Catherine

The first thing I look for when buying a place is a sense of light and air which usually comes from the windows. Curtains and blinds are often an investment so you need to choose wisely for each room for length, pattern, texture and practicality. Blinds I am a blinds person - curtains to me are often fussy, dusty and old-fashioned. However, I have seen some mistakes when selecting the right blind. First, work out how much light you want in and want to block out and if you want pattern or plain. Pay as much as you can

I am a bit embarrassed to say that over the past 30 years, I have bought and sold too many sofas and chairs due to size, fit and often colour or style. As we learnt, choose a sofa that has the right back for the support you want, don't get swayed by sales, and measure carefully if moving.     Sofas we have known and loved: Floral sofa-bed in a tiny Australian cottage in case of visitors and grey modular lounge in the living area; A big mistake of two lemon coloured Habitat sofas - we didn't sit on

We bought the apartment partially because it had a big balcony surrounded by silver birch trees giving the effect of a treehouse. The balcony was like an extra room and can be a restful place to read and relax. It was also great for cocktails! The main balcony needed major work as it was fifteen years old with wooden boards that were rotten. We were unable to paint the wrought iron as it was a whole building process so we did the best we could. We also had two small balconies which we didn't really used but still decorated.

We chose to use the office area for the main bedroom. It was larger and faced the balcony with lovely dappled sun pouring in during the warmer months. We ripped up the old carpet to discover concrete, we filled in hundreds of small pin pricks where photos had been displayed and had an interesting panel of glass that looks in to the spare room! 8 Key decorating tips: Don't be afraid of large furniture in a small space, if the room is small, it is small - so make it have a presence Try to add a wow factor