Departments · Home
Interiors
Light, proportion, colour and the few pieces worth real money. How to make a rented flat feel permanent.
Rooms that feel good almost always get three things right before they get anything else right: the light, the proportions and the number of things in them. Colour matters, but it matters last, and expensive furniture in a badly lit room still looks like a showroom nobody lives in.
This department is written for real homes, including rented ones. We cover lamp height and why the ceiling light is usually the enemy, the arithmetic of rug size, how to test a paint colour properly across a day, which pieces are worth buying at auction rather than new, and how to hang pictures so a wall looks composed rather than decorated.
We also write about the slow parts: how a room changes when you live in it for five years, what to buy in year one and what to leave until you know the flat, and why the best interiors are assembled rather than bought.
In this department
The latest in Interiors
Interiors Light
Three Lights, and None of Them on the Ceiling
Lighting does more for a room than furniture and costs a fraction as much. The heights, the temperatures and the one fitting to switch off for good.
Interiors Colour
How to Test a Paint Colour
The colour on the card is not the colour on your wall, and the difference is not the manufacturer’s fault. Aspect, light and undertone, and a method that works.
Interiors Furnishing
Buy the Sofa New, Buy Everything Else Old
Auction houses sell better furniture for less than a chain store charges for chipboard. Which categories to buy second hand, and the four to buy new.
Interiors Renting
How to Make a Rented Flat Feel Permanent
Everything that makes a home feel like yours can be unscrewed and taken with you. Where to spend, what to ignore and how to negotiate the paint.
The tool for this
Room Palette
Which way does the window face, and what is the room for? Out comes a wall, trim and accent palette that works in that light, with the bulb temperature to match.
Reader poll
The one piece worth spending on?
Questions we get asked
How do I make a rental feel like mine?
Lamps, rugs, textiles and shelving carry a room and come with you. If the landlord allows it, paint one room properly; it changes the flat more than any furniture at the same price.
What size rug do I need?
Large enough that the front legs of every seat stand on it, which usually means at least 200 by 300 centimetres in a living room. The most common mistake is a rug too small by one size.
Is a good mattress worth the money?
Between three hundred and a thousand euro, yes, measurably. Above that you are buying materials and warranty rather than sleep quality. Replace pillows every two years and the mattress every ten.
Which colours make a small room look bigger?
Any colour, applied to everything including the woodwork. Contrast is what shrinks a room, not darkness. A small room painted a single deep shade reads as intentional and calm.
Keep going
The other departments
The coat you will still be wearing in 2036
The wardrobe
Better skin, fewer bottles
Skin, hair, colour
How to find a perfume that is actually yours
Perfume
Gold that outlives the trend
Jewellery and watches
Three nights that reset a year
Travel
The week that restores you
Body and mind