GOOD QUALITY FINISH is a vital foundation to decorating. It is worth investing in a properly laid floor, smooth walls, good quality glass in the windows: these cannot be re-done every two years. Think of how you are going to light a room as much as how you are going to colour it. Effective LIGHTING can open up spaces. Plan electrical wiring well in advance of decorating. Whilst you can never have enough STORAGE, there is something to be said for optimising it. ‘Stuff’ expands to occupy the space available for it! PICTURES in strongly coloured rooms can be a problem. Monochromatic images, especially black and white photographs can be very effective instead. A whole wall of STORAGE cupboards can be very smart and effective for storing out of sight. Consider floor to ceiling doors in wood/veneer with pop-open door mechanisms. Consider CUPBOARDS with glass facades: in the kitchen for kitchenware or in bedrooms for your neat pile of smalls: they enhance a sense of space. It is a good investment to buy a half metre of FABRIC that you are going to order a lot of to get a proper feel of how it will look in expanse - you can always use it for a cushion later on! Sketch your ideas and draw to scale on graph paper. Furniture and objects can look naggingly wrong or fail to ‘work’ if SCALE, BALANCE and PROPORTION are not thought through at the outset. CLUTTER - 80% of paper filed away is never looked at again. Ruthlessly edit all those boxes and cupboards full of paper and create storage for things you are more likely to look at or use.