Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2019 i 25 Beautiful Homes

I’m thinking about spring. Although the sun has not yet started to shine, I’ve already spotted the first daffodil of the season. What follows is a sense of optimism. This is a time of action as these months tend to prompt a review of one’s surroundings. Spring is when many of us move home; and if you aren’t moving, you’re probably improving with a large or small project. On the agenda for me this year is an easy but important task: a major declutter. I intend to steadily streamline and simplify in order that there’s nothing left in my home that is not beautiful, useful or of sentimental value. This may be a challenge with a baby, but one that I will relish. A few years ago I introduced a…

Antiques dealer Mark Baldwin, who owns Otters Interiors based at The Malthouse Collective in Stroud, recalls his search for a period home to buy in the Cotswolds with his partner Simon Kent. ‘We hadn’t had much success, having viewed more than 25 properties and lost out on eight,’ he says. However, fortune was finally on their side when an Edwardian house came on the market. ‘It was a close call, as we had agreed to complete within one month, which we managed with two days’ leeway,’ says Mark. Mark’s collection of antiques dictated the need to move to a home with character. ‘I had accumulated antique furniture to the point where I had to hire a lock-up to store it, as it wasn’t in keeping with the open-plan design of…

After three years in a one-bedroom flat in Wandsworth, Anjali and Dru Patel had outgrown their space and were desperately looking for a ‘forever’ home. They wanted a house where they could put down roots and start a family. ‘On our wish list was more space, a large garden and our own driveway,’ explains Anjali. ‘We would have loved to stay in London but the type of property we wanted was out of our price range.’ Instead, the couple widened their net to the Berkshire area. ‘It’s not too far from the city where we both work and has good schools and great parks.’ Once the couple sold their flat, they moved in with Dru’s family for a year to save money, and spent their weekends house hunting. ‘In one…

Fate has a funny way of stepping in sometimes: just ask Daisy Nicolaou who returned to Somerset for a family visit and ended up with a new home along with a new life. ‘I came down to breakfast one morning,’ says Daisy, ‘and my mum was looking up a property that had just come on the market. It was a house in the village that we’d both always loved.’ Moving closer to her family had been at the back of her mind – it just took the right house to prompt that move – and not long after a business plan followed suit. ‘My dad came up with the idea of running the house as a B&B, and that was a real light-bulb moment. I like cleaning, I love cooking…

Before Christina Reti and James Jakeman bought this 19th-century townhouse, it had been carved into a jumble of rundown, less than glamorous flats and bedsits. A major renovation – including excavating the lower-ground floor – has transformed it into an elegant family home for the couple and their children, Ludovic, six, Iris, five, and new baby twins Alexis and Daphne. Christina oversaw the project from start to finish and knows the provenance of everything in her home, from pieces of fine art to the coveted mid-century chandeliers. Her former career as a specialist in art history and identifying forgeries means her senses are finely tuned to the qualities of a work of art or design and its backstory. But that meticulous attention to detail has also been put to use…

Few people can claim to have found their home while at the hairdresser’s. But that’s exactly what happened to Shirley Gale. ‘I looked out and saw a house with a handsome facade that appeared to be completely unloved,’ says Shirley. ‘Half the windows were missing and it needed rescuing, but in spite of all that I loved it.’ Shirley discovered that the house, a former school, was up for sale by auction and promptly arranged a viewing. Built in the early 18th century, it had an abundance of period features. ‘It was the beautiful wooden staircases that sold it to me,’ says Shirley. Undaunted by the work required, Shirley put her own house on the market. She quickly found a buyer, but then the sale fell through, so she couldn’t…

Dara Vandor is one of the 14 artists collaborating with the exciting new online venture Runway Gallery, which showcases contemporary, fashion-based art for the home. Her highly detailed, almost photographic work is rich in texture, focusing on lace and silk, while her latest series of drawings are cheeky, too, in more ways than one. ‘I draw what fascinates me,’ Vandor admits. ‘My new series is inspired by memories from my adolescence, and it centres on the particular mix of curiosity and surveillance that we as women reserve for members of our own sex.’ WORK THAT PROVOKES Do people react critically to such direct and unapologetic art? ‘I try not to pay too much attention to people’s reactions, but it runs the gamut. I’ve heard of people being shocked. Others connect…

Rhian Davidson loves to hear her neighbours’ recollections of her three-storey Victorian home in its past life as their children’s preparatory school. ‘The nursery-age girls had lessons in what is now our sitting room and went out for play time in the garden,’ she says. ‘At the bottom of the stairs was a long row of pegs for the children’s coats. Those are gone now, but many of the building’s period features still existed when we bought this house nine years ago and we have tried hard to preserve them, particularly the beautiful ornamental plasterwork and friezes and the original Victorian tiles. I felt it was important to respect the age of the house and restore what was left of its heritage wherever we could.’ Although the former school had…

Chloe and Jay Jackson’s interiors style proves that sometimes it’s good to bring your work home with you. Their professions take them into the world of bars and restaurants – Chloe on the public relations side, while Jay runs a consultancy for food industry entrepreneurs and chefs. ‘The hospitality world is known for innovative design and some of those ideas seep into your imagination,’ says Jay. Chloe adds, ‘We’ve seen how a restaurant or hotel can create a particular atmosphere.’ So when it came to decorating their own house, the pair wanted to bring that mood of relaxed luxury home with them. To help them translate this idea into a reality, Chloe and Jay turned to interior designer Louise Gomm of Gomm Studio. ‘We had soaked up the inspiration from…

Back in 2006, when Fanny Rogers relocated from Amsterdam to live with her husband Nick, Warborne Farm was in a state of transition. ‘My brother-in-law George and his wife Kate, the owners, were raising sheep and growing produce and wanted to expand into holiday lettings,’ says Fanny. ‘The farm had several large barns and outbuildings, all perfect for conversion. It was also close to the Solent, where Nick was sailing with the Olympic racing team. It seemed like a great opportunity, so we moved here to help expand the business.’ Renovating the farm’s outbuildings was a team effort. George and Kate oversaw the project and Jonathan, Nick and George’s father, a retired GP, took charge of the carpentry. ‘He’s incredibly skilled at working with wood,’ says Fanny, who now handles…

When they began their search for a home in Brighton, Julie and Julian Lynn-Evans had an extensive checklist and high hopes. They needed bedrooms for three teenagers, plus another three most weekends, potential office space and a decent-size kitchen. The couple, who both work in the computer gaming industry, went to see more than 40 properties before calling in the help of a house finder. ‘This was the first house she showed us and it turned out to be spot on,’ says Julie. The property had great bones with high ceilings and large, wide rooms but the previous owner had been letting rooms to lodgers so all of the bedrooms had locks and keys and the colour scheme was jarring. ‘We called it the egg and tomato house,’ says Julie.…

When Ruth Alexander and her husband Matt Flint moved into a narrow four-storey house in south London 20 years ago, they thought it was ‘crooked and fun’. But 10 years later, with three children – Sylvie, now 16, Verity, 14, and Zac, 11 – they knew something of a more practical size was required. ‘We also realised that by moving just five miles out of London, we’d get almost twice as much for our money,’ explains Ruth. The Victorian property they subsequently found certainly gave them space, but there was a lot of work to do before they could move in. ‘The place was a real mix of Seventies, Eighties and Nineties in its style,’ says Ruth. ‘It had a colourful history and had variously been a family home, a…

You can see Dara Vandor’s prints – and that of 13 other celebrated artists – at the online Runway Gallery. Showcasing exciting, contemporary work from leading artists, each piece is carefully curated to make an original statement for your home, at an affordable price. Visit runway-gallery.com for more details and to browse and buy. NEXT MONTH Stylish, striking, disturbing, arresting: this is the photographic work of French Cowboy, a creative collaboration since 2012 between Mia Macfarlane and Julien Crouigneau. ‘Every day is an opportunity to create, and we live to shoot,’ says Macfarlane.…

Back in 2014, Sally Morgan-Flower and her husband David decided to join forces with her parents, her brother Simon and sister Emma to look for a house in the country. ‘We’d always enjoyed family holidays together, especially in Devon and Cornwall, so it seemed like a good idea,’ says Sally. They promptly embarked on a property search, and lined up a list of possibilities to view. ‘We soon ruled out Cornwall, as we decided it was too far to travel,’ says Sally. ‘We then looked at everything suitable in Devon, from knock-down-and-start-again houses to New England-style beach houses, and this was the last one we viewed.’ This property’s peaceful rural location was instantly appealing. ‘The house has an attractive façade and views over the Torridge valley. It also has a…

When Tanya Ross and her husband George, a commercial director, first saw the For Sale sign on this large Georgian house on the high street, they dismissed it straight away. ‘We thought it would be too big for us and that it needed too much work,’ says Tanya. ‘But we were viewing another house in the town, so we decided to take a look.’ For Tanya, it was love at first sight. ‘The property had a lovely feel – and you could tell immediately that it had been loved in the past.’ The couple spent the next nine months sorting out a mortgage, selling their Dublin house and commissioning surveys of the property. ‘It’s a big house and we were on a tight budget, so I wanted to make sure…

When garden designer Melanie Cartwright began planning the colour scheme for her newly renovated Edwardian home in Devon, she found inspiration in the rural setting. ‘Our home is a 40-acre smallholding with beautiful views down the Axe valley,’ she says. ‘The sky often has a greeny-blue hue and so I used this colour and shades of green with soft browns. I added warmth with splashes of dusky reds to bring out the green, just like I do in my garden designs.’ Melanie and her husband, Charles, now retired, bought their home seven years ago. The property was built in the early 1900s as a gentlemen’s residence, but it had been barely touched since the 1940s, so they spent five years modernising it. ‘It was as though the house had been…

When Joanne Hegarty and husband Edward moved into their new home, there were several interesting details to catch their eye. Walls had been painted magnolia but fortunately, plenty of period touches prevailed. Doors were stripped and the original Edwardian cornicing, hall tiles and stained glass had also been conserved. ‘We loved all the Edwardian features,’ says Joanne, who is a fashion blogger (@thestylistandthewardrobe). ‘When we walked in, we thought it had a lovely feel to it. We could see it becoming a great family home.’ But while the house had bags of potential, it took some essential building work, redecoration and Joanne’s keen eye for accessories to turn the property into the home of their dreams. ‘I wanted to create a home that had a welcoming feel, that was bright…

Kate Horlock realised this home was the perfect place to make strong style statements when a rather special wallpaper arrived in the post. With a little encouragement from interior designer Tricia Cunningham, she had ordered a pattern by Ellie Cashman, who is known for her dark, billowy florals, intending it to go in the cloakroom. ‘But as we unrolled it, it looked so beautiful that I knew it deserved to be seen in all its glory in a bigger space,’ she smiles. It now adorns one wall of Kate and Tim Horlock’s sitting room and reflects the ethos that runs through every room of their Cheshire house: the look is stylish and elegant, but also very relaxed. Tim, a barrister, and Kate, who is retraining as a food stylist, downsized…

Harmonising great interiors with the practicalities of a young family is a balancing act that takes some thinking. Hannah Barratt has nailed it in her home with a robust palette of wood, marble and brass, softened with colour. ‘We’ve got three children and the whole house needed updating. So I didn’t want to feel too precious about everything being new,’ she explains. ‘When we moved in there were no obvious period features remaining, so I took a modern approach, choosing contemporary colours and textiles, and used materials that could withstand our busy family lifestyle.’ Hannah lives here with husband Paul, and children, Samuel, 12, Max, 10, and Phoebe, four. The house had been added to on all sides and while the couple were delighted with the ready-made space, they were…

For Kelly Pike and her husband, Henry, the decision to move from London to Bristol was a no-brainer. Welcoming their eldest son, Rafferty, into their family in 2013 meant that purse strings were stretched, and they were soon outpriced from the area they had called home for 10 years. Rather than settling for somewhere that didn’t suit their new lifestyle, they opted to search further afield, in Henry’s hometown of Bristol. ‘We only viewed three properties and ended up buying the third,’ recalls Kelly. ‘We got so much space for our money that it just made sense.’ While the buying process couldn’t have been smoother, it did leave the couple somewhat naive about the amount of work that was needed. ‘As first-time buyers, we assumed that renovating a house would…

After five years of living in their Victorian property, Helen and Jonny Brown were ready to reinvent the house with a rear extension. Minds made up, the couple set out to find the right architect. ‘We didn’t want a standard, boxy extension, but a well-designed space with beautiful finishes that we could retreat to after a busy day at work,’ says Helen. ‘We met with three architects and Darren Oldfield stood out. We liked the contemporary look of his designs and he had great vision, but most importantly he really understood what we wanted to achieve.’ Helen was keen to raise the low kitchen ceiling, which made the room feel cramped and oppressive. She also wanted to create a snug for the couple’s children, Finlay, now eight, and Lochie, five,…

A  Aidan Browne Wooden Floors & Doors abrownefloors.ie Airbnb airbnb.co.uk Alex MacArthur Interiors alexmacarthur.co.uk Alternative Flooring alternativeflooring.com Amara amara.com Ambiente Direct ambientedirect.com Amos Lighting amoslighting.co.uk And So To Bed andsotobed.co.uk Andrew Martin andrewmartin.co.uk Angel & Boho angelandboho.com Annie Sloan anniesloan.com Anta anta.co.uk Anthropologie anthropologie.com Appliances Direct appliancesdirect.co.uk Architectural Vision Systems avsglass.co.uk Argos argos.co.uk Arosfa Interior Design arosfa-interiordesign.co.uk Art Republic artrepublic.com Artsper artsper.com Asia Dragon asiadragon.co.uk Aston Matthews astonmatthews.co.uk Atkin and Thyme atkinandthyme.co.uk Australian BBQ australian-bbq.co.uk AV Architects architectsav.co.uk B Balineum balineum.co.uk Barker and Stonehouse barkerandstonehouse.co.uk Basement Services basementservices.co.uk Bathstore bathstore.com Beaumont Fabrics beaumontfabrics.co.uk Ben Pentreath benpentreath.com Benchmark benchmarkfurniture.com Benuta…