Alison Gibb

About me

Hello, I am Alison Gibb, a freelance interiors writer and stylist, creating regular content for many national interior titles, including Ideal Home, Country Homes and Style at Home, with my husband, the photographer, Douglas Gibb. I studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art and worked as an art teacher, before becoming a writer and stylist, 20 years ago now.

My specialist subjects

Because of my job, people often approach me looking for help with their home and I have created the world's first interior design card game: the Interior Design ToolkitIt is a fun process to enable people to discover their style, create a mood board and make bolder, more confident decorating decisions.

My years of working as a stylist and writing about people's homes has led me to reflect and analyse on what works and what does not. My own style is rustic/coastal: I love natural materials: linen, stone and raw wood. Lighting is very important to me as well and is the first thing I would look at when planning a room.

My favourite places to shop

I live by the coast and my favourite place to shop is our local high street in the pretty seaside town of North Berwick, it is brimming with gorgeous home ware shops, florists, cafes and delis.

My Ideal Home

I am very lucky to live in my Ideal Home, a unique 1970s house that we have worked hard to make exactly right for us. Our kitchen and garden have both appeared in the magazine. Our kitchen has a fun beach cafe theme and our garden has a coastal style patio at the front, where it is very sunny and open, complete with a faded wooden picnic bench and vintage fairy lights strung along the pergola.

Our back garden is shady and sheltered and we have planted an abundance of shade loving, woodland plants: ferns and bamboos for a jungle effect!

We have an office in our garden, a larch clad contemporary pavilion style building, which is a fab set up, with my husband's work station, a wood buning stove, an original Ligne Roset Togo sofa and a wall of shelving for all our props. It is a great party room as well!