Interiors

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

The lounge, the living room - whatever it is called, is the central meeting place of the house. It is an area to express your style. This lounge space has a lovely light and blends in to an open kitchen area. It is small but works with the way we live. Colour First The Berlin lounge area was cluttered and tired looking - see this photo! We decided to completely renovate and strip the area of all clutter. We used the 60/30/10% ratios and chose the colours of 60% white with blue and cafe latte tones to offer a

It is strange the tradition of having another bedroom, when if you tally up the amount of times it is used, it may not be needed! However, we had a bed and furniture to put somewhere. Our second bedroom is also in the Feng Shui sector of travel and helpful people and we wanted to incorporate the metal elements and colours of grey and silver. 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

Someone once told me, if you can't afford to renovate the bathroom and kitchen, don't buy the place. These two rooms are the most costly to change as they involve electricity, plumbing and other labour costs. When considering renovating the bathroom, look around to see what you can live with or keep to reduce the budget. Unfortunately, our Berlin bathroom was strangely laid out, had poor cabinets and a classic European tiny bath/shower unit. We decided to renovate the whole lot.   Budget Some key advice we received was to reduce the number of tiles where we could, try

People who love to eat are always the best people - Julia Child I love to cook but I am not the chef of the house. I am lucky that my husband has taken on that role with a passion for food and all kitchen gadgets. I will never be skinny but I enjoy my food! In each place we have lived the kitchen has been a core feature and according to Feng Shui principles, it is one of the big three areas - the bedroom and bathroom being the other two. Check out my Feng Shui section for

Christmas for me, offers mixed emotions, poignant memories of childhood and a sense of having lost something and then there are the decorations. A traditional winter Christmas needs lights, colour, magic and a touch of snow. A Southern hemisphere Christmas is all about the beach, summer holidays, a sense of a fizz in the air. Both make sense at each time of the year.

When we moved to Berlin we bought a lovely renovated apartment in a classic old German mansion near stunning lakes. It was beautiful, spacious but lonely. I had worked from home the last couple of years and that was a whole new experience - if you don't have an office to go to, you need to be outside with noise, people, activity and life. After over two years, we decided to move to a more active area. We assumed that we would end up in a similar apartment with high ceilings and classical features within a German style apartment

The lounge is the last part of the tiny French apartment that we needed to decorate. It had the kitchen to one side and a lovely restored stone wall on the other. A key focus was to take advantage of the natural light from the two windows overlooking a traditional French square. We needed to ensure that the colours connected while managing Feng Shui principles. There was a corner in the Relationship sector that needed 'extending' using the practice of a small mirror stating that this wall extended. I love the combination of French and Asian decor mixed with