WHAT MAKES A GREAT HOME?

Personality, Light and a Plan: A Trinity for a Great Result This is an extended version of a feature published in the 2026 April edition of Round & About magazine, Oxfordshire.

What makes a great home?  

With spring around the corner, you have a unique opportunity to refresh and rethink your home. Just like people, every building has its own character, so always start with personality and potential, no matter what type of house you have. Is your home grand and stately, or low-ceilinged and cosy? Does the front door lead straight into your living room or do you have a hallway that can be made to work hard for you? As the days get longer and lighter, homely quirks become more visible: here are three angles to consider as you prepare for the return of fresh breezes, dancing rays of sun and more visible dust.  

Lead with personality, not trends  

Great homes show your personality as well as the character of the space and feel both comfortable and beautiful. Look first for what your home might have been and when it was built. Identify whether it is grand or lowly, what the building materials are, as well as the general atmosphere of the building. Consider the location. Is it situated on a busy street with people passing outside your window, or do you have a pathway that leads to your front door in a quiet village in the Shire? Look at ceiling height, the presence of mouldings (or not), the width of staircases, and the size of windows and window panes. Then look to yourself. Are you drawn to minimalism, white walls and chrome, or chintz, wing-backed chairs, and boldness? Or something in between? Now, go back to your analysis of your house and see if your personality and its quirks match. If they do, very good. You will do just fine if you follow the two sections below. If not, there might be some more thinking to be done. You might find that the magic lies in the friction that you have just uncovered.   If you need any help with the thinking, consider booking a Parlour Consultation or a Drawing Room Concept Design.

Colour, pattern and texture are your friends 

Colour, pattern and texture are the elegant tools of timeless rooms and nothing to be nervous about. Use them to your advantage. Colour can be tweaked to convey mood but must always pay homage to the light (see below).  Patterns give life and movement, and if your home does not have many period features left, a pattern can be your workhorse and shoulder the attention that was reserved for features. Texture will lend tactility and feeling to bland spaces. If you are not a great fan of strong colour and pattern, texture will be your best friend. A neutral space without texture will be lifeless and one-note. Don't be lifeless before time. 

Antiques and vintage pieces in real wood and natural fabrics bring texture as well as character and patina, so look to your local antique and secondhand shops as well as auction houses for small side tables, lamp bases and well-made chairs. They will age well; most flat-pack won’t. In a narrow Victorian hallway, or a small living room, a few solid pieces do more for character than matching furniture and a car boot of porcelain dogs. 

Look to the light  

If you constantly feel irked by the colour, or a potential mismatch between mood and function of your room, start by finding out which way it faces. Is it a cool north-facing space that needs warmth and friendliness and is currently painted in a cool-toned neutral?  Does it get strong westerly sunlight, and the evenings feel hot and bothered, whilst you try to see past the glare on your TV? Bring a compass (you will have one on your phone) and start by finding out the aspect. Colour will take its cue from the direction of the light source. Dark, north-facing rooms can go from dingy and lifeless to impactful jewel boxes when the light is allowed to steer the colour palette, and with the right colour scheme, the gloomiest room can become cosy, welcoming, and habitable. Pinning down how much light you get, when it is at its brightest, and the colour temperature will help you, whether the room is big or small. You feel the colour before you feel the size of a space.

After you have done that, look outside. What can you see? Greenery, a brick wall, rolling hills and blue skies? Due to something called Colour Relativity, the light that streams through your window will be coloured by the aspect, as well as by what is outside. Trees will give a greenish tint; a red brick wall will warm the light and so on. Combine this information with the timing of light: when the room is most inviting and what activity suits it best, and choose colours accordingly. If you try to fight the light, you will lose the battle.  

For more information on colours and light, please visit these essays: Coulour for North-facing Rooms, East-facing Rooms, South-facing Rooms, West-facing Rooms.

Plan before you buy 

Beauty and practicality work together like capers and liquified butter in a magical combination. Before you start buying new furniture, telephoning a builder, or getting the paintbrush out, do make a plan, since without it, the result will be a caper of a very different sort. If a room is beautiful but uncomfortable and impractical, chances are you will not spend much time there. You will need storage to keep clutter at bay, adequate lighting so you can see to read your newspaper or the latest Parlour Essay, and a furniture layout before committing to a larger sofa. Shouting ‘pivot’ on the stairs makes for good fun in ‘Friends’, not so much in real life.  

The two sections above (personality and light) will be your starting point, no matter whether you have an old house or a new one. Finding out who the house is, what it is suited for, what feeling it inhabits, and how your personality works with that; together with the aspect and temperature of the light will give you an expansive picture of where you are going. Now, you add the practical work. And no, it does not mean hitting the shops.  

Shopping is often the starting point for many people, since it gives us a dopamine hit and it feels like we are doing something productive. However, a home that feels ’off’ rarely needs more cushions. In fact, mindlessly adding more things to an already sprawling space without consideration will only cause further issues. If you go to the shops or start looking online before you actually understand the spatial strengths and constraints of a room, you will find that your purchases will not make a lot of sense when they arrive. Seeing your space in its empty state first will cut down on stressful returns and help avoid a house that no longer knows who or what it is. Working with a designer can achieve this without hauling your furniture into the garden. By drawing up the space on a floor plan and finding the best layout, both in 2D and 3D, you can pre-empt any bad decisions and move forward more confidently.  

By looking for your house’s heart, combined with your own preferences and needs, you can arrive at a harmonious space that feels calm and at ease. If you ignore the spatial and practical cues, you will be struggling, no matter how many new lamp shades you buy. Personality, light, and a plan. A trinity that will serve you and your house well.   

If you want to take a fresh look at colours, furniture layouts or plans for change, please go to Services.