You've got an awkward room. Now what?

An awkward room is rarely down to a single problem. It's usually the result of five decisions made in the wrong order, or never made deliberately at all. Get the sequence right, and the room begins to resolve.

1. Read the room before you plan it. Every space has an inherent flow, and a focal point or a conspicuous lack of one. Its angles, light and shape dictate what's functionally possible and what will read as harmonious. This is proportion at its first scale, the room in relation to the building around it. The diagnosis comes before any decision about colour, layout or furniture, and it's where many self-led renovations skip a step.

2. Decide, honestly, what the room is for. That means what it will genuinely be used for, most of the time, by the people who use it, whether that's reading, working, conversation, a board game, a cocktail party or the television. This is the second layer of proportion, the room in relation to the people who live there. Design for the real use, and the room works. Design for an imagined one, and it never quite settles, however good the individual choices are.

3. Plan the space around two things: the activity, then the journey. The layout has to serve the room's function first: ergonomics, atmosphere and circulation. Once that's settled, every primary sightline into and around the room should land on a focal point or vignette that's inviting and says something about the room and the people in it, so that the room reveals itself as you move through it. Lighting is what makes the plan work in practice, serving both function and atmosphere with specific intent.

4. Build colour and texture as one deliberate system within the room. Floor, walls, furniture, furnishings and accessories, in primary, secondary and accent tones, are all planned together and in the right proportions. The room then reads as a coherent whole, with every choice agreeing with the others and emphasising what should be emphasised.

5. Select furniture with real discipline. This is where many rooms quietly fall apart. Either the colour and texture scheme bends to whatever's available on the high street, or someone sources pieces that deliver exactly what the room needs: the right scale, shape, colour and texture, in the right place. A wide network of vendors, many of them not available on the high street, is what makes that possible. It's also where focus matters most, with the budget going to the pieces that carry the room and well-chosen, modest pieces filling the rest.

Taken in order, these five decisions bring a room into proportion with its building, with the people who live in it, and with what matters most to them. It's as much a matter of maths as it is taste, and it's the discipline behind every project I take on personally, from the first read of a room to the last piece of furniture in it. If you have a room that never quite works, space planning is often the place to start. For more on the idea behind it, see What is proportion in interior design?