The guest loo should be the most fanciful room in the house –– a veritable cabinet of curiosities and showcase for all that you are, and aspire to be. After all, where else in the house do friends and strangers get to snoop around at leisure? Give those nosy parkers a penny for their thoughts, with a picture wall of old family photographs, a vintage milk crate stacked with Camus and Chekhov (or any other literary great you want people to think you’ve read) a windowsill of scents you love and a soap that smells of the beach. If I had a powder room, it would be wallpapered in Colefax and Fowler’s hot air balloons with a honeycomb tiled floor the colour of an aqua marine. Hand towels would be a mixture of antique linen and Missoni zigzag and the soap on hand would be Santa Maria Novella. Reading material (hanging on the back of the door in a wicker bicycle basket) would include AFAR, Vogue, Us Weekly and Barbie. And in a small silver dish behind the toilet, guests would find matches from hotels we’ve stayed at around the world. Nothing like a visit to the loo to get the conversation cracking, wouldn’t you say?