Jill and I have both, at different times, worked at illustrious interiors title Elle Decoration. I was only there for a month, filling in for someone, and my job quite literally involved looking at photographs of amazing homes every day, deciding which ones were really amazing enough to be included. The real core of the Elle Dec team however are the style editors, who give seasonal themes, colour palettes and trend predictions life each month by realising them as full-scale photoshoots.

Well Elle Dec is this month celebrating its 25th birthday with a big, big giveaway. The style team have built six room sets full of cutting-edge, super-desirable design, each one available for readers to win. All you have to do is buy a copy of the October issue (out today – magazine-land is always a month ahead), and enter the code on the cover at the Elle Dec website, here. To promote the giveaway the team have made this dizzying stop-motion film of the shooting process. Watch countless stylists and assistants construct and dismantle all six rooms in a studio, at Buster Keaton pace.

Hats off to them – doesn’t it look exhausting? Which room would you hope to win? When I worked in their office there was a large patch of bare floor behind my desk in which trial runs of similar set-ups were constantly being arranged and re-arranged. To get to my desk I was having to leap over an ultra-expensive rug, bespoke wallpapers and breath-on-me-and-I’ll-break accessories. All part of the thrill of a busy magazine office*. Elle Dec, happy birthday.

*At My Friend’s House Towers there are plenty of trip hazards too, namely the bin and piles of old newspapers beneath my desk. Sorry Jill