Don’t fall in love with an image from a Georgian rectory and expect it to work in your terraced house
Your house will not miraculously increase in size when you duplicate the scheme you saw in that country pile on Instagram. Work to the space you have, rather than the one you wished you had.
Don’t buy anything sold as a ‘bedside table’
They are an awful size and height. It’s pointless having loads of extra space either side of the bed with a minchy little bedside table that has no room for anything on it. Scale up and use the space you have. Don’t feel you have to have pairs for bedside tables either. If your lamps are a pair, and the pieces of furniture either side are the same height, that is enough balance to get a sense of symmetry. Scale up the width (height no more than 75cm though) and maybe do a low chest of drawers if you need more storage, or I frequently use vintage tea trolleys for bedside tables. They have loads of space below for books etc, and lots of surface space for flowers, photos, a glass of water and a good size lamp.
Do buy tall lamps for your side tables
There is nothing worse than a crouched down little lamp where the light from the shade is crunched into the table and doesn’t actually serve any purpose. I always start with lamp bases that are around 45cm high. It also makes your room feel bigger as it pulls your eyeline up in the room. Lots of the more ‘affordable’ lamps seen on the high street are weirdly small. Check the dimensions before you click ‘buy’.
Don’t plan your dining room around the occasional Christmas when the whole family visits
Plan it around Monday nights instead. It needs to work all year round, not just on special occasions. So do a table that seats 6-8 and if you need 16 at Christmas then empty your sitting room of furniture and put some trestle tables in there instead, with rented chairs. It’s worth it to not feel like you are sitting in an empty restaurant most of the time. Also don't do a sitting room that has seating for 18 when it is just four of you most of the time….though lucky you if your sitting room is that big. If it is, make sure you arrange the seating into smaller groups, rather than a giant book club set up!
Do, please, buy a scale ruler
Work out what size sofas and beds (and showers and baths) the architect has drawn on your plans. Assuming that the sofa is 3 seater because they have shown what looks like a 3 seater is a recipe for disaster. It is probably only 80cm deep and 160cm long on the plan and you will only find out if you print the plans out onto actual paper (at scale) and measure.
Do be brave with your colour choices
The argument that you ‘won’t get bored of neutral’ is not true! You will get bored of it (with the possible exception of those of you with a fabulous amount of art) but a colour that makes you happy will continue to do so. Having said that, don’t pick a colour just because everyone else has already got it! Navy kitchen ring any bells?!
Don't tile your entire bathroom
Paint the walls and just tile inside the shower and 50cm around the bath. If you tile everything, it not only has a horrible acoustic effect but also takes all of the charm out of a space that we want to relax in – and it is more grout to be cleaned!! Also do hang pictures in your bathroom. You want something to look at when lying in the bath after all.
Do go a bit crazy in your guest bedroom, if you are lucky enough to have one!
This is the room to put that fabric you always loved or wallpaper you longed for, but aren’t sure you could live with all the time. You won’t be in there that often, and neither will your guests. Think of it like a treat that you can dip in and out of!
Do be confident enough to do what you love, not what you think your friends will love
Too many of us decorate as if it is a competition and end up mirroring what everyone else has. The houses we tend to love the most, though, are the ones that reflect what the owner loves, rather than trends.
Don’t ask your friends what they think of your proposed schemes or ideas
They will tell you, which is fatal. What they will tell you is what THEY would like – which is not the same thing as what you might like, so their advice should probably be ignored.
