My Seven Design Principles

Everyone will have "rules” that are personal to them when it comes to interiors. So don't be swayed by other people's opinions – when you're true to yourself, you won't go far wrong.

There are words that get bandied around in interior design which seem, well, designed, to make the process more intimidating than it needs to be. For most of us the world of interior design belongs to high-falutin’ magazines, to houses we will never enter and to people with budgets we can only dream of. But we are all, in effect, “designing” our homes – it’s just that most of us would call it decorating.

“I’m decorating this room in off-white with some striped curtains” is the more down-to-earth version of a design-led process resulting in ecru walls with co-ordinating woodwork designed to highlight the geometric, thermally lined window dressings.

It’s the same when you browse estate agents’ websites and they talk about “architect-designed” homes. Doesn’t every building start with an architect? And my personal bugbear, “styling”. Most of us put things on a shelf and possibly, if we’re feeling fancy, arrange some books on the coffee table, after which we might lay the dinner table. We …