An Interview With Alterme Home Founder - Jasmine Jade Brooker
A L T E R M E H O M E A N E C D O T E S
an interview with the founder ;
As Alterme Home heads into its fifth year, this weeks interview is more of a re-introduction and an insight into my own personal home style, and a little more about the brand.
Sitting on the edge of a small village, a few minutes walk from open fields and farmland myself (Jasmine) my partner Jack, and our beloved little Buddy a four year old WCS have lived for almost 9 years. Our home was probably one of the least considered purchases we’ve ever made, which seems bizarre looking back, but the thought of moving out together was so exciting that as soon as we saw the development plans in this quiet village we jumped at the chance to reserve our new home. The build is in keeping with the local surroundings and features faux lintels above the windows and traditional red brick with a mix of stone homes too, back then our styles were quite different and in the last five years we have been on quite a journey to add a little more character inside our home to reflect the surroundings.
We are lucky that our development was on the edge of the village and the road out leads right to this field, Buddy’s favourite place to play ball and run free!
Some of our neighbours down the road! We love long walks and I am always so excited when these little ones are out in the field, I’d absolutely love to own sheep one day as they were my Nanny’s favourite animal and I used to love going to her house to watch them in the field across from the river at the bottom of her garden.
INSIDE OUR HOME
Our home has truly evolved with us, and we’ve learned lots along the way!
We learned how to add panelling to some of the rooms, created a secret boot room (with the help of my Dad) and filled our home with both beautiful statement pieces as well as trinkets from places we visit and pictures.
I think after almost 9 years here it finally has the right balance of lived in character whilst being a reflection of ourselves and feeling like our home.
The garden is one of my favourite parts of our home and I love to be out there whenever I can… spot my tiny veg trug here, with the dream of having a proper veg patch one day!
Jack landscaped our garden himself (I project managed...) on quite a budget as we know this is not our forever home, but I am always aware that you shouldn’t wait for the next house, or next year to transform a space, you are living in it now so you should make it your own and enjoy it.
With zero experience Jack laid this patio one year after we moved in and it is my favourite place to sit and drink my morning coffee (when it’s not raining…) the table and chairs were an absolute steal in the sale! Styling them with Alterme Home outdoor cushions ‘Sicily stripe’ in cream & green makes them inviting and comfortable and creates an extension of our indoor living space to the outside.
MY INSPIRATION;
“I find inspiration in the places that we most frequently visit! It is no secret that we spend a lot of time in the Cotswolds , this at first was due to visiting lots of Jacks customers - I remember the first visit to the area, I decided to come and meet Jack at Daylesford 8 years ago, for lunch after he had been to see one of his customers at their nearby farm and I instantly fell in love with the products and the styling alongside the quaint little villages and countryside I drove through. Fast forward to the most recent years and we spend even more time in that part of the country - lots of the recent photoshoots and even Alterme Homes first ever Christmas PR event was in the Cotswolds! I am always inspired by the natural beauty of the villages or the local pub décor and it has given me so much inspiration for the brand”
We do most things as a trio, and always help each other out when one of us needs advice or support within our businesses, when you work for yourself you never really get time off - but we do try to do something fun and go somewhere different once a week!
A sneak peak of our home - images below left to right;
Another little corner of our garden, it was on quite a slope when we moved in, so between us we moved ALOT of earth to create a flat raised gravel patio at the top surrounded by bushes which have grown rather big over the years and sleepers which have aged and weathered beautifully.
Our secret boot room - something I have always wanted and decided last year that why not create one the home we are living in instead of waiting for the forever home, my dad helped quite a bit on this one so I can only take credit for the design, sourcing the items and painting the space - it isn’t that easy to photograph but its a wonderful warm dark sage green and has created a lovely space to keep our muddy boots and coats after soggy dog walks!
The bathroom - which served as a dumping ground for carpet off cuts, general clutter and rubbish for almost 3 years until my Dad helped bring my spa vision to life with floor to ceiling marble tiles, this table was another Facebook market find for £4, proving that it is the accessories styled with it that elevate the look.
Finally my wonderful sewing studio that has been built in our garage so I don’t have a long commute to work but equally, do have my own well organised and inspiring space to sew all of your beautiful orders!
We spend ALOT of time at home as we both work for ourselves, so we wanted to create a bedroom that felt like those we stay in when we are away in cosy country pubs. Lots of texture and warmth with country charm - its just wonderful to have a space that feels like a little holiday retreat when we’ve been in the same four walls all day.
THE REASON I STARTED ALTERME HOME
“Cushions and curtain’s really elevate how your rooms look, and after purchasing 8 pairs of curtains that ‘weren’t quite right’ for our living room and returning every cushion I purchased for similar reasons, I decided to make my own for our home!
It was the start of lockdown, I had JUST left my buying job to start my wedding dress alterations business ALTERME ALTERATIONS (which I had been doing on the side since my last year of university) and Jack suggested that I made some cushions to sell on Instagram, which was the start of my little business Alterme Home, (So the name Alterme was already set with domain and email and it made sense at the time to keep it - 5 years on I would love to change it but I also know it is a known brand and that might have a detrimental effect - so it will have to stay!) so whilst the pandemic was a weird and testing time, I will forever be grateful for the direction and path it took me on!”
I was influenced from an early age on interiors and styling as my Mum always had a keen eye and took pride in decorating our home, she was amazing at stencilling and did us some wonderful bedroom schemes as children - the most impressive being a Bob the builder theme room for my brother Glenn, with his cat pilchard next to him - a long way from her usual intricate stencilling but just as perfect! My Mum also used to make INCREDIBLE curtains for people locally, and made me a lot of beautiful dresses when I was younger (the inspiration for the Jacqueline dress - named after my Mum) and I feel very lucky to have been gifted some of her creative genes!!
MY FAVOURITE PART OF OUR HOME
The weather, as we know, is not always on our side so whilst my garden is possibly my favourite part of my home, my next favourite is the living and dining area. It has taken years of adding slowly but it finally feels like the cosy space we dreamt of. Owning a cocker spaniel has driven some of the design decisions such as replacing the light cream (absolutely ruined after 7 years..) carpet to a darker textured carpet to hide a multitude of sins, and also refreshing the kitchen with more rustic wooden accents and adding natural linen fabrics in the curtains and cushions.
My cosy little corner, you’ll find me here in the evenings with a cup of herbal tea and a magazine or book… featuring my other Facebook market place steal.
We also replaced our fake plastic logs on the fire with real logs - this was the thing we were most excited about when choosing our ‘added extras’ with the builder, it is one of those vapour fires and does look very realistic, but adding the real logs does give much more of an illusion to the real open fire that is a dream of ours to one day have in our forever home! Our dining table and chairs have been upcycled to our taste and look wonderful in the space, its lovely to set the table using all of my linens and its got a real cosy country home feel in the evenings by candle light. Plus the fact that both of us are prone to spilling things meant that spending a fortune on a special dining table which will inevitably get ruined was off the cards!
The top of our garden, again landscaped by Jack (maybe he needs a career change…) where we get the most sun all day so this outdoor sofa with my outdoor bunting to add a little something special is the perfect summer weekend spot to sit in the sunshine.
My favourite home purchase;
With the help of these heavy weight natural linen curtains (see here for more information on made to order curtains and blinds) and a few more ‘premium’ styling pieces such as these wonderful books, lamp and new to our range glass candle holders this £20 bargain console has been totally transformed.
I have a few, so it is really hard to choose! But I would have to say a console table I picked up on Facebook market place for £20, it looked hideous when we collected it, with a dark orange wooden top, and comic book wallpapered onto the back board, it was stripped down and the back board removed to open the shelves - I did keep the original beige colour for some time until recently when I re painted it with a Neptune tester pot 'in ‘walnut’ which is a dark blackish-brown and has made it a real statement piece!
Another would be a our little side table in the living room which was £4 on Facebook market place (this is a common theme… all of our furniture is second hand other than our sofa and our bed!) which again is painted black, even the lamp and books were a few £1’s from charity shops! I tend to find that if you upcycle with a premium paint, and add one or two higher value accessories, such as a statement vase, lamp, luxury cushion or well made pair of curtains - the other pieces in your home need not be extravagant or expensive because it is the details and the way pieces are presented that elevate the way a room looks.
My worst home decision / purchase?
Absolutely has to be without question of a doubt or hesitation our high gloss white polished porcelean tiles (which my Dad did try to tell me would be a terrible idea) and our high gloss white kitchen cabinets, don’t get me wrong, we have mixed in some wooden pieces and little trinkets to soften the lines and take away the modernity of the look and it does have a much cosier feel now but the CLEANING to keep them looking nice is just not worth it!!!
My favourite piece(s) from the collection?
The ‘woodland walk’ cushion styled in our guest bedroom with ‘jasmine ruffle trim’ and ‘josie sage’ I wanted to create a calming and inviting space for guests to stay - this room is tiny but with the right accessories is cosy and comforting for when friends and family visit!
I must admit, every time I introduce something new I think - yes that is my favourite now, but I think the Woodland walk has got to be my favourite fabric and cushion! I actually designed this at 3am when I couldn’t sleep and then made the painting into a pattern which I got printed onto luxury linen by a UK manufacturer. Another favourite are the hot water bottle covers, I have always loved a hot water bottle so I have several around the home and they just look so much prettier with their little handmade fabric covers on them!
I feel like I could write for hours on home styling, sharing things I have learned along the way and more on how I choose and design new fabrics for the range but the key points are that my style, within my home, wardrobe and how I evolve the business is more slow and timeless than fast and trend lead. Each purchase I make for my home now has to be something that will last and that I will love forever, I learned this the hard way after buying and returning or buying and selling a lot of cheaper, trend lead pieces for our home in the early years and now I realise that it is quality over quantity, and also patience to find the right piece whether new or second hand for the space rather than trying to make square pegs fit round holes. I also think textiles are super important ( which is probably a given… ) but the curtains and blinds I have made for our home have made such a difference, the way they fit and hang just elevates the space, and the use of draft excluders, hot water bottle covers and beautiful weighty patterned cushions have added so much without having to change and re decorate whole rooms.
This is the fifth year of Alterme Home and I will be trying very hard to find time to share more on how I style the range and how to pair the different fabrics within in it to suit your home and style, as well as share a little more on how I have styled my home over on instagram @altermehome and my personal home account @jasminejadeathome.
I hope you have enjoyed a little insight into my own personal home style, and the business and if you have any questions please drop them in the comment box below!
Thank you so much for reading, I can’t wait to share the interviews that are lined up for the next few months, they will go live on Fridays at mid day so be sure to subscribe to the newsletter to receive them straight to your inbox!
Buddy loves to get involved, and is always on hand for adding some cuteness to photo shoots! One from our shoot of the new Catherine dress - the perfect timeless piece to see you through the colder months of the year!
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