The Women's Organisation

Is colour enough to transform a home?

Textile designer Victoria Haire certainly thinks so.

And the proof is her rambling late Victorian home, which was won in a sealed bids war.

"The house needed so much work doing that we managed to get it a good price,"

Victoria reveals.

And in just three short years the stark and run-down former schoolmaster's home has been transformed into a warm, welcoming family home.

From the warm burnt-orange living room with its £30 antique mirror salvaged from a junk shop to the reclaimed solid mahogany floor, the Haire household is an eclectic mix which proves that traditional and contemporary styles can work hand in hand.

Victoria studied art at Chester College before gaining a BA in Fashion Textiles and an MA in Woven Textiles from Manchester Metropolitan University.

After a spell working as a freelance designer and visiting lecturer at De Montford University and Central St Martin's College in London, Victoria opted for a complete career change.

"I have always got involved with charity work and I was asked by Oxfam to go to Southern India to develop design workshops for weavers there. It was a fantastic experience,"

says Victoria who is married to Dan, a solicitor and shares her home with her husband and their two boys, Aidan, eight and four-year-old Edwin.

The boys' two rooms are on the top floor of the house where two large square rooms sit side by side with commanding views of the Wirral skyline.

A staircase leading to the rooms is decorated with antique masks and intricate tapestries collected from across the world.

On the ground floor a large and spacious living room offers a sanctuary from modern day living with its elegant antique lines and warm colour scheme of raspberry and gold. The coal fire evokes a more genteel era when the house came complete with servants.

A walnut piano was an engagement gift Victoria's great grandparents bought each other in 1900.

An inner door with a stained glass decoration brightens the hallway, which is an original feature of the house.

The hallway leads to the children's favourite room, their playroom.

"As a child my favourite book was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and I always dreamed of living in a large house like the Professor's where you could lose yourself."

Fortunately, the six-bedroom house has plenty of space for two growing boys to exercise their imagination.

And the playroom is a testament to the talent and skill of their mum.

"The house can appear quite cold so I wanted to warm it up. I designed the whole room around the red Perspex lampshade, which we bought from Utility in Bold Street. It was the inspiration for the coloured circles and semi-circles in different shades of red."

The wall took three days to paint and Victoria incorporated two semi-circular lamps from her local DIY store.

And following on the success of her work for friends and with the help of Merseyside based women's enterprise agency, Train 2000, Victoria has recently launched Home Colour Co-ordination.

"I was working for another charity which specialised in Indian Development work but this year I decided to have a go launching my own business although I will still continue raising funds for the charity.

I have an instinctive eye for colour and I offer a consultancy service whereby I go into people's homes and show how it can be transformed with an injection of colour. It doesn't have to be the walls it could be tiles for the kitchen or textiles in the room. A lot of my clients have moved house and their old furniture doesn't look right in their new home. I offer advice and options without people having to make costly mistakes."