How Jemma Solomon’s latest attempt to copy her famous sister Stacey’s luxury lifestyle has come crashing down, costing her thousands – and why she’s blaming everyone but herself

With a younger sister hoovering up the accolades – and money-spinning opportunities – aplenty, life isn’t exactly straightforward for Jemma Solomon, sister of the much more famous Stacey. Take the latest debacle over her ‘dream home’. Who could blame her for wanting to follow in her famous sister’s footsteps and build a lovely nest for her family – particularly when that nest has also proved to be the cornerstone of a multi-million pound empire?

Stacey, 36, as anyone who’s drifted on to social media or turned on the TV recently will be aware, has made a mint from her home.

As the centrepiece of her brand, Stacey’s whimsically named £1.2million Pickle Cottage has helped turn her into a £10million lifestyle powerhouse. From using it as the backdrop of her fly-on-the-wall series, BBC’s Stacey And Joe, to name-checking it in her DIY book Tap To Tidy At Pickle Cottage, Stacey has ensured her home gets as much of the public eye as she does.

There’s barely a nook or cranny of the Tudor-style Essex home, set within 2.5 acres, her followers haven’t been invited to ogle at. Every corner has been carefully curated, from a bespoke ‘mermaid bathroom’ complete with iridescent tiling and shell-shaped sinks, to a fully decked-out ‘man cave’ for her husband Joe Swash.

So who can blame Jemma, 37, for wanting to lavish the same attention on her own somewhat more modest bungalow – and perhaps garner avid Instagram followers into the bargain? Bought in 2024 for £860,000, Jemma dreamt of transforming her home into a sprawling, multi-level showpiece complete with terraces, balconies and sweeping extensions.

But those dreams have come crashing down in rather spectacular fashion. And all just weeks after Jemma found herself tearfully announcing the closure of her home organisation business, The Label Lady.

Planners have turned down Jemma’s application not once but twice, with officials delivering a series of withering assessments of her vast ambition.

Her first application laid out an extensive redesign including multiple extensions, a garage conversion and a loft transformation complete with a terrace. But far from being convinced she was enhancing the area, planners concluded the result would be a ‘cumulatively disproportionate and out of scale dwelling’ – one with a ‘bulky roof and top-heavy design’ that would sit awkwardly within its modest surroundings.

They also warned that the plans were not ‘respectful’, as a proposed balcony would result in a ‘loss of privacy’ for her neighbours.

And in perhaps the most cutting line of all, officials suggested Jemma had not been entirely upfront about the scale of what she was attempting to build.

In fact, they branded the application ‘misleading,’ noting Jemma’s plans went far beyond a simple loft conversion.

Undeterred – or perhaps unwilling to scale back – Jemma, whose social media page has increasingly mirrored Stacey’s, full of posts about home life with husband Lee and children, Darcy, 12, Mila, ten and Hudson seven, applied again. Her second application doubled down on the ambition, proposing a similarly extensive redesign of the property.

Once again, it was rejected. This time, planners warned the development would become a ‘dominant feature’ in the street – ‘out of scale’ and poorly suited to the modest bungalow she had originally bought.

Taken together, the message was clear: the proposed property was not just ambitious, but would stick out like a sore, top-heavy thumb against its genteel, low-rise surroundings.

And those following the development on social media didn’t hold back. Take just one acid comment: ‘She is so entitled, thinking she can do whatever she likes to that house because it’s hers, never mind the impact on the environment and her neighbours who will all have been there longer than her.

‘She really, really, really wants to be at least on a par with Stacey but it’s never going to happen.’ Ouch!

Yet mother-of-three Jemma remains unabashed, publicly at least, and is casting herself as the victim of an unfair system. Taking to Instagram, she has described the saga as ‘disheartening’ and complained that her dreams were ‘at the peril of someone’s opinions’.

‘In a system where it’s based on more opinion than factual wrongs or rights it’s really hard to get it right,’ she has posted. ‘And even though the house is yours, we don’t really get a say do we.’

Jemma added that she would be applying again despite having already spent ‘thousands of pounds’, and conceded that she was ‘not holding much hope’.

‘I try not to stress over it because otherwise I will go crazy,’ she said. ‘But it’s so disheartening that even your house isn’t really yours.’

For those familiar with the Solomon sisters’ long-running dynamic, however, the situation carries a certain irony. Where Stacey’s renovations have been met with adoration, Jemma’s have instead run into resistance.

And it’s not the first time. At Jemma’s previous property in Kelvedon Hatch – a four-bedroom detached house in Essex – the couple undertook an extensive transformation, adding a two-storey extension, converting the garage and even digging what she herself described as a ‘moat’ in the garden.

The property was sold for £690,000, which was £35,000 below its original asking price.

In November, a former neighbour at Kelvedon Hatch intriguingly told me there is plenty they could say about life at the Solomons’ – if only they weren’t so worried about the repercussions. The work carried out there was ambitious, and may perhaps have tested the patience of neighbours in their quiet street.

Whatever Jemma decides to do next with her new property remains to be seen. For now, while Stacey’s Pickle Cottage has become a show home for their £10million brand, Jemma’s own version exists only on paper,  currently in the local planning department’s dustbin.