Profile

Interior designer Linda Barker was instrumental in awakening the public’s interest in home design with the BBC’s pioneering show Changing Rooms, and became one of the best known designers in the UK.  The programme was a phenomenal international success in virtually every English speaking TV territory around the world. While Linda was with the show it reached its peak of popularity, attracting a UK audience of over ten million viewers per episode. She continues as a designer in both the private and corporate sectors and has been active in the PR industry, where she’s been employed as the design stylist behind some elaborate and prestigious product launch events.

She remains a popular TV presenter but stays faithful to her design roots, recently giving seminars at the prestigious Autumn Trade Fair in Birmingham on future trends in colour and design. Her latest book Wall To Wall (Jacqui Small Books) is a collection of over 100 original wall treatments. Her global book sales exceed two million.

Among her awards and accolades are Designer of the Year (House Beautiful magazine) a This Is Your Life programme, TV Personality of the Year (Your Home magazine), Yorkshire Woman of the Year and Interiors ‘Makeover Maestro’ (Radio Times readers).

Linda has just joined the new team at This Morning (ITV 1) as their interior designer and is one of the new designers on 60 minute makeover (ITV 1).

Biography

Born and brought up in Yorkshire, Linda Barker originally trained as a fine artist.  Having left art college in the early 1980’s, she began to focus her talents on more commercial applications and quickly became established as one of London’s most innovative decorative painters and interior design consultants.  Since that time she has undertaken many diverse interior design commissions, both in the private and corporate sectors, ranging from the decoration of numerous celebrity homes to the styling of entire restaurants and retail outlets.  Linda has also been active in the PR industry, where she’s been employed as the design stylist behind some elaborate and prestigious product launch events.

In 1988 Linda began working with the media (styling and writing interiors features for House Beautiful, Inspirations, and Country Homes & Interiors magazines) and by 1994 her talents had spread onto TV with an appearance on BBC's Home Front.  The following year she and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen made the pilot programme of Changing Rooms and the rest is history.  Changing Rooms has been a phenomenal international success, moving from BBC2 to BBC1 and then on to virtually every English speaking TV territory around the world.  While Linda was with the show it reached its peak of popularity, attracting a UK audience of over ten million viewers per episode.

In 1999 Linda began co-presenting House Invaders for daytime BBC1.  She was also the co-presenter on Planet Christmas, a three part special for BBC2, broadcast prior to Christmas 2001.  She has also presented or guested on a number of other TV programmes, including Good Morning with Anne and Nick, The Antiques Show, GMTV, Through the Keyhole, and Children in Need.  She has also worked with Ross Television in the States, where she filmed a special series on furniture for The Heaven and Earth Show.
In 2003 Linda emerged victorious as ‘Queen of the Jungle’, being the final woman remaining in the second series of the hugely successful ITV1 show ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’. She then she has since filmed a series of hour long ITV1 specials, ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, which were broadcast primetime in Winter 2004.  Linda presented a one hour ITV1 special, ‘Magician Impossible’, screened over Christmas 2003 and also was the sole presenter of a 13 week series for ITV1 called ‘Building The Dream’, that was broadcast from March to May 2004.  (This series achieved a record audience for its scheduling slot.)  Linda has also appeared as the stand in host on Richard and Judy and Terry and Gabby.  She is also a regular contributor to BBC Breakfast, GMTV and This Morning.  In the run up to Christmas 2006, Linda was asked to devise and present a series of table setting ideas for ITV1’s Christmas Cooks programme and makes regular ad hoc appearances on the show.

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For several years Linda wrote a weekly interiors column for the Saturday Telegraph Magazine, had a regular feature in Your Home Magazine and contributed to BBC Good Homes Magazine. She still has a regular appearances in House Beautiful Magazine, provides the services of ‘Interiors Expert’ and guest Editor to Real Homes Magazine, and produces special features and the weekly interior design pages for the Daily Express Sunday magazine.

Her numerous books include a series for Anaya (Simply Paint, Simply Fabric, Simply Curtains and Simply Paper), The Creative Nursery, Making Cushions, Napkin Folding and Origami for Salamander, Just Junk and Jazz Up Your Junk for David and Charles, and Stamping Kits for Little Brown.  She was chosen by BBC Books to be the sole writer of all three of the Changing Rooms books, and Saturday Telegraph Magazine asked her to release the book Trade Secrets (David and Charles) - a compilation of her Saturday Telegraph features.  Her latest book Wall To Wall is a collection of over 100 original wall treatments and was published by Jacqui Small, in the Autumn of 2006 this book was also translated for Linda fans in the Finnish, French, German, Estonian and Swedish markets.  Over the years, and over the World, her books have been translated into many different languages and to date have sold over two million copies in numerous countries.

Over these busy years, Linda's name and design style has become synonymous with an ‘effortless chic’, and hers is a voice that people now respect and trust.  Readers of House Beautiful Magazine overwhelmingly voted Linda as Designer of the Year in 2003, she was honoured by a This Is Your Life programme, and voted TV Personality of the Year 2003 by Your Home Magazine. Early in 2003 she was voted Yorkshire Woman of the Year.  In Autumn 2003 a Radio Times national TV audience survey voted Linda top interiors ‘Makeover Maestro’.

Since 2003 Linda has been a design consultant for Thomson Holidays.  So far she has redesigned the First Class cabins for their ship ‘Spirit’, revamped their holiday homes in France and created a new look for the children’s areas of their cruise ships.  Linda is also an active part of the Design and Publicity team for DFS, where she has her own range of sofas and has participated in numerous above the line TV and Poster campaigns on their behalf.  Linda is now also involved in the design and marketing of a development of 34 luxury villas in Western Cyprus, due for launch in the Spring of 2007.

2009 has seen Linda become the face of NICEIC – the body involved in ensuring electrical safety standards.

Linda has also designed and developed an extensive range of ‘Linda Barker’ branded products - including rugs, lighting, wallpaper, kitchen storage, scented candles, china, curtain accessories, textiles and gift wrap.  In 2003 she launched her own mail order business Really Linda Barker.  The R.L.B. website and catalogue feature home accessories and decorative products all chosen or designed by Linda herself.  In 2004 and again in 2005 Really Linda Barker was selected by the Daily Mail’s You Magazine as one of their top ten catalogues for Christmas, and it also won Silver in House Beautiful Magazine’s 2005 award for Best Interiors Collection.  In the Autumn of 2006 Really Linda Barker opened their first high street shop in the UK, and there are currently plans to take this retail concept into the Middle East.

Linda is also in great demand nowadays on the Celebrity Speaker circuit, and has hosted both corporate and public events in the Interiors, Beauty, Property and Business Development industries.  Towards the end of 2006 she was asked to become the official ambassador of a multi-million pound initiative to regenerate the city of Bradford.  Linda is also very active in the world of charity events, in particular fundraising for the Northampton and Warwickshire Air Ambulance where she is the patron.  When not involved in any of the above, Linda loves to cook and is very keen on the keep-fit and Yoga side of her life.  She is also now involved in a new photographic and TV location house that she has created near her home in South London.

In addition to her licensing ranges (which are some of the most successful in the industry) and running her catalogue (which is posted to 750,000 people), and shooting the advertorials for the latest huge DFS campaign, Linda has been busy with her journalism, TV, and personal appearances. Most recently, Linda has filmed the celebrity edition of ‘Come Dine with Me’ which is due for broadcast shortly on Channel 4 prime time and will run for a week. She is a regular on Christmas Cooks and Daily Cooks Challenge and has also filmed a television advert for Express newspapers promoting her column in their Sunday magazine with a readership of 1 million. She has recently appeared on Ant n Dec’s Saturday Night takeaway (ITV 1 primetime) with viewing figures of several million. She has been invited to appear on This Morning (ITV 1) 5 times this year in various interior specials and also to film some competition specials which ran at a week at a time. Linda was asked to appear on Celebrity Cash in the Attic screened on BBC 1 and has appeared on BBC Breakfast several times also.

In addition to her column in the Express Linda has been very busy with her journalism elsewhere. She was chosen as the interiors editor for new magazine, Home Angels, which has sections edited by Charlie Dimmock and Kirsty Allsopp, due for publication shortly and we have begun discussion for the latest At Home with Linda Barker magazine – which has run for several years and sells excellent volume. Until recently, she also had her own column in 4 Girlz magazine dispensing helpful advice to young girls who want to design on a budget. In addition to this, Linda has contributed to Bella Magazine several times this year.

Linda is also busy with her design work – which includes creating new lodges for Dream Lodge and of course the design for her products.. Linda is passionate about continuing her role as an ambassador for Birmingham City Council and was in Cannes last month talking about they city’s extraordinary developments.

Of course, there are also the personal appearances which are a great opportunity for Linda to meet the public. She always sells lots of books at these events and they are great PR – this year has seen her opening a new housing development in Nottingham, promoting her products in stores in Norwich and hosting the Hope Ball, to name but a few.

Updated 15/10/2009