Nina’s lore

THERE are few hard-and-fast rules of decorating, but simply following your instincts can be both time consuming and expensive. One rule is that comfort and practicality are the foundation of every successful room; after a lifetime of projects that have included everything from decorating Annabel’s and a box at Ascot to English country houses and apartments in Manhattan, I’ve learnt that decorating relies on anticipating the needs of clients and their guests. No detail is ever too small to be overlooked and, when they have all been properly considered and planned, the whole will be infinitely greater than a sum of the parts.

What the past 50 years has also taught me is that, as