Most of us make New Year’s resolutions that are broken within weeks. But on the eve of the new millennium, Jessica Zoob resolved to leave her high-earning job in corporate design and become a painter. “It was completely self-indulgent, but I just had to do it,” Zoob says. Her husband, David, was decidedly underwhelmed by the prospect. “We were totally broke, with two young children and a house to do up,” she says. “But I had already given up one career I loved – in theatre design – for the sake of the children, and I was determined to rediscover the kind of passion I had felt for that.”

Luckily, her decision to paint has been both creatively fulfilling and commercially successful: within three months, she was selling her abstract works direct from her studio, and within six, she had her first solo exhibition. This year, she has had virtually a show a month. “I get up in the morning and practically run down to my studio,” Zoob says. “I feel so energised by what I’m doing now – it’s as if painting is what I was put on this earth to do.”

The couple and their two daughters, Ana, 11, and Kat, 8, moved from south London to Lewes, in East Sussex, in 2004. In doing so, they took on a two-bedroom wreck, which they gutted and then added a third bedroom and a double-height studio for Jessica on the side.

As the house is small, Zoob has unified everything as much as possible to create the illusion of space. Bare floorboards have been painted white, simple shutters hang at every window, and polished plaster walls create a calm canvas on which Zoob’s work – and that of her artist friends – is displayed. Occasional bursts of bright colour, such as the pink Smeg fridge, stand out against the pale backdrop of whites and creams.

Furniture – a mixture of vintage and contemporary – has been kept to the minimum. The master bedroom, for example, has only a low bed and a pair of bedside tables. “The only way to live in a house as small as this is to be very disciplined,” Zoob says.

She has also designed the house to be as low maintenance and child-friendly as possible: faux tongue-and-groove panels conceal everything from clothes to toys, while the wooden floorboards are robust enough to withstand her daughters rollerblading on them. “The last thing I want is to be fussing over the house,” Zoob says. “Keeping things calm allows me to focus on what’s important in my life.”

Jessica Zoob: www.jessicazoob.com

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers