A snapshot of my own flat - this room is like a gateway into the old world with the feeling of organised chaos that has its own kind of logic. I designed the room while I was working at Sotheby's and during the excitement and process of putting this room together I realised that I had to do this for a living. 

This Study's dynamic was dramatically altered with the addition of the overscaled bookcase that adds further to the warmth and intimacy of the space. This bookcase is also a perfect example of just how well a large piece can work in a small space.

The study in this London home is not a big room, not is it rectangular as the fireplace spans one corner. Therefore, the furniture layout had to be carefully worked out so that the room could work both as a study and private sitting room.

In this London home the original paneling largely existed in this form, but with careful and delicate use of faux inlaid-wood techniques I was able to enrich and add greater levels of interest to walls that became all the more impressive as the backdrop to old master paintings and other treasures.

This design for a library in Kuwait is very much in the spirit of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Syrian and Ottoman houses. Hand printed papers create the pattern and, once on the walls, the scheme is hand finished with both painting and gilding.

Wherever I can, I try to do double- or triple-height ceilings, as they are fascinatingly dramatic. In this octagonal library the geometric is reinforced in the ceiling layout - the different levels and sections give me the opportunity to hide the lighting and air conditioning and also gave me a myriad of surfaces to decorate with hand printed and painted papers, brass and gilt work.

I couldn't be happier with the result of this library because there is such a joyful mix of history in the space. 

The walls are dressed with this signature Alidad stripe effect where the gold-stamped fabric wallpaper has been applied in giant panels, flanked either side by the same red but plain fabric wallpaper.

I try to design coffered ceilings whenever possible as they are fascinating for their three-dimensionality and for the obvious richness that that brings into a space. 

There is a combination of embossed and plain fabric wallpapers, and each stripe section is defined by a gold braid trim. The highly decorative background is balanced by this relatively plain red velvet sofa. It is a bespoke piece minutely detailed to my exact specifications so as to work with the surrounding textures, colours and patterns. The coffee table is inspired by 17th century boulle work but made in verre eglomise that cleverly imitates inlaid brass in tortoiseshell.

This Library displays a true sense of my own taste and the way I see a space. It encompasses everything that is Alidad for it has comfort, warmth, age, essence and history, and ultimately a kind of interiors sex appeal. 

I love it when I find a perfect piece that my client already owns, because I enjoy the challenge of giving it an equally perfect place in which to enjoy new life - in this case a nineteenth-century French armchair feels entirely at home in this exotic library that was barely finished months ago.

This ladies private study was long and narrow, so the idea was not to encroach into the room with a huge desk, but rather have a pull-out desktop from the bookcase cabinet. The hand-painted wallpaper brings in an element of the garden, but it also makes the room feel larger than it is.

The handpainted wallpaper in this ladies' study brings an element of the garden in, but also makes the room feel larger than it is. In place of a bookcase of filing cabinets, I had this vast and beautifully overscaled cabinet built to house all paperwork and files.