A BRADFORD businessman who has mixed with the stars and lived the high-life in Spain has opened a shop in his hometown.

House of Interior, in Westgate, Baildon, officially opened its doors on Monday, April 12.

The shop showcases and sells a number of unique items, from ornaments and wall hangings, to fancy lights.

Its owner, 58-year-old Chris Newsham, is originally from Baildon and lived there for most of his life before moving to Marbella 15 years ago.

This is where a tale of glitz and glamour began.

Mr Newsham said: "I was free, single, I used to love Mallorca when I was 20 and I always got the bug to go back.

"While I had no ties I went over and started working in real estate."

Mr Newsham - who is a graduate of the Real Estate Institution having studied in Los Angeles - then started his own real estate business, Spanish Estates.

The company sells and rents luxury properties across Marbella, Mallorca and Ibiza and with Mr Newsham's networking skills, it was soon reaching for the stars.

The 58-year-old began mixing with stars and celebrities, including Martina Navratilova, Jermaine Jackson and Mya Swarovski from the Swarovski empire.

In 2010, the crowning moment came when the firm rented out a multi-million pound property in Marbella, called Villa Moana, to Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment.

The villa was used for the judges' houses stage in Series 7 of the X-Factor and One Direction appeared there in front of Mr Cowell and guest judge, Sinitta, after the now globally famous group were formed by the judges themselves.

Mr Newsham explains one of his best friends actually owns the property and he goes there twice a week for lunch.

He said: "A £38 million big house, we rented the house to Syco Entertainment - which is owned by Simon Cowell - for the X-Factor judges.

"They put One Direction together.

"We then rented it to some company for Nicole Scherzinger the year after in Nice.

Mr Newsham also got friendly with the Qatari and Saudi royals and said this really helped with the job and opened his eyes up to new opportunities.

Mr Newsham added: "The finishing on them is amazing, but not always to everybody's taste.

"We would sell a property and they would say, 'do you know someone who could sort that'.

"I realised that we could do all that too.

"The work took off and I opened up a boutique."

Some of the designing has included getting hold of "big golden chairs" for "the Saudis".

Mr Newsham said: "I bought a lot of stuff from Prince's house which he had up for sale, the house before Prince died."

Such company might have sent someone's ego into the stratosphere, but not Mr Newsham who has remained grounded and always remembers his roots.

The 58-year-old has always wanted a shop back home and Brexit accelerated that desire.

He said: "You never know with Brexit, so I wanted something here.

"I was looking for premises all the time and there was never anything in Baildon.

"Then I came over and a charity shop was up for let for a day when I was visiting my parents, so I grabbed it."

The store in Baildon was meant to open in January, but the lockdown put paid to that.

Instead, Mr Newsham operated a click and collect service, where people could see items in the window and order it that way.

He said the store has had an amazing reaction since opening properly.

Mr Newsham added: "Yesterday (Monday), we had one in, one out, people were just coming to look round, saying it was lovely and what Baildon needs.

"We sold quite a few items.

"85 per cent of stock will be new stuff that I choose, but I'll be mixing nice antiques with it as well.

"I had some lamps yesterday (Monday) like I've never seen.

"The only time I've seen them was on Celebrity Cribs in Jennifer Aniston's home."

The running of the shop will be left to Mr Newsham's brother, while the 58-year-old continues to enjoy living in Spain.

But Mr Newsham explained he will be buying all the stock and coming across every week.

Who knows, there might even be a celebrity guest wandering the streets of Baildon in the future.