The Foraris 50

Turn every downlight off for a week

Use only lamps. Most people find four or five fittings they never miss and rooms they prefer. Sanctuary

Move the coffee table to 40 cm from the sofa

Close enough to reach a glass without leaning. It is wrong in most rooms by fifteen centimetres. Interiors

Count the light sources in the main room

You want an odd number, at three heights, at least one below eye level. Interiors

Do the hand test in the bedroom

Ten minutes in the dark. If you can see your hand, light is getting in at an edge. Sanctuary

Sit down and look at the pendant over the table

If you can see the bulb or the person opposite is in shadow, it is at the wrong height. The Table

Find one wall with no job

Every room needs a wall with no window, no door and nothing on it. If there is none, take something down. Interiors

Sit in the main room at four in the afternoon

No lamps, no blinds, ten minutes. Whatever you want to change is the honest brief. Residences

Turn off all but two outdoor lights

Two low warm pools and nothing above. The garden beyond stops being a black wall. Grounds

Tag every bottle with the year to open it

A pencil tag on the neck. Not a spreadsheet, which nobody maintains. The Table

Measure the height of the art you already own

Centre at 150 cm. Most pictures in most houses are hung ten centimetres too high. Collecting

Add a day at each end of the next trip

A seven-night trip contains five real days. Nine contains seven, and it costs less than the upgrade. Escapes

Look at the walls at night with the lamps on

Half the year happens under artificial light and almost no colour is chosen under it. Interiors

Clear 40 cm beside every appliance

On the side it opens from. It is the single most useful surface in the kitchen. The Table

Put something between 90 and 150 cm high in every room

A tall lamp, a leaning mirror, a plant with height. The empty band is at standing eye level. Interiors

Buy the rug one size larger

Front legs of every seat on it, stopping 20 to 30 cm short of the walls. Interiors

Move the outdoor table closer to the kitchen

Under fifteen paces and eating outside stops being an occasion. Grounds

Put something solid behind the outdoor seating

A screen, a hedge, a large pot. People do not sit comfortably in the open. Grounds

Add a second place to sit outside

Facing a different way, in different light. A terrace with one table is a room with one chair. Grounds

Fit side channels to the bedroom blind

Blackout fails at the edges, never through the fabric. Sanctuary

Make a breakfast cupboard

A full-height cabinet with a worktop and a socket inside. It empties the visible kitchen. The Table

Test paint on a 60 cm board, not on the wall

Move it round the room across a full day. A patch on the wall reads against the old colour and misleads. Interiors

Hang a group with equal gaps

Five to eight centimetres, held constant. The gaps carry the order, not the frames. Collecting

Give one work a wall of its own

The strongest position available in a house, and it costs nothing. Collecting

Buy six of one wine instead of one of six

Six bottles over eight years is an education. Six different bottles is a shop. The Table

Move the bathroom light to the sides of the mirror

Vertical, at face height. An overhead downlight puts every line in shadow. Sanctuary

Lighten the terrace surface outside the main window

A pale floor outside bounces light onto the ceiling and brightens the room by metres of depth. Residences

Ask three questions before booking any villa

The plan, the walk to a shop, and where the shade is at six. The reply is the real information. Escapes

Ask for an anchoring itinerary

Two nights alongside instead of six takes five figures off a July week and is a better holiday. Waterfront

Switch to gravel mulch

Bark holds moisture at the collar and rots it. Gravel does the opposite and lasts. Grounds

Put every circuit in the main rooms on a dimmer

Costs less than a chair and changes the house at seven in the evening more than anything you could buy. Interiors

Add a low lighting layer below 60 cm

The layer missing from almost every house, and the one that makes a room feel settled. Sanctuary

Get a second switch by the bed

Both circuits, both ends. The detail that separates a hotel room from a house. Sanctuary

Add a second small sink

Near the drinks and the flowers. It removes every collision at the main sink during a dinner. The Table

Replace the extractor with an inline fan

Mounted away from the room, on a humidity sensor. Quiet enough that you actually use it. Sanctuary

Fit an automatic pool cover

Halves evaporation, heating and chemistry, and makes the pool look intentional for eight months. Grounds

Put irrigation on a controller with a leak cut-off

It pays for itself the first time a line fails in August while nobody is there. Grounds

Add vertical shading on the west

Fins, shutters, a tree. Nothing horizontal helps against a low afternoon sun. Residences

Strip the lacquer off the brass

Lacquered brass wears through where you touch it. Unlacquered brass just gets better. Interiors

Build the everyday tier of the cellar first

Forty per cent of the bottles. It decides whether you enjoy having a cellar at all. The Table

Start the maintenance reserve in year one

One to one and a half per cent of build cost, annually. Skip it and year seven arrives with all of it. Residences

Replace every exterior fixing with A316

A single galvanised screw near the sea stains an entire façade. Waterfront

Compress the entry before the main room

Four seconds at 2.2 m, then double the height. It is free at design stage and impossible later. Residences

Keep circulation under sixteen per cent

Above twenty-two you bought corridor at the same price per square metre as the rooms. Residences

Ration the view to three moments

A view from every room is wallpaper within a month. Residences

Put the bedrooms on the quiet side

Not on the water and not on the sunrise. Living rooms get the view; bedrooms get the sleep. Sanctuary

Give the south elevation a 0.5x overhang

Shades the summer sun almost completely and lets the winter sun in. One calculation, made once. Residences

Plant three more trees than you need

Positioned to shade the west terrace in fifteen years. The only fifty-year decision in a garden. Grounds

Give the island one job

Prep or social, generously. An island doing four things is an object you walk around. The Table

Take one room out of the view for a courtyard

The sheltered side will be the most used space in a coastal house. Waterfront

Decide the rule before the first purchase

One material, one decade, one city, one subject. The narrower it is, the better the collection. Collecting