THE inside of a celebrity's house is something you're rarely privy to. Home is usually the one place that's completely off limits.

But Inner Spaces finds former Cold Feet star Fay Ripley and Australian actor husband Daniel Lapaine opening their doors to viewers

Fay, Daniel and their 18-month-old daughter, Parker, live in a beautifully designed east London home. But this isn't some Through The Keyhole style show. In fact, it's purely in the interests of design - as well as a bit of snooping.

"It's not a redo your house programme, it's a design show," says Fay, 37. "Well, that's certainly how I was sold it originally. I think now it's just nosing around B-rate celebrities' houses."

So what made Fay and Daniel invite us in? "If I'm really honest about it, it may have had something to do with the fact we're selling it! It may have been a slightly mercenary decision on my behalf to have the cameras in to photograph my very private life, which normally I wouldn't do.

"But I figured we're going anyway and it's a hell of a bit of publicity, really," she says in her typically dry style. "I'm totally obsessed with design shows. From such an early age I was the saddo who went on a stencilling course in the eighties. If you want your wall rag-rolled, I'm the lady to do it."

This DIY mania hasn't died down now that Fay's a bit older. She admits she's always "picking, pottering and fiddling around with stuff." And what's more, it's rubbed off on her husband.

"I feel guilty about that now. He'll happily discuss which pink pouffes to put with the sofa for a good couple of hours. And he'll come clothes shopping. He's really very good, I've done well there."

The couple met six years ago when Daniel, who had moved from Australia to LA for work, was still living in America. He moved to England and marriage and parenthood followed.

Parker's arrival has prompted the impending move.

Footloose

"If my husband and I were footloose and fancy free or barren we would no doubt stay here," says Fay. "But, thank God, neither of those are true. If we could just move the flat to somewhere that's a bit more child-friendly, then that's what we would do. The flat itself we will miss enormously.

"I want to live in Paris or Italy but I'm not going to, am I? It's a school issue, it's really boring. You have to adapt to having a child, otherwise it doesn't work, quite frankly.

"I'm a bit of a control freak, so my days, my daughter's days and in fact, the days of everyone around me, are pretty regimented. The house runs like a well-oiled machine. Things break down when the routine goes to pot.

"Apart from the exhaustion levels, everything is great. I keep reminding myself that nobody died of being tired but I don't believe myself when I say it. Motherhood is brilliant. Having said that, I'm not so smug that I say, `It's marvellous, life's so great'. It is, but it's also very hard to be a parent on many levels. I would be a bad parent if I wasn't struggling with how to do it as well as I can."

Juggling parenting and the rigours of home-selling, Fay's also got work to think about. Since her days in Manchester filming Cold Feet, she's been busy starring in dramas such as I Saw You, The Stretford Wives and Dead Gorgeous.

Later this year, we'll be able to catch her and Martin Clunes in CBBC's Fungus The Bogeyman, and she's also in talks about producing a drama.

Fay was pregnant throughout extensive renovations at their current home. "We slept underneath plastic dust-sheets," she says. "And to get the builders out I had to threaten a few times and pretend my waters had broken. I was saying, `It's coming, plaster that wall, you fool!'.

"But just like giving birth, as soon as it's finished and the builders have left you don't remember the agony."

Inner Spaces is on BBC3 at 7.30pm tonight.

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