'When I was about 13 I was taken by an aunt to the Biba store in London and that was an exciting moment and something that's really stuck with me,' she says. 'I've always had a real passion for interiors and colour. I think it's really important that where you live reflects your personality and really feels like home.'

Now, as an interior designer and creative director of Home Stagers, she and her team work with property developers, estate agents and private clients to turn their empty properties into desirable show homes across the region.

There is also a Home Stagers store and design studio in a beautiful Georgian building in Stalham High Street.

Collette studied at art college in Great Yarmouth, including interiors, photography and design.

She then went to work at Debenhams as a visual merchandising manager.

Creative director Collette Hanlon outside Home Stagers in Stalham. (Image: Home Stagers)

'I was there for quite a few years and worked on all the amazing window displays that we had in those days. Working right across fashion and interiors was a really amazing opportunity,' she says.

After starting a family, she moved into property, buying and refurbishing homes and then selling them.

'I then decided to go back to college and finish my interior design qualifications, so I was at college for about six years, studying garden design and interior design and decided to go into interiors,' she says.

Collette's business partner back then was an estate agent. He had been to America and had seen the concept of 'home staging' - preparing a property to be marketed for sale by making it as visually appealing as possible to potential buyers.

'He had seen how big it was out there, so we bought into a franchise of Home Stagers. That went really well, the work dovetailed in, with me doing the design and him running the property side of it and we ended up buying the company.'

In 2016, Collette and her husband, Graham, bought Home Stagers from him and have........

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