In normal circumstances, my job involves… working across a really varied portfolio of projects across the globe, from one-off private houses to independent restaurants, boutique hotels and even complete apartment builds. During the day, you’ll find me chained to my little stool in the studio working closely with my creative team at Studio Ashby, or otherwise attending client meetings, giving presentations, visiting our sites, suppliers and galleries and generally running around in a slightly manic fashion! My evenings are usually spent seeing friends, going out for dinner or attending events and parties.

In the past month, the biggest change to my day-to-day work has been… making the transition to remote working and the new, sole reliance on virtual communication. The design industry is built on tactility – seeing and touching things is so central to the evolution of our ideas. Designing without a physical sample library, for example, is a challenge: we have hundreds of inspiring fabrics, materials, stones, timbers and other special samples in our studio, and trying to do what we do without those has been difficult. Inevitably, we’ve had to seek inspiration closer to home – luckily the British springtime is providing us with a gorgeous, ever-changing colour palette that I’m excited to incorporate into future schemes.

I’m adapting to working remotely by… planning out my days and weeks as I usually would, while making sure I carve out time to spend on tasks that have been on the list for a while. I want to return to the studio feeling in control, refreshed and inspired. Like everyone, we’ve been using Zoom to stay connected as a studio (and are also partial to a Studio Ashby holiday-themed fancy-dress quiz on Houseparty!). I’m encouraging the team to take a creative break each week and virtually explore some of the incredible museums and institutions that have so kindly opened up their archives to the public.

The recent innovation I’m most proud of is… supporting the makers we love to work with. The current climate has definitely encouraged me to reflect on just how much we cherish and rely on independent artists and artisans. We’ve been working to give these hugely valuable little businesses a platform during this time, initially via our Instagram and hopefully soon in other ways too.

The most significant challenge has been… finding time to myself to work on longer-term projects that require concentration and focus as well as steering the ship through the storm – juggling the present with looking towards the future.

I’m keeping my team motivated by… being honest and transparent with them about how we’re leading the business through this crisis while remaining optimistic and upbeat about the future. I’m so proud of what we have built since I set up the business six years ago and I strongly believe my team has been so vital to our success. I’m longing to return to our cheese-melt Fridays in the studio but for the moment, we’ll have to do these virtually.

For me, leadership during a crisis means… making considered decisions at speed, ensuring our usual high standards are maintained, thinking creatively about the future and using the new time we have to ourselves to plan for an effective return.

My role model for crisis management is… my sister Rose (the head chef at Spring Restaurant, London), who works in a highly stressful environment and always keeps her cool – she is calm, rational and grounding in times of crisis.

The most important values that will see my business through adversity are… acceptance, creative thinking, positivity and self-belief.

The one thing I can’t wait to do when all this is over is… see my friends and family, go to one of my favourite restaurants, travel again and pay my hairdresser Jeremy a visit at Salon 77!