What does an ideal evening look like for you?
I am obsessed with hosting, to the point where I made it my entire job, which tells you something about either my priorities or my inability to relax without a tablescape involved. The dream is socialising without ever putting on real shoes. A last-minute text to one or two friends, a recipe I've never attempted (high risk, high reward), reality TV blaring in the background while I decompress by chopping things, and then hours at the dining table, a good tapered candle and an equally good playlist, where nobody makes any move to leave. That last part is the whole point.
Is there a ritual you rarely skip before bed?
I scroll my Instagram explore page. I know. But I'm going to defend myself: it's where I get most of my ideas, so technically it's research, and I will be putting that on my tax return. It's how I keep up with what the events world is doing at any given moment, usually while telling myself I'll stop after one more post.
What does the last twenty minutes before sleep actually look like for you, and is there anything you'd like to change?
This is my favourite part of the day, weirdly. I do the NYT crossword or the quiz of the day with a comfort show going in the background, usually Modern Family, which I've seen enough times to not really need to watch. It's the one stretch of the evening that asks nothing of me. Would I change it? Possibly less Modern Family for the sake of my own dignity, but I'm not promising anything.
Which Sukun piece would you choose for yourself, and why?
The Amalfi duvet and pillowcase. It's so simple and quietly gorgeous, with exactly the right amount of subtle detail and not a touch more. That restraint is what I'm always after, in a bed or on a table.
What do you love most about really good bedding?
The feel of it, which sounds obvious until you've spent a night with the alternative. There is genuinely nothing better than getting into a freshly made bed and finding the pillows and duvet soft and silky instead of itchy and faintly hostile. I think you can tell a lot about how someone treats themselves by whether they've sorted out their sheets, and I take that very seriously.
What's a non-negotiable for your home?
Flowers, no exceptions, even in a week where everything else has fallen apart. My current fixation is the peonies at Sainsbury's, which I will defend to anyone. The secret with supermarket flowers is to never mix them: buy a proper bunch of one single kind, put them in a heavy vintage vase with some weight to it, and suddenly nobody can tell they cost six pounds.
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