One of the most useful decorating tools I’ve ever used isn’t a paint chart or a tape measure. It’s a camera. That might sound strange coming from someone who’s spent the last thirty-five years styling and designing homes, but as they say a camera never lies and it highlights things we’ve stopped noticing.The camera has no emotional attachment to the extra chair that was placed as a temporary measure and that you’ve been re-routing around for years but that has somehow become

Instagram has been full this week of gardeners sharing advice on how to help plants survive another hot summer. Hosepipe bans, drought-tolerant planting and gardens under stress seem to be everywhere I look. When we talk about creating a calmer life, we rarely talk about the garden, but I think we should. Our gardens can either become another long list of jobs demanding our attention, or they can become places of respite and rejuvenation. A few years ago, Dave and I took a hu

It's July, and everyone is home. The dishwasher seems to be on a permanent cycle. Dirty cups appear in the sitting room faster than I can carry them back to the kitchen, only to mysteriously reappear a few hours later. There are coats slung over the backs of chairs, shoes abandoned in the hall, and creative projects spreading themselves across the kitchen table. (That bit, I rather love.) and my own bedroom is probably the untidiest room in the house because by the time I've