You can paint the 'orangey' pine surround in a warm cream or beige as it's not working in your room scheme. Just use a good primer (like Bin Zinsser) then an oil based eggshell. For covering the tiles use Coo-Var Tile & Melamine Primer (£13.61rrp) first, then an oil-based eggshell with the colour you choose. As you’ve mentioned the colour wine as a possible colour choice, perhaps ‘Radicchio’ or ‘Eating Room Red’ for the tiles and 'Dimity' for the surround (all by Farrow & Ball). Check these colours blend well with your furniture, wall and carpet shades/tones. F&B's colour palette is subtle as the range of tones and shades are either muted or strong but not overtly vibrant colours, making them easy to live with. Some Homebase stores don’t sell the complete F&B range of colours, so you may have to go to a specialist decorating retail outlet in your area.

We live in a SW London Victorian terrace. The kitchen is in the basement, therefore the landing and stairs going down get loads of traffic and the carpet always looks dirty. We want to rip the carpets and sand the floors down. Should we use the original boards and get them renovated or use new wood/laminate to look fresher? Name and address withheld

It depends on how good the original boards are. I always prefer to use the originals if they’re in the right condition and it should add more value/appeal to the property when you sell. However, if you have large gaps and lots of broken areas of floorboards then to get them successfully sanded and filled may be a costly exercise and the end result won’t be what you want. Get a quote in from a wood floor specialist in your area once your carpet is removed to assess what end result is possible. Try The Wooden Floor Specialists Ltd or call them on 0208 675 2431.

Another alternative to laminate (quite noisy) or engineered wood floors (fairly high maintenance), is vinyl. The main suppliers are Amtico (average £59/sq m), LSI Ovation (average £45/sq m) or Karndean (average £34/sq m) and the choice of styles and textures are huge. The retail/hotel industry use huge volumes of these products as they allow great flexibility of design, colour and texture. Vinyl will be longer lasting and very low maintenance. The ‘mock’ wood floors are available in every shade and plank size. LSI use registered embossing, so that where the wood image shows a knot in the plank, then the texture matches that when you touch it, giving a really realistic end result and feel. Usually a layer of exterior grade ply is put down on top of your secured floorboards first to ensure there’s no movement prior to laying the vinyl with adhesive. With vinyl or engineered wood flooring, you will need to add a stair nosing to finish off the steps.

I am going to buy a new kitchen and I have been looking at worktops. They all seem rather run of the mill. I would like one that has sparkly/glittery bits it in. The only one I've seen is the Speedstone one in B&Q and MFI, but these aren't sparkly enough. Can you help? Name and address withheld

I’ve seen samples of the Zodiaq Graphica by Dupont range and they’ve got lots of sparkle. Check out a few websites for details about the product including costs and maintenance through Surfacestyle or TFK Transform Kitchens who have a wider colour selection still. They are happy to send a sample out once you’ve received a quote from them, but will ask for it to be returned. In order to view the whole colour ranges it’s best to walk into or phone some kitchen show rooms in your area to see their samples within their showrooms. This way you check if Dupont’s products have the right razzle-dazzle factor for you within your budget!

I am looking for a modern solid wood range of furniture, that contains bookcases, dining table, coffee table, sideboard, low-TV console, that wouldn't look out of place with Arne Jacobson 'swan chairs'! I know it's tricky. Gina Bone, Henley-on-Thames

Have you tried One Red Sky who are based in your area? They are just setting up a new showroom in Watlington, due to be ready at the end of May, but for now they have a storage facility where you could view the furniture and check out the quality for yourself. They’re lovely to deal with, don’t stock any items that are not of good quality, have a seven-day home trial and no quibble returns policy. To go with your chairs, their solid walnut Groove 2 drawer coffee table (£645), sideboard (£1,495) and Media unit (£845) would look great. I also like their Stone Sheesham dining table (£650). Both ranges have simple clean lines offering a contemporary look in solid wood. If you don’t want a matching set of items, try Gilmore Space who are based in Hampshire. I like their buffet sideboard in white lacquer (£812), which would offset all of the wooden furniture items in your room but still compliment your chairs. If in doubt, print off pictures of all the items and put them together on a board with a picture of your chair, along with any colour references or soft furnishing fabrics from your room to check the overall look is what you’re after.

I need advice to lighten up a two-bedroom Victorian terrace house. The property is open plan entering via a small porch directly into the open-plan sitting room/diner which is approximately 25' x 29' and is quite dark. At present, I have dark green carpet throughout the house with cream walls and beige velvet curtains and mahogany furniture. I aim to replace the sofa and armchair and renew the carpet throughout the house and would like advice on carpet and soft furnishings. Also, should I get two matching sofas or one sofa and armchair as at present? I would like to keep the curtains. Many thanks. Vicky Smith, London

To answer your question about whether to have two sofas or one and an armchair – it’s completely down to how you use the room and what works for you. You might want to consider a modular corner sofa like the Barrington from DFS, currently in their sale for £300 less than its normal price (£1,698). L-shapes can give you more options to seat several people but don’t take up so much room per person as two sofas. A modular system gives you an option to change the pieces around for different looks and seating requirements. As there is minimal light in the room, I would suggest replacing the green carpet with a beige one. Get samples to see which shades work with your existing curtains, but for neutrals in wool, I’d try Pecos in Oatmeal (£30.65/sq m) or Flatweave classics in Natural beige (£36.90), both from Crucial Trading who have stockists all over London.

You can add colour with the cushions (see the reds on the Barrington) and on tassel tiebacks for the curtains or accessories within the room. A rug under the coffee table can add a splash of colour without having to have the carpet in a dark colour throughout. Try a brand new made-to-measure web-based company who have just contacted me at www.madetomeasure.co.uk. They enable you to design your own rug in 95 per cent wool / 5 per cent Antron. Plain rugs are from £79 with design your own from £249. The design fee is taken off the final order price. A few pieces of mirrored furniture reflect back the room and elements appear almost non-existent within the room, so can also assist in giving a feeling of space and lightness.

I have under-floor heating under some marble floors in an upstairs bathroom. However, if I switch it on, brown marks begin appearing through the marble. Has a mistake been made or should marble not be used with under-floor heating? Sandy Libling, Sydney, Australia

Electric under-floor heating is normally safe under marble. I’ve mainly used the product Warmup in the past, but I don’t think this is available in Australia. You don’t specify the type of under-floor heating (possibly copper piping?) currently installed in your home, so I’m guessing a bit… The adhesive that the marble is bedded into should have been white. If it’s not a white adhesive that’s been used, the colour of the adhesive may now be showing through or it may be from the copper piping. I would suggest that you get the company that laid it (if it was you that put it in) or a flooring specialist to lift part of the marble to check this. They may be able to give advice on whether it will clean up and can be re-laid or not. Best of luck and I hope it’s not going to be too expensive to correct!

I am in the process of building my house and I have started looking for flooring. I know I want stained concrete downstairs but for upstairs I'm looking for high gloss back or white hardwood floors. Do you know of any websites that might help me? Kelley Rafidi, Matairie, USA

I’ve not seen a hardwood that’s actually black or white, but Goodfellow offers a white oak, which is pale, and a stained oak that is a very dark walnut colour. Check out their website to see these online. I have their range of samples and they’re a great product (they come from Canada). Another option may be to use vinyl which you can have in white or black and is low maintenance and extremely hardwearing. LSI Ovation mentioned in a previous question have worldwide coverage and have several products that might fit the bill. Their Antique woodstrips colour 19315 is very pale and colour 19317 is very dark, almost black. They have a tile range called Hammered Aluminium, which comes in bright white, or jet black if you want pure colour. They also have a Sparky Chips tile in white and black if that’s your thing! I hope this helps.

I wondered if you can give some ideas. We are moving into a second-hand house in the next three weeks, painters to go in very soon, all walls are skimmed and ready to be painted. I have to choose the colour scheme beforehand for the whole house, a bit daunting as I don’t want to mess up. I like very neutral colours, nothing too brash and nothing to washy. Any ideas? Is there a programme I could use to put the dimensions of the house in first and get a good idea of how the finished product will look? Amanda Grech, Dublin, Ireland

The best way to choose colours is to have all your other decisions worked out early on. You may already have done this, if not try to select what you are having for your soft furnishings and window treatments by ordering samples and cutting out pictures of your new furniture styles or taking and printing out pictures of your existing items. It’s always much easier to blend your wall colours to these fabrics to get the right shades and tones of a colour than choosing the fabrics afterwards. It’s always useful to buy sample pots of the proposed colours and to paint areas of them in the relevant rooms to see how the light changes them and whether you want to go a shade or two lighter or darker.

I love Farrow & Ball's palette, as most regular visitors to my House Clinic will know, but as an alternative, Homebase have brought out a new choice of matt emulsions and quick drying eggshells called Sanctuary. These bring together colours in families to help you create a mellow tonal colour scheme.

Try using their Cosy or Truffle colours in your main living areas which will work well with different woods or natural colours like browns, creams, greens and reds. In the bedrooms or a separate dining room you could go a little stronger with perhaps Mulberry or Breeze. I can’t give you a rule for colours as different people prefer warm or cool colours around them, but try to get them to blend easily as you travel through the rooms, giving an impression of flowing from one room to another. This creates a visual impression of a more spacious home. The same goes for using a carpet that goes throughout the house or at least across each level. A home looks a lot smaller if the carpet colours are changed dramatically for each room. Visit some local show homes for new developments to illustrate my point visually and to give you some ideas of what shades and tones of colours appeal to you. I hope your project works out wonderfully and that you love your new home.

I have recently decorated my living/dining room and also refitted the kitchen. The theme is modern Chinese with a colour scheme of black, deep red and cream. To finish the look off (and allow me to throw a dinner party), I am looking for a dinner service that will complement. Ideally I want a black and white china service with Chinese spoons and deep bowls for serving noodle soup in. I have looked everywhere and did find one supplier but they no longer make the spoons I want. Can you suggest anywhere? Name and address withheld

Have a look at the following – For best value for money and square styling, try Assam 16 piece (£27.00) available from Homebase or Argos, or Zen 12 piece (£27.00) from Argos. Debenhams Direct offer a more rounded Black & White 16 piece dinner service for £24.00. For a square shape but in pure white, Heals are offering their Loft Square dinner service (plate from £12) so more expensive but good quality and very elegant. To go with your new dinner service you could purchase some black or red lacquer chopsticks for £1 and a black or red triple food warmer for £20 from Typhoon. Typhoon supply Kitchen Kapers on Peascod Sreet in Windsor and Camp Hopson & Co Ltd – Unit 9, Hambridge Lane, Newbury Tel: 01635 523523. I’ve phoned them both - Kitchen Kapers are out of stock but Camp Hopson are currently offering black porcelain soup spoons for 25p each in their sale – so hurry!

We are refurbishing the back of our house and will be replacing all the skirting boards. We are looking for really tall (30 cm plus) skirting boards. Any ideas on where we could source this? Maxine Powell, London

You can either go down the reclamation yard route or buy two components that make up the 30cm skirting boards from any large Travis Perkins outlets. See my answer to a very similar question on my June 2005 House Clinic by going to the end of this Q&A section and selecting June from the dropdown menu. Question originates from Australia


Although Rachel's diary is often full, if you have any specific interior design projects that you would like to have quoted, please feel free to call her at her Windsor studio on 01753 831838 and she will be happy to discuss the opportunity further.

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