Do it! CHOOSE A DINING TABLE

First measure your dining area and allow a minimum of 750mm of clearance between the edges and your walls or other furniture.

In an open-plan space, pick a material and style that complements your kitchen units or sofas. Choosing too many different types of wood can be jarring on the eye, so black, white or glass is a good neutral option. Alternatively, paint your table and finish with a durable varnish to make it fit with your colour scheme.

Rectangular or oval tables are ideal for larger rooms, while round tables work best if space is tight. A central pedestal design allows you to fit more people around as there are no legs at the edge to get in the way. To make better use of space and provide extra storage, consider an L-shaped bench seat against two walls.

‘I LOVE CHRISTMAS AND HAVING TWO LIVING SPACES MEANS I ALWAYS HAVE TWO TREES – ONE MORE TRADITIONAL AND ONE WITH A MODERN VIBE’

Iceland, where everything was grey, deep and moody. This was where Andrew proposed to me so it has special meaning for us. As we’ve got so much colour elsewhere, I wanted a calm, relaxing, cosy vibe in here.

Now our baby Matthew has arrived, we’ve turned Andrew’s ‘old man cave’ into a nursery and I’ve been kicked out of the shared office into my dressing room so he could create a dual-purpose man cave/office. We just need to get a day bed with storage since we had to lose the double bed in the dressing room to make way for my desk.

What I’ve learned

Although a few Rawlplugs have been filled over and Andrew’s had a nightmare getting cabling into his man cave, everything’s pretty much gone to plan. As I did interior design at uni, I always use Adobe Photoshop to moodboard each space and Illustrator to create a scale drawing of the room with the

CLEVER TRICK ‘I didn’t want the sofa and footstool to blend in with the wall, so I only painted partway down’

SMART CHOICE ‘I hadn’t realised at first that I’d picked the same Danetti dining chairs that were in the show home!’