Fiona’s designs now sit pretty in her own back garden
Children’s furniture designer Fiona Jolly tells Kate Freud about juggling her twin girls, Poppy and Harryo, with her thriving new business
“When I was newly pregnant with the twins, I was put on bed rest for seven weeks,? says furniture designer Fiona Jolly, recalling the memory with a smile. ?I thought it would be dreamy, relaxing in my cottage in Wiltshire, but I went stir crazy!? Looking at her today ? the twins, Poppy and Harryo, now seven, safely tucked up either side of her on the sofa ? it?s easy to see why a woman with so much energy and enthusiasm might find such incarceration tortuous.
We?re sitting in the sun-bathed sitting room of her London home ? on a pretty mews just off Notting Hill?s Ledbury Road ? drinking tea and eyeing a splendid array of Peggy Porschen cakes on the coffee table. The twins seem particularly keen on a jaw-dropping unicorn cake and hover over it impatiently, before their mother finally relents and allows them a slice. Though the girls look identical, and are great friends, their personalities couldn?t be more different. ?Harryo is a total tomboy, she?s wild and energetic, and super sporty. She can?t sit still! Poppy on the other hand is a seriously girly girl; she?s organised and thoughtful and loves dolls and teddies,? says Fiona. And apparently they both love cake. The girls were, of course, the inspiration behind her furniture brand, Reasons to be Jolly, a practical...