Design for me is the more critical of the two, but it’s through craft that methods of making great design are important. It’s a part of my journey as a designer to understand how craft can make a big difference in creating good designs.

My style has developed over the years. In my twenties, I was very into contemporary design, which, in a way, was cutting-edge design. As I get older, I embrace more historical interiors as I look at the past and find ways of conserving and restoring it. I’m always developing and that’s a good thing, because I get bored very fast.

Sometimes the simplest of things have a very big impact. A friend recently bought me a dish-cum-phone charger by Hermès Home, which is something I would never have bought myself but it is chic and also very useful!

I put my desk in the grandest room of my London apartment so that I get to enjoy it every day. It’s a blue salon with the original William Chambers ceiling and it looks out onto the London landscape. There’s no computer as I can’t have digital things around me when I need to think; rather, books are my joy. I always tell my clients to use your nicest room where you entertain people as a room you go into yourself, otherwise you can shut the door and never go in.

The first thing I ordered before moving was fresh bed linen and towels. You can’t move home, in my view, without replenishing that; it’s always the nicest thing. The last thing was new flatware. I’ve been meaning to order a simpler set of cutlery because I’m doing a new home in the countryside and there is some rejigging that I’m putting in there and leaving here.

I would like to think the furniture that I have commissioned and designed with wonderful designers, including André Dubreuil and Claude Lalanne, will leave a legacy. I continue to work with artists and designers to make pieces for the homes I’m doing and my wish is that they become historically significant.

For the people who have everything, I have to get them a good book or a small object that has to be thoughtful and useful. I love giving dishes, pairs of candlesticks, or a very chic teapot, as I enjoy giving tea paraphernalia. I always say: as long as I would live with it myself, I will give it.