And here I’m far from alone: the artist Phoebe Dickinson and her husband Luke Rodgers have yet to get through a winter in their house without the pipes freezing and bursting, meaning there’s neither heating nor hot water until it’s fixed. You might think that interior designers would manage to avoid such material inconvenience, but Chloe Willis, associate director at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler reports that in her house, “rotten, single glazed sash windows lead to a healthy breeze indoors, while the radiators groan but fail to reach the top of the house.” “When I first climbed into the Tudor-style four poster in the guest room of my now in-laws’ house in Devon, I jumped in fright at the hot objects nestled down in the sheets.”