Comment: Has time changed your interior design taste?

Like so many things in life, when it comes to home interiors, we have a tendency to re-write history.

In my head, I had awesome style before I had kids, but, having just discovered a box of photos dating back to 2000, I can confirm that this wasn’t actually the case. A ‘rug’ made from a piece of tiger fun fur? An improvised sofa throw made from a small piece of fringed hippie fabric? Not awesome.

Turns out £60 per week didn’t buy you the very best of south London style 17 years ago, and there were certain things I had no choice but to try and work around, such as baby blue floral wallpaper complete with border and co-ordinating carpet (hence the ‘rug’, possibly…)

In other area, the fault was only my own. No bin? A carrier bag on the floor did the job. Picture frame shortage? A bit of Blu Tack was all the was required to adorn the walls with posters and pictures of friends, proper student style.

That bedroom classic, The Chair was very much a thing even then, used in lieu of or in addition to a wardrobe as a place to park armfuls of clothes in a crumpled, messy heap. Honestly, it was like something out of the pages of ELLE Decoration.

A couple of London house shares later and I moved to live with my boyfriend here in Herts. Photos were still stuck on walls for a bit but the fun fur was binned and an actual bin was purchased. These days I only use Blu Tack to cover our perfectly nice kitchen units with hand crafted masterpieces, courtesy of my children. Sorry for blaming you, kids – seems I was capable of creating all manner of style disasters without your assistance.

So what have I learned from these throwback photos? I’ve always been messy, I’ve always hoarded stuff I don’t need and The Chair really is a timeless bedroom essential.

I’m still a faux fur fan too, and quite fancy a new rug…