Restraint is the new watchword in design

Purchases for the home in these recently straitened times are less plentiful and are certainly more modest. With attention-seeking statement pieces deemed about as passé as Sarah Palin, the current mood is all about aesthetic restraint and, for those still able to spend, buying pieces that charm and seduce, rather than merely flaunt and impress.

Elegance, however, is never incongruous; fine craftsmanship and beauty are never out of place, even in a period ...