My wife’s hairdresser is retraining to become an interior decorator. I always look forward to Vinnie’s visits (when he’s allowed to cross our threshold, of course) and he speaks sense, especially about priorities in a home.
Shortly before the latest lockdown, I asked him about tiles for the bathroom my wife and I are planning to acquire for our tiny pre-fab house in Wiltshire, which is being made in a factory near Winchester.
‘People don’t give enough attention to tiles,’ he said. ‘And yet they are crucially important because at any stage you can change the colour of your walls or buy a new sofa, but seldom would you bother to change your tiles. So make sure you get them right in the first place.’