I strongly believe that people may not want, or may not be able, to start again from scratch, so giving old furniture a new lease of life is at the heart of my philosophy.

There is nothing more trite than a set period - any antique period bought intact for today's living. But, by the same token, a contemporary house that ignores all vestiges of the past in order to express a purely modern philosophy runs the risk of becoming a stagnant document of its own time.

Whatever you do in your decorating philosophy, be brave....never wish you hadn't taken your vision right to the end. Make a bold statement.