case in navy and white. It’s about mixing it up, casting aside outdated notions and above all communication.

We all need a sanctuary to retreat to at the end of each day, and what that means to each of us differs greatly, however a sanctuary without your loved one, isn’t really a sanctuary… so start from there, the fact you have chosen each other proves you have synergy. Brain storm it, talk it out, if you are both equally vested in making your bedroom somewhere you both love to be then what can really go wrong.

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