How to create the perfect gallery wall at home
In fashion stylist Martha Ward’s Notting Hill home, her study area is part of the large open-plan room, but manages to feel like its own space thanks the gallery wall above. It also provides interest and inspiration while she is working at her desk Dean Hearne Gallery walls (or salon walls, if you prefer), are […]
How to get the layout of your rooms right for a more comfortable life
Floorplans, aka furniture placement, are agreed to be the bedrock of successful design, vital both to the functionality and comfort of a room, and as such are often named as the start point of every project. Emma Burns, joint Managing Director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, describes establishing “how the spaces flow, and if […]
How to choose the right colour for woodwork
Shades of blue and green create a vibrant backdrop in this Berkshire house by Nicola Harding. Paul Massey When it comes to painting a room, the walls usually take centre stage, while woodwork is often treated as an afterthought. Yet doors, skirting boards, banisters, window frames and cabinetry can shape the character of a space […]
Artfully undone: how to decorate like an artist
The painter Haidee Becker has created a serene, comfortable live-work space in her north London house, including a magical, light-filled studio where she paints her contemplative still lifes and portraits Mark Anthony Fox Great artists have an eye for form and colour that us mere mortals do not. They know how to take inspiration from […]
How to bring character back to a house that has been stripped of it
Uns Hobbs’ house in London, which had been stripped of all architectural detail and which she painstakingly reintroduced. Boz Gagovski There are few greater disappointments than finding the perfect period property only to discover the hand of a ruthless developer or over zealous 1970s moderniser has had its wicked way with the period features, leaving […]
How to navigate the ever-changing world of interiors trends
‘You look very… this season.’ Sixteen-year-old me was thrilled by this comment from a slightly older colleague at the teen fast-fashion store where we worked. I had spent my entire first paycheck on the trendiest items from the new collection, I’d worn them all at once and he’d noticed. Later, of course, came the sickening […]
Planning for privacy: how to choose between café curtains, sheer curtains and shutters
Sheer Holland blinds made of book cloth and used with a cream curtain at Virginia White’s flat in Highgate. Christopher Horwood Dressing a window is one of the most important things you can do in a decoration scheme, both for the aesthetic value that curtains and blinds have, but also for creating privacy, screening your […]