The easiest decorating trick in the book

Cannot sleep. Supposed to be up at 4 and from 2 am much tossing and turning, tried  listening to the Presidential debate which woke me up more, so hey I'm up its 3am but all is quiet with the world at least in this neck of the woods. I was asked recently by a journalist my number one decorating trick, ignoring the obvious (colour) it has to be adding an element of whismy. Interiors can be a snooty business, so where ever possible I like to lighten the mood, I bang on about it often but adding an element of quirk elevates your interior to a whole other level. For me there is nothing worse than walking into a home that has been decorated to within an inch of its life, where you feel you have to stand on guard, or is so minimal and under furnished that you clock it in one second and internally scream 'get me out of here'! Every home needs an element of the unexpected, not to be gimmicky or weird for weirds sack but to elevate it from the norm. Its actually the easiest decorating trick in the book, doing this whismy thing especially if you go down an animal route. Stuffed, ceramic, papier mache or otherwise, in the form of ornaments, vases, lamps art you name it it works. Plonk a ceramic pelican on a mantle wham bam heavenly, stick a papier mache elephant on a mantle and suddenly you're talking. Its so easy to lighten the mood, it elevates, it surprises, there are no rules just grab what you love. An image below from Living etc and below that the real thing, little Maud snuggling on her favourite cushion, I should say its her morning cushion we gravitate around the house with the light us two, morning upstairs, afternoon downstairs, Mung's being a boy doesn't give a rat's ..., he just goes where I go, light no light, day, night who cares. He looks at us like we are a little nuts, which we are not of course, we just have the odd funny little way! Right then shower, coffee and off to Amsterdam, correction off to somewhere about 2 hours outside of Amsterdam on some industrial estate. Its a glamorous life!