“Nothing adds drama to your decor like a monochrome palette” says Katrina Burroughs in today’s Sunday Times. She starts her article by saying that she’s open to being thrilled by the pastels that are dominating this spring’s interiors collections, but then lambasts their “wan, sugery hues” for making a drama out of coffee spots and exaggerating every fingerprint. So she suggests instead the classic monochrome palette for its timeless ability to work every season.

Hmmm. Of course, every journalist needs an angle to give purpose to their weekly offerings, but I think it’s a little dangerous in the soft furnishings world to allow your prejudices to cloud your judgment on any particular client project. Or to put it another way, to provide the ultimate soft furnishings service, you need to recommend the right palette or scheme to suit the location, circumstances and client’s aspirations.

So where are we going with this? Well, we don’t think you can wave your magic journalistic wand and write off one scheme in favour of another. It just isn’t that simple (sorry Katrina!). So if we are advising a customer in a cottage deep in the Cotswolds, pastel palettes, so synonymous with that traditional country classic look may well hold sway.

Whereas the striking, so obviously contemporary contrasts of the black and white palette may provide the perfect scheme for that high ceilinged Victorian or Georgian town house in Bath or London, or the uber modern loft apartment in, say Canary Wharf.