. Meanwhile, Johnson has a new house to decorate, in Oxfordshire – and Palmer's interiors have caught her attention. In person, Palmer is laid-back, engaging and cheerful, a mindset that translates easily into her products, which display a deft blend of pattern and colour. She is, however, relatively new to interiors, having started out working in her parents' restaurants. It is a career that she decided not to continue after becoming pregnant with her first child. After taking an interior-design course, she turned to doing up houses (including her own in London, which was recently featured in House & Garden magazine) before setting up her homeware brand from scratch during the first lockdown in 2020, while pregnant with her third child. 'I'd always been obsessed with interiors and wanted to get into it,' she says. 'Then I couldn't find a lampshade I liked for my own house, and didn't have much money, so I decided to make my own.'){kind=link}
Meet Alice Palmer, the homeware designer whose brand is a must-have with the smart set
When Carrie Johnson posted the first pictures announcing the birth of Frank Alfred Odysseus, her third child with Boris Johnson, on Instagram, your eye might have been caught by the idyllic domestic tableau of mother and child (plus a sweet cameo by older brother Wilf, three) . Or, if you have an eye for such things, your attention might have strayed to the rather chic cross-print gathered lampshade on the bedside table, and the similar-but-not-quite-matching floral-printed cushion nestling demurely just behind Carrie’s back.
The cushion and lampshade in question are the work of west London designer Alice Palmer, whose eponymous homeware company has quietly been making a name for itself as a must-have brand among the smart set.
“I’ve had lots of messages from friends since the pictures were posted,” says Palmer. “I did know [Carrie] had bought a few of our things. It’s very exciting.”
It’s not the first time Carrie’s choice of interiors has caused a stir: her revamp of the rooms at 11 Downing Street made the headlines when she stripped out what she referred to as Theresa May’s “John Lewis nightmare” and installed £840-a-roll gold wallpaper in its place (which is since said to have peeled and to have then been painted over by Liz Truss). Meanwhile, Johnson has a new house to decorate, in Oxfordshire – and Palmer’s interiors have caught her attention.