How Designers Select Statement Pieces

"Every room gets one object that refuses to be symmetrical," says Nadia Karam, whose Palm Jumeirah interiors are photographed often and copied badly. "One. The rest of the room must be polite so that one thing can be rude."

Rami Haddad specifies furniture the way he specifies concrete — by weight. "If I can move it alone, it is decoration. If it takes four people, it is architecture. A room needs one piece of architecture that isn't attached to the walls."

Priya Menon's rule is temporal: "One thing older than the building. Always. A new villa with all-new objects has no witness — nothing in the room has seen anything."

Three rules, one instinct: a room organises itself around a single object that does not negotiate. Choose that object first and the sofa will follow.