For the month of June we are opening our inbox to you all. Sara will answer any burning questions you may have about interiors, you may be looking for that perfect white paint for a ceiling or some inspiration for creating a feature wall in your room. We will select three questions to answer for top tips on a Tuesday each week.

Question 1 | How to make a cosy bedroom, without being boring and on a limited budget?

My main tip here is to make a focal point of the headboard wall. Choose a paint colour or a wall covering that you love and then bring an accent colour onto the cushion and throws. We also try to make a feature of the headboard itself – either through use of fabric or an interesting silhouette. If you are looking to update an existing headboard wall – try adding some prints above the bed. Another trick is swapping out your bedlinen – by refreshing your set for example going patterned instead of plain or vice versa – you can also make a dramatic change in the over all style.

Question 2 | Gallery walls for stairs wall? Yes? No? How?

For me gallery walls is a yes, but you either go totally mismatched, or you go consistent. By consistent I mean keeping the same frame colour up the stairs, but you can still play around with the size of the print. Another trick is to create a colour scheme- go black and white in all your photos or choose a colour pop (such as a pink element) to tie your gallery wall together. If you are going mismatched you may still need to have a thread or theme to make it work visually, such as purely family photos, scenes of the sea or canvas paintings.

I find Pinterest has some great gallery wall ideas click my technical board here and follow for some of my favourites.

Question 3 | How to light a vaulted ceiling over an open plan kitchen, living and dining?

For me there’s two options but maybe three!. You go fixed, directional, architectural up lights to accentuate the vault or you hang lower pendants to create a more moody vibe but make sure the pendants aren’t too heavy  or hung too low in case they block your view. The third option would be to add some linear LED lights to the point where the wall meets the slope of the ceiling. This will be less dramatic than the architectural up lights and will give you more of a feature glow.

Image ref: The fabulous Australian Architect Rachel Hudson

Top Tip: The ideal height for a pendant above an island is 75cm-95cm approx.