Victoria Barker’s decorating dos and don’ts

Don’t design for now

Design for the future, make sure what you do is timeless and consider future generations – let time fill the gaps. Often throwing in something that jar helps everything else to rest and relax.

Design a house to live in

And not just to look good. Your home is meant to tell the story of you and your family, a place of comfort. Find what it is that inspires you, nurture it and express it in your decorating.

Do not hang artwork too high

A good tip is to keep the main pieces centered at your own eye level, and stacking frames of different sizes and scales above and below each other also works well. Some pieces can go as low as skirting boards and up to the cornice to create a delicate effect. Interest is also enhanced by using a mix of media, e.g. Ceramics, oils, framed watercolors, charcoal and photographs. And remember to keep some walls clean because sober walls are just as important as dressed up walls.

A gallery wall in the dining room of one of Studio Fager’s recent London projects.

Helen Cathcart

Consider fragrance as a layer of decoration

Scent is just as important as visual impact. Try fresh herbal scents like tomato leaves or oranges in rooms you spend time in during the day, with richer woody scents in snug rooms and lavender and rose scents in bedrooms and bathrooms. Make sure this is natural as heavy artificial scents can feel overwhelming – this can be achieved with natural candles and diffusers or potted geraniums and freshly cut gardenia. Flowers. Often mixing two of the three scents together in one room works a treat.

Don’t be afraid of big furniture in small rooms

Sometimes it can make the room look bigger. Squeezing in a fabric canopy in a four-poster bed or small guest Bedroom Works very well, as tall and/or shallow, perfectly fitted spells in narrow narrow spaces or nooks.

Don’t push all your furniture against the edge of the walls

It’s important to find the center line of the room – be it a fireplace, central pendant light or look out – and use that when placing furniture in the space. Creating a story to walk when you enter a room is more interesting than a dead space in the middle, placing a chair ‘out of place’ is also a great trick.

In one end of the kitchen The Oxfordshire Project There is an antique breakfast table acquired from Max Rowlitt, with a ‘Breakfast’ sofa by Fager in Colfax and a ‘Minac Check’ by Fowler. The pendant is an antique Swedish pendant of thia spec, and a collection of creamware plates, the platters are wooden butter molds and are all antique.

Dean Hearne