Designer Charlotte Smiley has teamed a sofa in one of her favourite fabrics – ‘Les Ecailles’ by Le Manach from Pierre Frey – with armchairs in Christopher Farr Cloth’s ‘Lost and Found’ for a fresh take on the three-piece suite in her own sitting room at home in London. The House & Garden team has plenty of memories of the tyranny of matching furniture, including a Chesterfield sofa in one childhood home that would have been perfectly nice on its own, less so when accompanied by two hulking armchairs also in buttoned green leather. And it’s not just about living rooms – one beloved grandmother used to have a full set of coordinated bathroom suites, each in different pastel shades (with matching tiles, towels and even, delightfully, loo roll).