There will be lots of adjustments to make in your thinking to arrive at a combination of ideas that fit with your particular ideal of a holiday home. As an interior designer, helping clients through this process is one of the most interesting aspects of my job. Interpreting ideas and then seeing them come to life is so satisfying.

It’s hard though to make decisions without feeling informed. So when the paperwork side of buying a property is completed, doing some research to help you decide on the interiors pays dividends in the long run. If you’ve made friends in the area, other people’s homes can inspire ideas.

Churches and town squares highlight local architecture and provide an insight into the materials indigenous to the place. And, of course, the best hotels in the area are worth visiting to see how they have commissioned a style to suit the place – lunch on the terrace will allow you to soak in the style and get a feel for what you want to, or might not want to, introduce into your home. I also find relevant coffee table books on interiors worthwhile investments. They are a very good starting point and when your home is finished, friends and family can enjoy flicking through them when they visit.

We have been creating holiday homes for clients for over a decade now, and I have to say they are the most creative projects, and the most challenging. Weather conditions can play havoc with furnishings depending on where you decide to put down roots. Most of us tend to gravitate towards sunny climes. Ultra-violet light and a humid temperature often come hand in hand. Add air conditioning into the mix and you have a cocktail of variables that can play havoc with materials. Modern technology has given fabric manufacturers a new breadth of materials to work with. Fabrics are now specially designed to be resilient to sunlight and extreme heat. We particularly advise specialist products where outdoor furniture is concerned as unprotected fabrics can deteriorate very quickly in the wrong conditions.