. But now he's staring at me like a rabbit in the headlights, albeit one that's 6ft 3in and wearing an expensive brocade jacket.

I say reassuring things, but he looks unconvinced. Why do interviews make him panic? He frowns and seems to think hard. "Dunno," he finally offers, unhelpfully, but at least he sits down. Unfortunately we're on a sofa in the studio dressing room which is so tiny that we could, as Hoult says later, have spent our time giving each other a foot massage. He hunches, like he's waiting outside the headmaster's office.

Hoult's reaction is sensible really. No one wants to be crammed on a sofa and asked annoying questions about how he feels and what he thinks, but it's surprising that an actor this experienced hasn't found a way to deal with the experience by now. Though we meet the week before his 20th birthday, he's worked in film and TV for years. He was spotted in a theatre audience aged three, by a director who suggested to Hoult's mother that if he

When you go into a furniture shop are you like most people drawn to patterned sofas? It seems that pattern intrigues the eye and makes you want to study it.

Although pattern may be initially appealing, nine times out of ten, a solid coloured sofa is a better buy. This is because it is so much easier to co-ordinate other colours in a room with it, and your choice is so much larger.

Traditional wisdom advises using an interesting large pattern as inspiration and choosing your other colours in a room to blend in. Experience shows however that it can be difficult to pick out exactly the right paint colour to go with your sofa. Much better to do things the other way round or, to choose a neutral colour for your walls and then your sofa can be a lighter or darker shade of that neutral colour, or something in the same area of the colour wheel. For example a dark sofa set against cream or beige walls can be restful and satisfying.

A dark purple sofa set against a suitable complimentary, but more neutral, lighter colour, for example, is a way to achieve a dramatic effect without having to resort to brash colours. If you are using lighter shades for walls and sofa then you have an array of choice of colour with accessories such as pictures, ornaments, table lamps, or a rug.

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