Design Decoded

Looking around someone else's beautiful home is not only good for the soul but can help us understand how to design our own. This week, we're soaking up summer colours in north London.

Browsing magazines for inspiration is all very well but there’s no substitute for taking a virtual stroll through a real home. One that has been simply tidied for photographers rather than styled, one where you can see how the owners might have dealt with an awkward corner, a sloping ceiling or a door in the wrong place.

So I like to focus on homes that are for sale in this regular feature helping you to understand what works and apply new ideas to your own places and spaces. That way you get to see a floorplan, and understand the storage and lighting, rather than seeing only the best features of a property. And I speak as one who has regularly featured in magazines and hurled unsightly piles of unopened post into the dishwasher while frantically removing all signs of real life – like vacuum cleaners and shoes – from the hall.

In fact I wrote a piece about behind the scenes of an interior shoot which has now passed into the archive (accessible to paid subscribers) along with 100 other…