Open your wardrobe. What is most of it?

Oatmeal, cream, camel, and one navy thing.Deep colours. Green, wine, a blue that means it.Soft. Dusty pinks, sage, nothing that shouts.Black. Some grey. A white shirt for emergencies.

Pick a room you would want to walk into:

Rust, olive and terracotta, with a great deal of wood.Slate, sea glass and white, and a window.Red, yellow and cobalt, and nobody being careful.Faded rose, mustard and old teal, everything second-hand.

What do you actually find restful?

Warmth without much contrast. All of it in one family.Pale things, in daylight, very slightly faded.Colours that were dug out of the ground.Contrast. You cannot rest in a beige room.

Pick a coat:

Deep green. An event, and you have had it for years.Black, well cut, and you will replace it with the same one.Navy, weatherproof, and slightly too big for you.Something mustard that nobody else could have worn.

What would you never paint a wall?

Anything cold. The room should feel like afternoon.Anything fussy. White, or a proper dark, nothing between.Anything synthetic. It has to look like it came from somewhere.Anything brand new. It should look as if it had been there.

Which compliment do you want about your taste?

"It's rich. Everything in here is saturated.""It's gentle. I relaxed the moment I came in.""It's calm, and it doesn't look like it is trying.""It's brave. Nobody else would have put those together."

Pick a time of day by its colour:

Four in the afternoon, with sun on a wall.Late evening, lamps on, everything deepened.Mid-morning in autumn, all gold and brown.Early, cold, and very clear.

How do you choose what to buy?

Whatever is softest. You decide by how it feels.It has to go with everything you already own.Whichever one you would notice in a photograph.Whichever one looks as though it has a history.

What do you want a colour to do?

Make the room feel warm, and finished.Get out of the way, so the shapes can do the work.Cool the whole thing down a few degrees.Make you feel something. Immediately.

Pick a material:

Velvet. Obviously velvet.Washed linen, pale, slightly crumpled.Unfinished wood, clay, and wool you can see the fibres in.Something worn thin where people have touched it.

What is the problem with your taste, honestly?

It is all one temperature, and can go a bit hotel.It is a lot, in a small room, and you know it.It can read as timid when you were being gentle.You have avoided colour so long that it now feels risky.

Describe the life this palette belongs to:

Somewhere with a garden, and clay on the doorstep.Somewhere with weather, light, and not much clutter.Somewhere with people in it most evenings, loudly.Somewhere that was already full before you got there.