I’m Sophie. I grew up in a beautiful small market town in south wales. For most of my childhood I lived in a pretty tiny, but oh so warm and inviting, terraced house with my mum and little sister.

 

My mum has good taste, really good taste. No matter how little we had, and we really didn’t have very much, she made sure our home felt cosy and welcoming and it was always a joy to come home to.

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We had bread baskets as lampshades, the telly was on a coffee table in the fireplace, my sister’s bed was on a platform above my room and we once turned a 3 seater sofa into a 2 seater because we didn’t have space for the whole thing.

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If I could sum my childhood home up in 1 word it would be ‘improvisation’; it was awesome in hindsight.

• It made me practical and confident to improvise when necessary.

• It made me appreciate space, how it can be used in different ways, and that the logical way isn’t always the best.

• It enabled me to see the massive value of a warm (that’s psychologically as well as physically), welcoming and well-functioning home for everyone that lives there, or even those who just visit from time to time.

• Our teeny space also made me clever with storage, using alternative ideas and repurposing things to create what’s needed.

 

I left home at 19 as one of 14 students accepted onto a BA Hons course in Interior Design on the outskirts of London. Living in rented accommodation for many years stymied my aspirations to paint my own style all over my new homes. Being practical, I always found ways to somehow make my spaces my own but it taught me how much our physical environment affects how we feel, be that good or bad.

 

Fast forward to 2014 and I’m living in another picturesque market town and about to have my first baby. After graduating I had moved into retail interiors and visual merchandising and, by the time I had my son, ended up in a senior marketing planning role for a huge retailer. At this point everything started to change.

 

I’d had a child but the change in me wasn’t just down to the nappies, sore boobs, vomit (sorry, it’s true though), lack of sleep, hormones…you know the drill….. my whole perspective on the world changed. I saw it through new eyes and I didn’t entirely like how my little corner of the world looked; most specifically the work bit.

 

I dutifully went back to work after just over a year, managing to get part time hours so I could still spend the majority of my week with the little man while bringing in some much-needed money. But it just wasn’t right. I felt like a fraud for doing something I simply didn’t believe in. I felt like a failure for not being there for my boy, especially when he really struggled to settle in nursery (enter extreme separation anxiety) I felt physically and mentally exhausted by the struggle of doing a tough job that I didn’t enjoy and which compromised new values that I hadn’t even realised I had.

 

I stuck it for a fair few years but was lucky enough to meet some incredible people who inspired me to make changes. I worked through finding my purpose and defining what I wanted my life and work life to look like (quite literally an amazing experience; I’d highly recommend it). Quite how I had lost sight of what had inspired and excited me for my whole life baffles me but I’m certainly glad that I can now see it clearly. And it looks an awful lot like this….Coral & Grey.

 

I grabbed a well-timed redundancy with both hands, and a massive smile, and set up my little business at the start of 2019; working from home, being close to my family, being part of a community, doing something that I love and that I’m really good at.

 

I’m creative and practical and my mission, with Coral & Grey, is to enable anyone, regardless of space or budget, to have a home which makes them smile when they see it, which feels so great to be in and which works brilliantly for the people using it.

 

So that’s me, Sophie, and that’s where Coral & Grey came from. Thanks for reading, I hope you didn’t nod off :)