The return of birds and birdsong are one of spring’s most welcome signs. This year, retailers are acknowledging this with pretty avian motifs on all sorts of home decor.

It’s awards season for the movie industry, a time of year when the real place called Hollywood comes closest to being the “Hollywood” of our collective imagination. As red carpets unfurl and movie stars appear at their most glittering, how can you add a bit of Hollywood glamour to your home?

You walk up them, you walk down them, perhaps countless times a day. When you look down, though, do you see any sign of your personal style?

Staircases, once decorated with detailed, elaborate runners in the Victorian era, have been forgotten in many homes, or at least bumped down on the decorating to-do list.