New House. Old Soul: How to Give a New-Build Home Character

Almost every home we deliver to is less than ten years old. New-builds are wonderfully practical and almost entirely without character, which is precisely the thing that makes older houses feel calm.

Character can be added. Start high: art hung slightly lower than you think, in frames with age on them. An antique gilt frame does more for a plain wall than any paint colour.

Then layer texture at eye level and below: linen, worn timber, ceramic, brass that has been allowed to go dull. Nothing should look as though it arrived on the same day, because nothing in a real home ever does.

Finally, resist finishing. Leave a wall with room to grow. The best gallery walls in our own homes have all been added to at least three times.