These feel like difficult and uncertain times – everyone I know is worried about the economy, or our chaotic politics, the legacy we’re leaving for our kids, or the environment, and mental health… it goes on and on.

When the pandemic forced us all to stay inside, many of us realised how much our homes shape our wellbeing – how frustrating it feels when they don’t serve us, and how restorative they can be when they do. I feel like we’re back in those times, needing community, connection and calm. And that is central to what I consider ‘good design’.

Many of us might say that good design should meld form and function. But more recently I’ve been thinking of design along the lines of ‘kindess’, ‘connection’ and ‘growth’. For me it’s about understanding what makes people feel safe, inspired, and themselves – and designing around that. While design can be visually impressive, the most successful spaces work on an emotional and sensory level – they make you feel settled, comfortable, and able to be yourself (hopefully on a good day!) That is the essence of my aesthetic, which I’ve called Grounded Elegance: rooted in natural materials, classic proportions and a calm sense of ease.

It’s not a style you can buy off the shelf. It’s an attitude to living. But the ideas below on how you could decorate, light and furnish your home will certainly help you bring this aesthetic to your own space – creating a place that invites you to slow down, take off your shoes, and feel a sense of belonging.

A Home That Grounds You

A grounded interior begins with kindness. Kindness is about heartfelt choices which prioritise people over perfection. It doesn’t try too hard or chase trends. Instead, it draws on the tactile and the familiar. Materials play a big part in that – the silkiness of timber under your fingertips, the fine texture of a linen weave, the coolness of stone under bare feet. These sensory cues quietly anchor us, they create a sense of calm because they connect us to the natural world and to the passage of time. They are also wipeable and washable, because kindness is not about preciousness.

Lighting plays a major role in how welcoming a home feels – and creates connection. Harsh overhead lighting flattens a space, while layered lighting brings it to life. Try combining soft wall or picture lights, floor lamps, and table lamps to create pools of warmth. It’s these light ‘pools’ that bring people together – just think of the draw of a glowing open fire. You can create a similar ‘come hither’ space for your family, or just yourself, by softly lighting a reading nook or a couple of cosy armchairs. As I always say, dimmer switches are key – you might want brighter light for reading a book, but softer if you’re scrolling online pages, so give yourself the option of both. Similarly pop a table lamp on a side table to make a dark corner feel welcoming and inhabited—it’s often these understated pockets of light that make a room feel like home. And with the number of portable, rechargeable lamps available now (including these by Pooky), you don’t need to call in an electrician.

Elegance That Elevates Without Intimidating

Elegance doesn’t have to mean formality. It’s found in proportion, restraint, and detail – the grain of a vintage mahogany desk, the curve of a bronze cabinet handle. Consider an oval dining table with upholstered chairs that encourage conversation long after dessert is finished. When furniture is solid and comfortable, it creates refinement that feels lived-in rather than precious. It’s definitely not about some of the brutalist, blocky solid wood dining chairs I’ve seen in magazines recently – my glutes start to numb just looking at those.

Performance upholstery fabrics and natural blends are ideal for family homes—soft enough to touch, yet durable enough to withstand real life. Look for cotton-linen mixes, slubby weaves, and washable velvets. I’d chose washable over stain-resistant finishes due to the toxic chemicals within these.

The Human Thread in Design

Design that prioritises people rather than perfection always feels warmer. Before rearranging a room, think about how you move through it: where you could pause, play, or gather. Could a reading chair catch the morning light? Would a bench against the kitchen wall provide a place to chat while cooking? These small human gestures shape how a space is experienced.

Colour also has emotional weight. A palette of natural neutrals with pockets of richer tones – muddy reds, soft blues, olive greens – creates both harmony and depth. Choose colours that reflect how you want to feel in the room, not just how you want it to look. I cover this in more detail in the second post of my Confidence with Colour series.

Final thoughts:

Living with Grounded Elegance: Home as an Anchor

A home built on Grounded Elegance evolves with you, welcomes wear, adapts to changing routines, and improves with age. In a world that often feels unstable, a home like this becomes an anchor – somewhere steady when everything else seems uncertain.

Homes age, families shift, priorities evolve – and so should design. It’s why I take time to get to know clients beyond their colour preferences or furniture wish lists. I want to understand their rituals, the small moments that make them feel most themselves. Those moments are where the best design begins.

It’s not about perfection. It’s about living gracefully and celebrating imperfections – creating homes that support you now, and still feel like you, two decades later.

A single friend has recently moved into a new rental in central London – and typically, it’s short on space. He has a second bedroom, and was debating whether that should be a work from home office, stay as a bedroom, or be a combination of both. If it remained as a bedroom his kitchen-dining-living space has to serve as an office too – which can feel like he’s never escaping work. If it’s a combo office/guest room, how comfortable or welcoming can he make it whilst also meeting his work needs?It’s a design dilemma many people face, since modern living in generally smaller homes asks more of our rooms than ever before.

Designing for flexibility is less about compromise, and more about smart prioritisation – deciding what needs to function flawlessly, and what can lean into beauty and atmosphere.

Start with your hierarchy of use

Ask yourself: Which activity happens here most often?
That function deserves the best ergonomics, lighting and layout. For instance, if you use a “guest room-study” as an office three or four days a week, design it as an office first – desk choice and orientation, chair comfort and task lighting take priority. The guest room elements then layer in as secondary features: a sofa-bed instead of a permanent double, soft lighting that can be used for overnight stays, storage that hides work clutter out of sight.

I advised this friend to use the second bedroom as his office, rather than adding another function to his kitchen-dining-living room. But it also has to function as storage for ski-gear and various other man gubbins. So to keep a serene space for focused work, we’ve added another full-height storage cupboard to hide away distracting clutter.

Use furniture that earns its keep

Furniture that can adapt are the hero pieces of a multi-functional space. This same friend will now put up guests in his living space. I’ve suggested various spare bed options – a daybed he could lounge on, a pull-out bed in an ottoman that he could use as an alternative coffee table, or a sofa bed.  Personally I’d go for the ottoman option, since it also serves as spare seating when friends visit – three uses! Loaf has a number of these options.

Another dual-use furniture item which can support a multifunctional room is an extendable table or rising coffee table. These can provide dinner-party dining space when that is needed.  This every-day coffee table easily converts to a 6-seater dining table.

The Murphy, or wall bed deserves a mention here – yes it’s only used as a bed, but when it’s not in use it takes up only as much floorspace as a wide cupboard. This means it can be another guest bed option in a home office or snug. Alternatively, the more expensive designs are comfortable enough to use every night, which opens up the option for studio living when space really is a premium.  My Small Space Living post provides more guidance on this.

Zone through light, texture and tone

Aside from furniture choices, multi-functional spaces need careful planning of their zones. Many new apartments and small homes have a single kitchen-living space, which is also for dining. But just as many older homes now have kitchen-diners which function as a busy family command centre in the morning to a homeworking space in the afternoon – as well as a kitchen. If you then want to host relaxing dinners for your partner, family or friends, you want a perceptible shift from military operation to cosy bistro. Instead of physical partitions, use light layering and material contrast to mark functional shifts.

• Use multiple lighting circuits with dimmer switches – once the meal is at the table, dim the lights on the kitchen clutter and enjoy the warmth of pendant lighting and candles or portable lights in the dining area.
• Textural changes from hard flooring to a large rug under the dining table – this signals the different zones. Top tip: make it a washable rug.
• Subtle colour variation helps define areas without chopping up the space; for example, use a deeper tone of the same hue for the dining area in an open-plan kitchen-dining-living room. Placing the dining area in the darkest area of the room is fine if you tend to use it mainly for evening meals – keep the brighter spaces for the kitchen and living areas.

Prioritise storage and visual calm

Dual-purpose rooms can quickly feel chaotic. Hidden storage is the unsung hero – built-in joinery, ottomans, or modular sofas with under-seat storage that keep one function invisible while the other is in use.
In multi-functional rooms consider a “close-down routine” – invest in boxes and baskets ready to sweep away playroom toys or work papers when it’s time to use a seating area for relaxation or entertaining.

Let your design aesthetic anchor the space

Just because a room has more than one purpose doesn’t mean it should feel generic. A consistent design language – colour palette, materials, or recurring motif – can tie the functions together.
For example, a deep inky blue used on study joinery could reappear as the day bed cushion and then the bedlinen on the guest bed. Cohesion keeps the room intentional rather than improvised – and in the above example shows guests they are welcomed in that space rather than just a nuisance!

Final thought

The best multi-functional rooms feel effortlessly comfortable and welcoming – but that is through considerable design and planning. Decide what matters most, design for that function with precision, then layer in comfort and style for the secondary use. The result? A room that flexes gracefully as life demands it.

If you’re wrestling with a room that has to work twice as hard – guest-room-study, kitchen-diner-homework zone or something trickier – my Design Coaching sessions help you plan layouts, select furniture and find finishes that work beautifully for every purpose. I explain how these can help you here. 

In the first post of this series we explored how the building itself – its light, orientation and architecture – can guide your colour choices. In the second, we delved into colour theory and psychology, showing how these principles shape mood and flow. So far, so theoretical. Now, in this third and final post, we’ll look at how to create an actual palette, by turning to external inspiration. From favourite artworks and cherished fabrics to the view of a garden outside your window, these reference points can become the anchors of a beautiful and personal scheme.

Colour inspiration doesn’t have to be invented – it’s all around you. Nature is a master of colour pairings, whilst artists and textile designers use both their artistic eye and their own application of colour theory to compose colours in their works. It makes sense to borrow from their expertise!

Start With What You Already Love

Look around your home at the pieces you already own and love – chances are, a large part of their appeal is within the colours they contain. Inspiration may come from:

• A patterned fabric on a chair or curtains.
• A rug that’s moved with you from home to home.
• A favourite piece of artwork or photography.

A single artwork or decorative object can drive an entire scheme. The trick is to look past the subject matter and study the colours:

• A landscape painting might offer a muted base tone with two bold accents.
• A vintage kilim rug may hold a dozen nuanced reds, greens and neutrals.

Another source of colour inspiration can come from the clothes you wear. Looking inside your wardrobe or drawers, is there a colour you’re drawn to time and time again across these items? How you dress yourself in colour can sometimes transfer well into how you dress your home as well.

These clothing, art and interiors items contain built‑in colour palettes. Place a paint chart next to them and then bring together the 3 or 4 colour chips that match the colours. See how they look together outside of the pattern, design or subject matter of the art.

Tip: Photograph your favourite piece (in natural daylight or as close to as possible) and use a digital colour‑picker tool such as https://coolors.co/ to extract its main hues. This creates a ready‑made palette to test in your space.

Borrow From Nature & YOUR Surroundings

Interior designers repeatedly return to nature as the richest palette source. Whether it’s a coastline, woodland walk or simply the changing view of plants from your kitchen window, the colours of nature are both timeless and grounding.

• In the South Downs landscapes around me, for example, chalky whites, muted greens, earthy browns and soft sky blues all translate beautifully into paint colours.
• Urban dwellers can look to seasonal change – spring blossom pinks, autumnal ochres, wintery blues and slate greys.
• The built environment can also provide inspiration – from painted shopfronts on your local high street to the colour combinations of old brickwork, roof tiles and shutters you pass on your commute.

Taking inspiration from nature blurs the boundaries between indoors and out – we’re forever hearing of interiors which ‘bring the outdoors inside’. This principle sits at the heart of biophilic design. Biophilic design is essentially about designing with nature in mind: maximising natural light and views of greenery, using shapes, patterns and textures found in nature, and drawing a colour palette from the landscape to create a sense of calm and restoration. It’s especially powerful when a room overlooks a garden because you’re reinforcing the real view with the design inside – creating a visual connection between the indoor and outdoor environment, which has been shown to reduce stress, improve mood and even boost productivity in that indoor space. For readers interested in learning more about this approach, watch this TedTalk by British biophilic designer Oliver Heath.

Tip: Next time you’re out walking or sitting by a view you love, stop and pick three or four colours you can see right there. Jot them down or photograph small sections close‑up rather than the whole scene. Back home, match these shades to paint chart chips or fabrics and you’ll have an instant, nature‑based palette to experiment with.

Take Cues from Hospitality Interiors

Hotels, restaurants, boutique cafés and spas are often masterclasses in colour and atmosphere. Designers in the hospitality world frequently use bold combinations, layered textures and lighting to create a mood or tell a story. Visiting a favourite bar or spa and noticing its palette can spark ideas for your own rooms: you might take a deep green from a hotel lounge and use it for joinery, or a soft plaster‑pink from a spa’s treatment room as inspiration for a bathroom.

Tip: When you’re in an inspiring interior, snap photos of colour combinations you love – not just single colours, but the way tones are layered with materials and lighting – and bring those references back to your mood board.

Make a Mini Mood Board

Combining your inspiration sources into a mood board – physical or digital – helps you capture all those colours and ideas in one place. A mood board is simply a visual collage or arrangement of swatches, photos, textures and notes. It gives you a quick, at‑a‑glance sense of how colours, materials and styles will work together before you commit. Include:

• A photo of your inspiration object or view.
• Paint swatches or digital colour chips.
• Fabric samples or images of furnishings.
• Any other finishes you already have or want in the room – wood, tiles, carpet etc.

Seeing them side by side will start revealing some interesting insights to help you further develop the scheme:

• Does the palette feel fresh, warm, dramatic or calm?
• Whether one colour is dominant over the others and may therefore be an accent or highlighting colour in a room.
• If there’s something missing – would a splash of a complementary colour or something bright bring some fun or energy to the scheme?

Seeing the colours and textures together will help you identify which colours could be the major players and form the basis of your wall colours, and which are the supporting cast. There is a helpful rule of thumb you might consider, which is the 60:30:10 ratio: 60% of your scheme is the main base colour, 30% is a complementary second colour, and 10% is an accent colour which is often bolder or contrasting and brings energy and drama. In practice, this could be 60% on your walls, 30% on the trim and doors and your window dressing, and 10% in the light shades, scatter cushions or other accessories. If you’d like four colours in your scheme, this rule still works if you use 2 analogous colours (ones which sit next to each other on the colour wheel) in equal proportions for one of those parts of the ratio. Or use the same colour but in different levels of saturation – such as Paint & Paper Library’s Leather used in different intensities in this bathroom. You could then have different colours for the 30% and 10% proportions.

Have fun with this exercise – and don’t forget the importance of colour psychology covered in my second blog post, to ensure that the colours you’re selecting support how you want to feel in the space, be that calmed, energised or other. If the colours you’re using have come from a loved item, view or artwork, chances are you’re already creating a scheme that fills you with joy or peace.

Conclusion

This three‑part series has moved from the fixed (your building), through the structured (colour theory and psychology), to the personal (external inspiration). By considering these steps, you can now start to create a palette that feels authentic, cohesive and deeply connected to both your home and your life. The most successful schemes don’t just look good – they tell a story about you and your surroundings, and they’re a joy to live with every day.

If you’d like more of a guiding expert hand to prepare a colour palette that truly captures your personal tastes, request my Colour Consultation.

In the first post of this series, we looked at how the building itself – its orientation, natural light and architecture – can provide guidance for your colour choices. Starting with the room specifics grounds your scheme in the reality of your home. But once you’ve considered what the building is telling you, there’s another lens to apply: colour theory and psychology. Together, these help you create palettes that not only look cohesive but also make sure the room supports the mood and ambience you need from it.

The Colour Wheel in Practice

The colour wheel is a simple but powerful tool. It helps explain why some combinations feel balanced and harmonious, while others create energy or tension.

• Complementary colours sit opposite each other (blue and orange, red and green, yellow and purple). Together they create vibrancy and contrast. There’s a cool colour paired with a warm one. These combinations will be everywhere when you start looking – warm terracotta roof tiles against a vivid blue sky, a soft pink rose nestled in its green leaves.
• Analogous colours sit side by side (blue, teal, green). These bring calm and unity. Think of a handful of collected sea-glass from a beach.
• Monochrome schemes use a single colour in different tints, from pale through to deep. This creates sophistication and flow. It can be serene in pale colours or dramatic in richer ones.
• Triadic palettes combine three colours evenly spaced around the wheel, such as blues, red and yellows. Used carefully, they bring energy and playfulness.

Tip: Create a small test board with three swatches from different parts of the wheel and place them side by side. Notice how you respond to these combinations – are they lively, calm, or dramatic.

Tonal Variation and Flow

Have you noticed how many paint brands now provide their colour in different levels of saturation, suggesting combinations of them be used across ceiling, walls and trim? Using pale, mid and dark versions of the same colour is one of the simplest ways to build an elegant colour scheme for a room and cohesion across your home. The latter allows each room to have its own character while maintaining a thread of consistency.

• For example, a pale aqua in the hallway, a mid teal in the sitting room, and a deep cobalt in the study. Each space feels distinct, but together they tell a story.
• Tonal layering within a single room works particularly well when there is painted joinery, such as built-in book shelves, or in your kitchen.

Tip: If you want to create a feature wall with a different shade of your colour, a darker shade will advance towards you and visually foreshorten the room, whereas a paler tint will recede away and lengthen the room. This can be a useful trick in rooms with difficult dimensions.

Quick sidebar: you might be wondering what’s the difference between a tint, a shade, and a tone. Good question. A tint is a colour to which white has been added to lighten it.  Peach is a tint of orange. A tone is a colour to which grey has been added to desaturate it or create subtlety. Sage green is a tone of green. And a shade is a colour to which black has been added to darken or enrich it – navy blue being an example. Whilst we’re here, a hue is the pure colour itself, such as red or blue.

Contrast and Balance

Colour isn’t only about hue – it’s about contrast. The balance between light and dark, cool and warm, these shape how a space feels.

• Contrast for drama: Deeply coloured walls with crisp white trim, or a bold feature wall, create energy and a striking effect.
• Harmony for calm: Tone-on-tone schemes, where walls, ceilings and trims are all close in depth, feel more restful and seamless. Layered neutrals are an elegant version of this. See Kelly Hoppen’s work for a masterclass in that.

Colour Psychology

Colour has long been known to elicit an emotional and behavioural response. Karen Haller, author of The Little Book of Colour, explains that the psychology of colour is about how colours work together to influence behaviour. She writes “We see colour with our eyes, but the real magic happens in the brain. Once colour is processed, it triggers an emotional and physiological response, altering how we feel and behave. This is why understanding the role of colour psychology in interior design is so powerful.”

• Blues and greens are calming, restorative, often linked to nature and balance. Good choices for bedrooms and bathrooms.
• Yellows and orange are sociable, uplifting, energising. Perfect for kitchens or dining spaces.
• Neutrals: grounding, versatile, restful. A reliable backdrop in any room, but especially good for busy family spaces.
• Reds and pinks: stimulating, enveloping, romantic. Depending on the tone, they can create warmth in living spaces or intimacy in dining rooms.

By aligning colour psychology with room function, you create spaces that support how you live. A calming green study aids focus for some, whereas others may seek creative stimulation and energy from a triadic scheme. Sophie Robinson, so recognised for her colourful schemes, tells how she originally painted her study in soothing (sensible?) pales – only to feel totally flat in it. Once she’d followed her instincts and redecorated it in vibrant colours and pattern, her creativity soared.

Our response to colour can be from our own past experiences or from cultural messages. In my design process, and particularly the Colour Consultation I offer, I encourage clients to recall favourite scenes and moments from their life and consider the colours from those.

Tip: Forget about colour trends or what you’re seeing on a paint chart. Think about the colours you’re instinctively drawn to, and then how they make you feel. Consider how these can be incorporated into your colour scheme.

Conclusion

In Part One I explained how the building can provide a useful structure for scheme choices. Colour theory gives you the science. And psychology makes it personal. By layering these together, you can move beyond trial and error into creating schemes that are both cohesive and emotionally resonant.
In the final post of this series, we’ll look at the third layer: inspiration. From the landscapes outside your window to the artwork and objects you love most, these sources can become the anchor points for your palette – the step that makes a scheme uniquely yours.

Choosing paint colours can for some people feel exciting, filling them with creative joy. But for others they may only feel overwhelmed – the horror of hundreds of swatches, conflicting advice, and the fear of making a mistake.

This is the first in a three-part series on how to select colours with confidence. We’ll start in this post with how your home itself can guide you on the colour selection journey: what it can suggest through its orientation, dimensions and architectural character. The second post will explore how a knowledge of colour theory and psychology can shape the formation of your palette, and the final post will look at the role of inspiration, turning to what you already connect with for direction. By the end of this short series I hope you’ll join me in embracing the selection of colour palettes.

So, onto our first lesson which is about what your building is telling you – through its light, architecture and character. The room you are decorating is one of a kind, unique – there is no other room that has this exact location, these exact dimensions, these same materials, these same light levels. But, whilst this might feel unnerving, there is some useful guidance you can apply to the room and its location.

Orientation & Light

The way natural light enters a room changes how colour behaves. This depends both on the timing of the light, and the direction from which it comes.

The quality and hue of light changes during the day – from subtly blue in the morning, neutral around midday and softly golden in the last few hours. So think about when you will be using the room – is this a bedroom in which you’re an early-bird who likes to wake to the sunrise, or is it a bathroom which tends to be used for relaxing evening soak?

If you’re tackling a morning room with lots of natural light, you might want to lean into the crisp morning light with a fresh blue palette – but avoid blues with a hint of purple or lilac, which risk looking icy in the morning and then murky for the rest of the day. Blues with a subtle green undertone work better, something a bit turquoise like Farrow & Ball’s Blue Ground.

If you’d prefer to warm up your morning room, turn to colours that counter the blue light – soft yellows, blush pinks, earthy-based neutrals like Little Greene’s popular Silent White, or yellow-based greens such as Portland Stone.

Where your room is flooded with warm evening light, you might want to embrace that to create a room that positively glows – pinks, corals, or ochres will do just that. If you’d prefer a light neutral or a typically cool colour (blue, green, grey) in an evening room, I’d still suggest a warm undertone so that the room is still welcoming throughout the day. Teal looks fresh during the day and luxurious in golden light.

Next to consider is the orientation, which builds on this concept of the light spectrum throughout the day. I’m based in the northern hemisphere, so this guidance can be reversed for readers in the southern hemisphere.

North-facing rooms receive a steady level of fairly cool light throughout the day. It’s for this reason artists like a north-facing room. This light feels muted, which makes pale colours look flat, or as some say, a bit ‘meh’. Softer, yellow-based neutrals or warm, earthy tones help bring comfort to these spaces. Stronger, darker shades can also work well, creating a cocooning feel. Deep berry colours, chocolatey browns and luxurious teals can turn an unloved north-facing room into something bold, sumptuous and memorable, and these colours glow under the artificial light you’ll use in the evening here. Whatever you do, don’t paint a north room white under the assumption it will look brighter. It won’t – it will look sad.

South-facing rooms are bathed in bright light for much of the day. You have more choice in these rooms. Cool blues, greens and greys sing in these rooms, creating a fresh and uplifting mood. If you like pastels, they work well in these rooms, especially mint greens or aqua blues, as they maintain their brightness without becoming icy or washed out (pastel pinks or pale corals would also work in the cool light of a north or east facing room). Saturated brights and deep inky blues work well in south-facing rooms, especially with contrasting pale or white ceilings and trims.

East-facing rooms capture crisp morning light but levels become muted and softer after noon. Fresh, uplifting hues like soft yellows, delicate greens or warmer pastels often work best, as described in the morning light section.

West-facing rooms have fairly flat levels of light for most of the day but can then positively glow in the evening – warmer tones capitalise on that golden light, while neutrals become warmer as the day progresses. If you want drama, go for the boldly saturated warms such as Little Greene’s Nether Red. The low sloped ceiling and walls of my west-facing ensuite, painted in Setting Plaster, becomes irresistible for an evening bath when the golden-hour sun pours in. And in the dull early morning its gentle pink provides a soothing start to the day.

If your room is dual aspect, think again about which part of the day you use it most and focus on the aspect illuminating it at that time. The dual aspect with the greatest impact on paint colour is east-west, due to the change from blue to golden light throughout the day. Embrace the drama – a saturated warm blue would work well, as would warm neutrals, blush pinks and soft green- or earthy-based greys.

A brief sidebar on working from home. With a lot of us working some or a lot of the time in a room at home, this is a room to pay attention to. Ideally I’d say use an east- or south-facing room, because some morning light or sunshine will make this a much more pleasant space to start the working day.

Tip 1: Observe a room at several times of day. Note how shadows fall and how natural light shifts. Stick multiple large (A4 at least) swatches of your possible paint colour on every wall. You may find a colour looks perfect in morning light but dull at dusk.

Tip 2: Place two large swatches of a colour together in a corner to see how the colour reacts bouncing off itself. This is useful for a single colour, but essential if you’re planning a feature wall in a different colour.

Now lets look at the room itself more closely, at the Architecture & Period Features

Dimensions

Colour can both enhance and alter the perceived dimensions of a room, and thus your experience in it.

If you have a large room, lighter and less saturated colours can maximise the sense of space. If it’s filled with light, you might want to enhance that and keep the walls and ceilings light and neutral to celebrate the light as it moves across them throughout the day. If it’s not filled with light, then celebrate colour instead, with greater levels of saturation. And if you want a large room to feel smaller, bring in contrasts of colour: a deeply coloured feature wall that visually advances towards you, or contrasting skirting, coving and trim (be they lighter or darker than the walls) avoids the sense of limitless space felt when everything is the same colour.

A smaller room will benefit from a single colour drench – on walls, ceiling and trim – so that your eye does not easily see the boundaries and feels larger. The fewer the colours the greater the effect of space in these rooms. Strong and saturated colours work well in small rooms, where the colours double up on themselves in the corners. I’d suggest focusing on making small rooms cosy and embracing – even if you want them to be relaxing spaces, as we’ll discuss in the second post of this series.

Fixed Elements

Your home’s architectural character could also guide your choices. Beamed ceilings, encaustic floor tiles, exposed brickwork or stone fireplaces all carry their own tones and textures. Rather than competing with these, paint colour should enhance them – so bring them into the colour palette debate right from the start. And try not to see them as limitations – rather, they can be the starting points or inspiration. Look carefully at that stone fireplace and see how many subtle colours start revealing themselves in the veins etc. Or consider that if you are lucky to have something special like gloriously rich parquet flooring, perhaps that should have most of the attention and you can keep the walls pale and unobtrusive.

The architectural period of your home can also guide colour choices. Without being a slave to history, you might want to look to the typical colour palettes associated with the period in which your home was built. I have written in more detail about this in my post on Heritage Colour Palettes. Contemporary homes can often take crisper and brighter colours than might suit, for example, an 1800s cottage. But these rules aren’t hard and fast. What is helpful is that many of the paint brands have developed specific heritage colour palettes, or comment on which colours might suit contemporary homes or schemes.

Tip 3: Walk through your room(s) with a notebook, jotting down orientation, features to keep or disguise, and existing materials. This becomes the framework for your colour scheme development.

Starting with the building itself is a logical first step for your colour scheme. In the next post we’ll look at how colour theory and psychology can apply an additional lens through which to focus.

 

I’m a sucker for small space living – maybe it came from a few canal boat holidays as a child, where my uncle’s boats filled me with delight at their clever use of limited space. Or maybe it’s the den maker in me, from an even younger age, playing for hours in a tiny indoor tent made from a bedsheet, a clothes dryer and the back of a dining chair.

On a global scale, British homes are small. A 2025 World Population Review survey of house size by country states the average size of a house in the United Kingdom is 818 square feet, or 76 square meters. Compare that to the largest – Australia, not America as you might have thought – where the average is 2,303 square feet, or 214 square meters. Yep, you can fit nearly3 British homes into one Australian one. British homes are the smallest of European ones, which range from Denmark’s 1,475 square feet to Italy’s 872 square feet. I think this reflects how many European countries have seen a shift to apartment living – no doubt due to the increasing cost of construction, pressures on infrastructure and the complexities of planning legislation.

But, as my mum has always said, the best things come in small packages. I think she was referring to diamond rings. Or me. We might aspire to living in a sprawling space, but remember that they come with more maintenance responsibility and cost, not to mention the heating bills. So whilst some might feel we’re being compromised on space, there’s a growing movement in ‘small space living’ – the tiny home movement and ‘van life’ come to mind. Necessity is the mother of invention, leading to some clever use of our limited space to live comfortably. Here are some of my favourites.

Space planning

Let’s start with the basics – you have limited floor space, so use it wisely. The priority for a comfortable home is to have uninterrupted circulation space, or flow as we often call it. Think about what you do in each space – I won’t say room, as some rooms have multiple functions and could need specific spaces for these within them. Who is using them, and when – what are their task needs, storage needs, seating needs etc? It needn’t be a PhD level analysis, but putting in a bit of thought at the start will help. Maybe you don’t need a large sofa if your family aren’t watching TV together anymore (teenagers anyone?) Maybe your footstools provide additional seating when it’s occasionally needed.

Which leads nicely to…

Flexible or multipurpose furniture

In another nod to my childhood, some of us were delighted by the 1980s TV show Transformers and the accompanying toys that opened up from a car into a robot. That delight continues for me in furniture that makes me say ‘oooh, that’s clever!’ It may be hidden storage (essential in a small home) or perhaps a pull-out table. IKEA has long been a leader in compact living design – Sweden’s houses average 893 square feet. It’s worth a wander around their room-set stores (take a deep breath, you can do it) for inspiration at least. Just be sure to balance comfort and practicality, you need to actually be comfortable sitting at or on something clever. Think carefully and ideally test something before you’re seduced by the cleverness of something. Here are my current favourite offerings.

Vertical living – go tall

Having mentioned floor space already, don’t forget your wall space, or your ceiling space for that matter. There’s a lot of wasted real estate up there. If you’re a book lover, you could have meters and meters of book storage on simple shelves running along walls level with the tops of your doors. It looks visually interesting and uses otherwise dead space. Shelves at any height are a flexible solution, allowing you to swap in artwork or decorative storage boxes/baskets.

If you’re considering a kitchen overhaul, then look into extra-tall wall units, or even built in ones to the ceiling if budget allows. You’ll have masses more storage and will remove the greasy dust traps that are the top of kitchen cupboards. And if ever there was a design to elicit my ‘oooh that’s clever!’ response, take a look at these pull-out steps for tall cupboards or short people!

The kitchen is another room in which we can use wall hanging space. Pans or utensils hung from brass rails will free up counter space or drawers – decluttering your counters is always helpful in compact spaces.

If you’re lucky enough to be building or structurally adapting a small home, then use floor-to-ceiling storage walls instead of just standard walls – imagine how much you can fit into a cupboard 2.4m high by 2m long.

The general idea here is to think in terms of volume not just square footage – look up.

Create a sense of space

In using your wall space, and thinking of volumes, you are already thinking about the visual impact of being able to see or perceive space. Designers talk about negative space – blank spaces which provide visual and spatial relief for the eye. That might seem impossible in a small home, but it can be achieved a number of ways.

Being able to see more of the floor, uninterrupted, can create that perception of space. So choose a sofa and armchairs with clear space beneath and visible legs – you’ll be surprised how seeing the expanse of floor beneath adds a sense of spaciousness. Mid-century styles work well for this reason. This is a useful trick in bathrooms too, where wall-hung toilets and vanity units are increasingly popular not only for spaciousness but also for cleaning the floor. There are many wall-hung living room media units, hallway cabinets and bedside tables – all will help create a sense of spaciousness.

Keep it light

I have advised clients in the past to steal space from outside. By this I mean keep their view of the outside as clear as possible, so that the eye can see horizons beyond their four walls. Using sheer curtains so that you can always see outside helps (add a black-out blind if that is needed, making sure it doesn’t obstruct too much of the window when folded or rolled back). Sheer curtains also stack back far more tightly, saving space around your window when they are open.

But there’s another reason to maximise your windows. Light – especially natural light – changes how we read space. In a dim room, shadows define edges and make walls, ceilings and furniture feel closer together. Bright, even light softens those shadows, pushing visual boundaries further away. Our eyes instinctively read brightness and clarity as signs of distance (a trick from how we see landscapes outdoors – distant objects look lighter and less contrasted), so bright rooms feel deeper and more open. When that light bounces off pale or reflective surfaces, it spreads further, lifting ceilings and widening walls in our perception. The result isn’t just a brighter room – it’s one that feels instantly more spacious.

Mirrors enhance small spaces in two ways. First, by bouncing daylight deeper into the room, they lift light levels and brighten darker corners. Second, the reflection itself acts like a visual extension – when you see part of the room repeated in the mirror, it tricks the brain into believing there’s more depth and volume. Placing a mirror opposite or at an angle to a window can deliver both benefits at once, making even the smallest British rooms feel lighter, airier, and more expansive.

Final thoughts

Many of our homes will never rival the floor plans of American McMansions or their Australian counterparts, but they can exceed them in charm, functionality and sheer inventiveness. Every inch becomes more valuable, so every design choice matters – and that can be liberating rather than limiting.

Ultimately, creating space – or the sense of it – is less about chasing square footage and more about working with what you have, intelligently and intentionally. Light, reflection, flow, and clever storage can all transform the way a home feels. Whether you’re hanging shelves above a doorway, choosing a wall-hung vanity, or simply keeping your view to the outside clear, each choice adds up. In the end, the real luxury is not size, but a home that works beautifully for the life you lead. I’ve written before how Effortless Design should support the way we want to live, and it’s in this context that I believe such choices feel authentic.

From canal boat galleys to blanket forts, I’ve learned that the best spaces aren’t always the biggest – they’re the ones designed with imagination.

 

 

A cursory glance at any of the social media platforms is bound to bring up at least one mention of an ‘effortless interior’ or of the ‘effortless chic/style/elegance’ of a room. The same when flicking  through interior design magazines – there’s that slippery ‘effortless’ word again.  It’s sold to us as aspirational, touted by interior designers as their secret sauce.  But what does it mean? And why is it so popular?

Defining ‘effortless’ interiors

I think a lot of people would describe an effortless interior as a space that is inviting, one that encourages you to relax – perhaps a soft cream linen sofa with a wool throw over the arm, a well-thumbed book casually open on the spacious ottoman in front, sunlight streaming through French-doors beyond, with billowing sheer curtains. It’s a welcoming room that seems to just ‘happen’, and in its own casual laissez-faire, encourages you as the occupant to be the same.

But ask an interior designer what they mean by effortless and they’ll start listing off various design ingredients, choices and rules – ah, so this isn’t just happening, it’s now structured around numerous intentional decisions, purchases and guidelines.  Are you spotting the paradox? How about the contradiction (my emphases) in this designer’s comment I just read in an article on ‘effortless’ style: “Mismatch things and don’t worry about it, as long as you ensure to have the scale and form of your furnishings in order, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a fabric clash.” Now, rather than just seeing the metaphorical swan gliding along serenely, we’re thinking of the feet furiously paddling beneath.

That list of ingredients by interior designers contains, amongst others:

• A relaxed, organic aesthetic
• Understated luxury – nothing shouty, brash or ostentatious
• A space that feels serene, uncluttered, and lived-in
• Collections that have evolved over time (not imported wholesale in a weekend)

In another article on this subject I saw a huge coffee table on which were eleven artfully and diligently arranged low piles of books, along with a bowl of pomegranates. This feels contradictory to me: the books themselves encourage reading, which is a wonderful way to spend some time. But I bet my bottom dollar that the owner of said room is going to carefully align those piles again at the end of the day. What an effort! And heaven forbid a guest should grab a pomegranate and just bite into it – juice and mess everywhere. So these too have become artifice and pretension.

Which design choices create the effortless look?

Perhaps it’s easier to look at what’s going on behind the scenes. By this I mean like the ‘back of house’ in a stately home – the working choices that create the impression of ease out front.

Storage

– Ideally built in, perhaps hidden, but generally copious places into which you can sweep the detritus of everyday or family living and close the door/lid on it.

Lighting

– Not just a mid-ceiling pendant light here, we’re talking multiple heights, multiple circuits, definitely dimmers, and a mix of discrete lighting with a few fittings that are beautiful features in and of themselves.

Practical, hardworking materials

– Ideally which don’t need masses of maintenance: stone floors, bronze fittings, vintage wood. Materials you don’t have to be precious about.

Add to that tactile materials

– I was going to put leather in the practical materials section, but recoiling from a cold leather sofa in winter is not conducive to effortless comfort. So tactile materials should be lovely under bare feet, soft to sit on with bare legs, and inviting to stroke or hold. Ceramic mugs, wool or silk-mix rugs, linen. Notice these are all natural.

Symmetry

– Whilst we might think this creates formal (read stuffy) rooms, actually symmetry is restful for the eye and induces calm in our order-seeking brains. Bookcases either side of a chimney breast, two armchairs opposite a sofa that are placed equidistant from an imaginary mid-line down the room. Simply pairing things (not necessarily matched) can create this sense of ease.

Why do we want effortless interiors?

This is where things get interesting – and perhaps a little uncomfortable.

The desire for effortless interiors often mirrors a broader cultural pressure: the pressure to appear as if we’re holding everything together without visible struggle. It’s the domestic equivalent of the “effortlessly chic” woman – well-dressed, perfectly manicured, successful, but never trying too hard.

Fashion and interiors are useful comparisons, and I found an article on the delightfully lyrical Italian term sprezzatura, which loosely translates as ‘studied carelessness’. Various Italian fashion leaders commented in this article, one saying “sprezzatura is the power of relaxation. It’s the total absence of the fear of judgement, and is demonstrated when you – not intentionally – but casually break certain rules of dressing.”

Whilst that sounds great, nearly all the quoted designers went on to say this style is innate, something that cannot be learned, and becomes a pastiche if emulated.  Suddenly it’s all feeling very elitist, very much for the ‘gifted’ few.

And this is the danger for the interior design application of effortless style. We risk it becoming focused on social signalling – spaces created to suggest (never shout) ease and order, showcasing inauthentic perfection that mask the stress and effort beneath.

However I think we can steer away from this unpalatable view if we instead focus on the function of effortless design. When we go back to that list above of the ‘behind the scenes’ design factors, we see that they focus on design that enhances every day living. Well organised storage makes cooking easier or school-run exits faster. Hardworking materials require less or faster cleaning, or encourage us to welcome rather than fight their worn patina.

I’m not going to tell you how to ‘get’ the look.

But nothing in life is effortless – we’d surely be vegetables if we put in no effort at all. So let’s remember this is about spaces that enhance our daily living rather than tripping it up.

As an interior designer I definitely see that our profession can assist clients with elements that will support ‘less effortful’ living – the space planning, the knowledge of materials, and taking on the pain of the literally hundreds of choices and decisions during a renovation (see my post on “Why Can’t I Just Pick One?” The Stress of Too Much Choice.)

But I would also encourage my clients’ design choices to be based on their distinct personalities – which are  themselves the result of emotions, memories, upbringings, life choices. Because effortless design should be based around you, and true to your lifestyle. It should, above all things, be authentic.

Maybe it’s time we stopped chasing the illusion of effortlessness – and started designing for the reality of living.

There’s something about historic homes that stirs the heart. Perhaps it’s the creak of old floorboards, the curve of a bannister polished by a century of hands, or the weight of a door that’s swung open a thousand times. In an age of efficiency and uniformity, many of us are drawn to the imperfect charm and lasting craftsmanship of older homes. These buildings embrace us gently and invite us to explore their quiet stories.
As a designer who works with period homes – and who lives in one myself – I know their charm is no accident. There’s a rhythm to these properties: a sense of human scale, material honesty, and craftsmanship that modern builds rarely match. And when designing for them, the most successful schemes are those that step in beat to that rhythm.

What Makes Historic Homes So Appealing?

While every house is unique, most period homes share certain qualities that make them deeply desirable to live in – and incredibly rewarding to design for.

Architectural Character

Original cornices, fireplaces, deeply recessed windows, exposed beams, and panelled doors are more than decorative flourishes – they bring authenticity and a sense of permanence. Some features reflect the fashions of their time – such as Arts & Crafts carved panelling or colourfully glazed Victorian wall tiles – but they were often grounded in proportion, purpose, and craftsmanship.

Natural Materials with a Story

Aged oak, worn stone, lime plaster, forged iron, terracotta – these materials mellow beautifully over time, developing a softness and richness that modern substitutes rarely replicate. They lend texture, tactility, and grounding to a space.

A Sense of Evolution

Many historic homes have changed and adapted over the centuries, with layers of paint, unexpected level changes, and architectural quirks to show for it. That patchwork is part of their charm. These aren’t blank slates – they’re spaces with stories. Your new wallpaper is another chapter; the scratches in the floorboards speak of your everyday life.

Design Lessons from historic homes

So what can today’s homeowners learn from historic homes? And how do we embrace the past while still living comfortably in the present?

Embrace the Quirks

Not every wall will be straight. Not every floor will sit level. These quirks are part of what give period homes their soul. When a friend first saw my early 1800s cottage, she asked if I was planning to straighten out the bulging bathroom wall. I told her if I started there, I’d need to straighten out the entire house!
Instead of erasing these oddities, work with them. Commission bespoke joinery (or custom millwork if you’re US-based), add castors or leg extenders to furniture on sloping floors, and sew a draught excluder (aka draft stopper) in a favourite fabric. Even better – spotlight the quirks of your historic home with lighting, such as soft fairy lights wrapped around the beams in an attic bedroom.

Balance Modern Needs with Gentle Intervention

Modernising a historic home doesn’t mean stripping away its essence. But neither does it mean you must live in a time capsule. Underfloor heating beneath reclaimed stone, double glazing that respects heritage proportions, or sleek appliances fitted within a traditional scullery layout – these updates allow comfort and character to coexist.
In my own period home, I’ve fitted an air source heat pump, replaced aged double glazing with more energy efficient cottage-style versions, and transformed an uninviting en-suite into a warm, insulated sanctuary. The aim is to enhance, not compete.

Layer the Old with the New

Some of the most beautiful historic homes embrace contrast: a vintage console behind a modern sofa, contemporary art above a carved Georgian fireplace, or a striking modern pendant hung in a Jacobean-beamed room. Period homes shine when they’re treated as a backdrop for today’s life. It’s this layering – thoughtful, personal, and unforced – that makes a home feel lived-in and loved. See my related post: How to Blend Vintage and Modern for Timeless Style

My Approach to Design in period homes

I always begin with the people: who lives here, how they move through the space, what the home needs to do for them. Only then do I begin reading the property itself. What is the architecture trying to tell us? How does the light shift? Which details deserve to be centre stage – and which should fade quietly into the background?
I don’t believe in rigid historical recreations. I do believe in honouring a building’s roots – and layering in thoughtful design that feels joyful and current. A well-chosen fabric can bridge eras. A rearranged floorplan can unlock a home’s potential.
Whether I’m working on a grand Edwardian hallway or a snug Victorian cottage kitchen, my goal is always the same: to create a room that functions beautifully, reflects the people who live there, and feels richly characterful.

Final Thoughts: connecting with history

To live in a historic home is to become part of its story. The way you paint the walls, position your furniture, and move through the space – it all adds to a legacy of living that stretches before and beyond you.
Designing for period homes isn’t about preservation for preservation’s sake. It’s about connection. Knowing when to modernise, when to restore, and when to leave something be – that’s what brings harmony. And it’s in that harmony that these homes reveal their quiet, enduring magic.