Room Feature at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

This spacious room feature has its original pine floorboards, which create a wonderful wood glow at Floor level and are a key feature of the room feature. Units have been carefully chosen to complement them while a huge range cooker gives this family room feature a professional edge.

It can be difficult to know how to intersperse decorative feature tiles among plain ones to create the best effect. In order to get a feel for the right design balance, first cut out tile-sized squares of paper and tape them to the walls, then move them around until you are happy with the effect. In general, it is best to keep feature tiles at least one Tile out from the corners of a room feature. If you don't, the eye will tend to be drawn to the Wall edges and away from the central areas of pattern.

A high dado rail around the room feature - a classic Thirties feature - divides up the walls, and different coloured paints draw attention to it. Above, the walls are white, while below a thin strip of palest green creates a pretty border around the room feature. Thirties interiors often features borders and lines of paintwork, which have the effect of framing a room feature. The green chosen here matches the green on the original Dresser -a nice touch. Below is a soft cream - warm, sunny, practical.