These days, when deciding on furniture and decorative items, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by conflicting advice and seduced by the latest “cheap and cheerful” fashion. In 1948, Millicent Fenwick, associate editor of Vogue, gave the following advice on decoration.

When good articles on decorating urge the abolition of junk, they don’t mean, “throw away that Victorian table; this is a French room”.  They mean “throw away those tables and chairs made without integrity and honesty, those pretentious and badly made objects that make the room look as though it were trying to seem more valuable and more beautiful than it is.”

To my mind, it’s advice that has withstood the test of time!