Virginia Woolf's bedroom; Zadie Smith's breakfast table: inspired by our favourite novelists – and featuring the best of the season's home buys – we bring you four fictional spaces

A study for Ernest Hemingway

Walls: Drawing Room Blue, £25.50/2.5l, Farrow & Ball, 01202 876141. Stag, £115, and gazelle, £95, Graham & Green, 0845 130 6622. Thonet beech table, £325, Muji, 020-7323 2208. Tommy desk lamp, £39, Habitat, 0844 499 1111. Eiffel Tower, £34, and bullet pencil holder, £55, Oka, 0844 815 7380. Cog tumbler, £105, Ralph Lauren, 020-7535 4600. Moleskine books, from £4.50 for three, Simply Moleskine, 020-8735 2882. Canvas chair, £725, Purdey, 020-7499 1801. Ruston tub chair, £650, and Garrat console, £475, Laura Ashley, 0871 983 5999. Bulrush lamp, £75, and cotton lampshade with gold inner, £48.50, Graham & Green. 60s globe, £675, and stag tray, £47.50,

Where can I get a wooden settle with liftable seat? And how to get rid of a stench from seagrass?

I am looking for a traditional-style settle for my veranda, with a long seat and high back, in wood, and with a seat that lifts, so I can store garden seat cushions inside.
We've found three: pine settle, in plain wood, waxed or painted finish, from £125, from Mostly Pine Antiques, 07899 951470; four-seat natural pine settle, £379, from The Woodstore Ltd, 020-8123 4850; and oak settle with white back and base, £450, from Murdoch Troon Interiors, 01205 364348. If none of those suits you, try eBay: apparently settles are one of the most popular items on the site.

'We're not worried about what happens when we sell the house': the couple living in the here and now

'We like things that make us laugh," says Emily Rees of the east London flat she shares with her husband, Gareth, and their new baby. "I'll say, 'Wouldn't it be hilarious to have 70s wallpaper with faces on it in the hall?' And then we'll go for it. We're not worried about what happens when we sell the house or whether people will be put off – we're living here now and it reflects what we like."

It's not cold enough to put the central heating on, but it is getting a bit nippy at night ... Sally Cameron Griffiths warms her cockles with a hot water bottle and homemade cashmere cover

September is an unsettling time of year. One minute it's warm as toast; the next it's pouring with rain. And for the first time in months, it's cold at night.

With w eather like this, you don't want to turn the central heating on just yet. Especially if - like me - you've signed up to the 10:10 campaign and plan to cut your carbon emissions (and if you haven't you can sign up here).