'There's an element of smoke and mirrors involved': Inside the invisible art of home staging

You can tell a lot about a person from their home’s interiors.

Olive and Anushka’s apartment at Bloom, Nine Elms, has a colourful open plan living space, with a pale blue ceiling, orange dining chairs, bright cushions on the sofa and an abstract, thick-laid impasto painting by a local artist on the wall. There’s a Marina Abramović exhibition brochure from the Royal Academy on the coffee table, while the collection of cookbooks in the kitchen includes Ottolenghi’s Simple and Anna Jones’ One: Pot, Pan, Planet.

The two friends, both in their 30s, share the apartment together. Anushka, a lifestyle editor, has the earthy-toned bedroom to the right. I notice her tasteful linen bedspread, her dramatic black and white headboard and her slender red table lamps from local Palefire Studio.

There’s a pair of ballet shoes in the corner — a childhood hobby that she’s recently restarted — a leaflet from her weaving class and a tennis racquet near her wardrobe, which contains Louis Vuitton heels, a pair of clean Veja trainers and some TALA activewear. Her ensuite bathroom has a good supply of Who Gives a Crap toilet paper, Aesop hand soap, and a trendy timber toothbrush.

Olive works in creative tech. Her room, opposite, is a world apart. There is more colour: deep green walls, a patterned bedspread, red bedside tables. She has framed photographs on her walls, one of a woman’s bare legs sliding off the back of a sofa, and one of a woman standing barefoot on an empty road. Both are from