My Scarborough Day - with Alex Anderson, founder of gift and interiors shop Homebird House

We open at 10am – I’m a night owl – and four days a week I have help from Emma, who is very practical; she knows the shop inside out and keeps us on track!

My mum, Liz, helps on Mondays, checking the cash sheets and banking.

I grew up in Hunmanby, Folkton and Scalby and after spending time working in London as an interior designer I moved back to Scarborough in 2011.

I couldn’t find a design-related job here and decided I wanted to be more hands-on so opened a shop – it evolved from there. I never wanted to spend the money on town centre rates and I love the magical Old Town feel being opposite the market – which was refurbished soon after I opened. Plus, there’s parking right outside in the disk zone, if you’re lucky. Lately the Bottom End has become a lot more full of life.

Breakfast is usually a sausage and egg sandwich, brought over by Bakers ’n’ Brew from the market. I ask Alexa to turn on the fairy lights then we check the online orders and get them off the shop floor ready for the day to begin.

For the first two or three years I opened seven days a week to get the shop going, and to promote it I used to go up the street with my cat, Lady Penelope, on my shoulder and do chalk drawings on the pavement. I started doing up furniture after coming across Annie Sloan chalk paint – we used to do workshops to teach people how to do it and we still sell the paint.

Now I’m in my eleventh year, I’m pretty good at predicting what will sell. I like anything that’s well designed and attractive, and to find new things, I look at design blogs and go to design-led trade shows.

For years I have done illustrations and had them made into tea towels, coasters, mats, trays, wall art and 3D cards, and I plan to do mugs and tote bags next. I have 10 illustrations of Scarborough, one of Filey and one of Cayton; my newest is a Spa Chalet illustration but my favourite is the Clock Tower. Getting everything manufactured in the UK is a challenge though.

Our other biggest seller is Jellycat, which went global overnight, and also home hardware, such as hooks and handles. Recently we have expanded our gorgeous ladies’ clothing range to include Chalk UK and One Hundred Stars – with the beautiful Kew Gardens prints.

Some people come to Scarborough specifically because they’ve seen my shop online and that makes me very proud. It has become a bit of a destination.

I try to get home for lunch in summer time as I have a balcony with a sea view, which Emma uses for her lunch break too. I love to sit there with my cat, Flump, who came from Filey cat rescue. I enjoy eating out anywhere with a sea view – such as Lookout on the Pier or Oliver’s on the Mount.

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Interview: Yolanda Carslaw