I think it’s a very subconscious thing. Since my job is to curate spaces for people, I’m constantly surrounded by craft and design and thinking about it all the time. My job is to curate rather than make and I am obsessed with people who can make things. I think something where you can always see the hand of the maker is really beautiful.

I wouldn’t say a particular style as that’s quite limiting in how one works, also as architecture and landscape and the person who is spending time in it dictates individual spaces. For me personally, it’s more about a feeling rather than one look. I think good design is really about balance and how you achieve that, so I think a lot about layers and warmth, light and scale, in both colours and textures.

I’ve been lucky enough to convert a barn on my property into an office which is full of plants and books and is really zen. I think it’s especially important to put time aside for thinking and be disciplined with that – especially when there is permanency to decisions that cost money! It’s important to give space to your own questions especially with interior design and think, what am I trying to say? What am I feeling? What do I want this room to be? Have I considered all the elements in it?

Again, not one thing but many as I love them all! I like finding the star of each room which might be a tile in the bathroom or an incredible rug in the living room and building supporting acts around them. I recently picked up a mushroom lamp in Rome and brought it back in my suitcase for my office. It’s big and pink and has dictated the colours I have used all around it.

It’s more what I would like to receive. My mother has a set of antique China that has been passed down from my grandparents that I would love and there is also a small mantlepiece clock that is really beautiful.

 I’m always in my local antique store, Montage Antiques in Millerton, so my host gift would always be something like a vintage set of glasses from there. Often, it’s flowers from the garden wrapped in beautiful ribbons and paper. If I can’t find something for the host in time, a nice idea is to give them something that will make them think of you, perhaps an object or a book so that there’s a connection between giver and receiver.