Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i 25 Beautiful Homes

Who doesn’t hanker after extra space? Those of us in bijou houses may long for an extra bedroom or a sliver of greenery, while homeowners of larger properties might covet more storage, a garden office, a cinema... With this in mind, I cast an eye over all of the projects in this issue and was delighted, but not surprised, to discover clever ideas around ‘creating space’ in every one. Naturally, our replanned properties focus on how to rejig a layout, but the inspiration doesn’t end there. The chic colour palette of our cover story (page 94) is fine proof of the impact decor has on how spacious a home feels. On a different note, Elisabeth and Aldo’s factory conversion in London (page 14) shows how to turn a large footprint…

The one thing Victoria Gedge noticed when she viewed her future home for the first time was its smell. ‘I said: “We must buy it, because it smells like a National Trust property”,’ she says. ‘My husband Dale replied: “Damp is what you can smell,” but I was sold.’ They were looking to upsize after their wedding in 2013, as their current home could no longer provide enough storage to suit their needs. The couple were keen to remain in the same area of Norwich, but were on the hunt for a house with three bedrooms and a hallway entrance. ‘The type of property we had in mind isn’t hard to come across in Norwich, however there weren’t many within our price bracket,’ says Victoria. ‘Each one we viewed required…

Yvonne and Peter Henness were living near the New Forest when they both began hankering for a more rural lifestyle. ‘We owned a large detached property in Ringwood, and decided we’d like to find a house in a secluded, peaceful setting – our dream country home, in other words,’ says Yvonne. The couple had differing views as to the kind of property they wanted. ‘We visited the estate agent and just couldn’t seem to agree. Peter wanted something with a long drive and I wanted a thatched cottage. Someone in the office overheard us and said, “What about the house in the woods?”’ The pair fell in love with the beautiful setting, although their initial impressions were somewhat underwhelming. ‘The cottage was like something out of Little Red Riding Hood,…

Having spent most of their married life living in various rural period properties dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, Judith and John Turner had never thought about living in a more modern home. So when the opportunity came up to build their own brand-new house on an attractive plot, it meant a complete shift in lifestyle. The couple had not long relocated to a Welsh farmhouse to be near their daughter and her family – and the plot they were being offered was back near the area they had just moved from in West Sussex. ‘John’s friend, Nick Lomax from LCE Architects, was selling off part of his mother-in-law’s garden,’ says Judith. ‘And John has always wanted to build a house – he’s a consultant chartered quantity surveyor –…

Like many city dwellers, Abi and Ian had for a long time wanted to escape to a quieter life in the country. Back in 2012, they decided to make their dream become reality. ‘We wanted a period property, but were limited by our budget,’ says Abi. ‘Ian would have chosen a house miles from the nearest neighbour, but he did need to be within easy reach of work. I was also keen to find a village community with shops and good amenities, including a school for our two young sons, Toby and Reuben.’ The couple hadn’t been house-hunting very long when their present home came on to the market. Abi’s first impressions were far from favourable. ‘The house was horrid and it certainly wasn’t love at first sight!’ she recalls.…

When it comes to breathing new life into interiors, Anthea Biggs has a tried-and-tested formula that involves a pile of magazines and an old-fashioned pin board. ‘I buy a dozen copies or so, cut out images that speak to me and pin them up,’ she says. ‘I come back to it a few days later with fresh eyes and I know what direction to go in.’ This method has worked especially well since Anthea moved into this handsome rectory with her husband, Daniel, four years ago. The couple were keen to find a space in which they could make their mark as well accommodate their growing family, including children Alfie, seven, Teddy, four and Lily, two. The rectory belonged to the church until shortly after the Second World War. Since…

It was an unliveable wreck, but the fact that this property had to be stripped down to its bare bones and put back together again is what attracted Sara Morrison, an interior designer, and her husband John, a composer. ‘We were living in a similar period property in London at the time, which we’d completely transformed, and we were keen to do it all again,’ explains Sara. The couple chose to move back to Sara’s hometown of Bath to bring up their son, Francis, now nine, but the timing wasn’t perfect as he was only three months old and the house wasn’t safe to live in. ‘There was no heating or hot water, the windows were rotten, and it needed rewiring, replastering and replumbing,’ Sara says with a shudder, as…

A  A New Tribe anewtribe.co.uk Acorn Wholesale Tiles acorntiles.com Alice’s Garden alicesgarden.co.uk Amara amara.com Andrew Martin andrewmartin.co.uk Anouska Tamony anouskatamony.com Anthropologie anthropologie.com Antique Tables & Country Furniture antique-tables.co.uk Argos argos.co.uk Arthur Neal arthurneal.co.uk Aurorae Tiles auroraetiles.co.uk B  Bathstore bathstore.com BC Designs bcdesigns.co.uk Beaumont & Fletcher beaumontandfletcher.com BKoncepts bkoncepts.co.uk BoConcept boconcept.co.uk Browsers browsers.ie Buster + Punch busterandpunch.com ButtonBacks buttonbacks.co.uk C  Cable & Cotton cableandcotton.co.uk Calligaris calligaris.co.uk Camerich camerich.co.uk Carskiey Estate carskiey.com Catchpole & Rye catchpoleandrye.com Cath Kidston cathkidston.com Chesneys chesneys.co.uk Chiltern Timber chilterntimber.co.uk Claybrook claybrookstudio.co.uk Cole & Son cole-and-son.com Colefax and Fowler colefax.com Coryndon Cabinet Makers coryndon.co.uk Cox & Cox coxandcox.co.uk…

When Magnus Pettersen and Ella Jones upsized from a small modern townhouse to a larger London property, they were looking for a project. The couple, who met 10 years ago, had completed three renovations before buying this three-bedroom Victorian terrace. ‘Its converted loft, extended kitchen and big garden were huge draws for us,’ explains Ella. They also loved the location on a tree-lined road. ‘It’s very peaceful and close to lots of green space,’ she adds. Used for shared occupancy for years, the house was severely neglected, with stripped-out period features and a confused ground-floor layout. ‘There was a bathroom in the middle of the sitting room,’ Ella recalls. Magnus is an award-winning product designer and Ella is a fashion designer working for global brands, so they brought a strong…

Every now and then, a visitor who is not familiar with Kate Bedbrook’s interiors style has the pleasure of stepping through her front door. ‘The most common reaction is, “Wow”,’ she says. Replacing the previous muddle of small cottage rooms, the ground floor is now almost entirely open-plan. ‘I love the feeling of space, light and being linked with the garden beyond,’ explains Kate, a retired teacher and school counsellor. The kitchen-diner, which is where Kate spends most of her time, is nominally divided from the front sitting room by a piece of bespoke cabinetry with central doors that can be closed for privacy, if necessary. COLOUR CRAFT Off the sitting room is a more intimate study, one of several spaces that feel distinct, thanks to the use of warm…

When they decided to build their own house nearly a decade ago, Tim and Marina Clarkson and their daughters, Sophia, now 18, and Phoebe, now 16, found a plot remarkably easily. ‘We’d been thinking about self-building for some time,’ says Marina. ‘Then one day, a friend told us about a hillside plot in the countryside about five miles outside Andover. It was an hour’s drive from London and equidistant from Salisbury and Winchester, so the location was ideal for us. It also came complete with planning permission for a house.’ Having decided to take the plunge, the next step was finding the right architect. Since the plot was in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, building a house of reasonable height was always going to be a challenge. ‘It was…

Sarah and Gabir Dixon-Hodeib had always admired the leafy, wide roads of Richmond, southwest London. ‘We often drove through and thought how amazing it would be to live here,’ says Sarah. ‘You get such a feeling of space, which is rare in London.’ The couple were living in Shepherd’s Bush at the time and, when their daughter, Olivia, came along in 2014, the decision to move to an area with good schools, green spaces, and an easy commute for Gabir was an easy one. The couple’s patience was finally rewarded when a four-bedroom Edwardian villa on a wide, tree-lined road came on the market. ‘It was strikingly beautiful on the outside, and the inside was stripped back and whitewashed, which was perfect for me,’ says Sarah. ‘I have very particular…

When Tom Hughes, a mechanical engineer, was offered a job relocation to Berkshire, both he and his wife Sophie, a senior civil servant, jumped at the opportunity to find the period property they had always wanted for themselves and their daughters Ella, now 13, and Charlotte, 15. ‘We had moved from our small but idyllic white cottage a few years before to a more modern house that made the commute easier,’ says Sophie. ‘But we really missed the period charm of our former home.’ And so they jumped at the chance to view this pretty Georgian property. ‘Approaching it from the drive, I fell in love with this quintessentially English red-brick cottage,’ says Sophie. ‘It needed a lot of refurbishment and Tom needed a little persuasion, but the huge fireplaces…

Elisabeth and Aldo Ciarrocchi’s daughter Isabella, now 11, was a toddler when they began house hunting, and Elisabeth was pregnant with their younger daughter Piera, now eight. ‘We were living in small flat not far away, and all we knew was that we needed something larger for our family,’ says Elisabeth. ‘We both liked the idea of warehouse-style living and as soon as we walked in here, we fell in love with it.’ When the Ciarrocchis got the keys to the property, it was desperately in need of some TLC. ‘The ground floor was covered in laminate and there was a basketball hoop hanging from one of the posts,’ Elisabeth reveals. ‘The kitchen was cluttered with wall cabinets and it had a low bulkhead ceiling to accommodate the sunken bath…

Design is in Geri O’Toole’s DNA. Her father set up a furniture retailer in Limerick named Browsers, which Geri runs today, and her late mother was an interior designer for the business. Geri’s childhood was steeped in swatches, mood boards, antiques and fortuitous saleroom finds. ‘I used to work in the shop during the holidays. I just loved being there,’ says Geri, who now also runs her own interior design business, Geri Designs, from the shop. She found her match in her husband Cathal Glynn, a joiner whose skills proved useful when the couple bought a ramshackle, single-storey cottage in Castletroy five years ago. ‘Mountshannon House was built in the 18th century and burned down in the Twenties. Our house was built on the estate after the fire,’ explains Geri.…

Alison Nicholls is the first to admit that she and her husband, James, made some mistakes when they embarked on building a new home in the Suffolk countryside 15 years ago. ‘There was originally a Sixties bungalow on the four-acre plot, which we decided to demolish, but we were faced with tight planning rules,’ Alison explains. ‘The design was a compromise as it needed to look like a farmhouse attached to barn-type dwellings. We also had to excavate at the back of the house to gain a full second storey while keeping the roof height the same.’ What the couple and their architect devised was a large, horseshoe-shaped layout that wrapped around a courtyard. ‘When we finally moved in, in 2006, we quickly realised that we were only really using…

I’ve loved interiors since I was a child,’ says interior designer Sal Wood. ‘And then I married Darren, who is a carpenter, so we’ve made a life out of renovating homes. We might live in a house for a year, or five years, but eventually a new place will present itself. I think of our previous homes like old friends.’ Six years ago, after their sons had left home, the Australian couple moved from hot and desert-like Mildura to Geelong, near Melbourne, to be by the sea. They gradually got to know the area and its architectural hotspots, so when an estate agent called them two years later to tell them that a Thirties bungalow was on the market they snapped it up. ‘It’s in a great location and these…

Camille Petit and her husband Guillaume have a knack for making a home in whichever corner of the globe that they find themselves in. The couple, both native to the French Riviera, spent seven years living in an airy loft in New York before relocating to southwest London five years ago. After a period of renting, they finally found their ideal family home, but it needed plenty of vision to bring it to life. ‘Having spent time loft-living, we were used to the concept of light and space,’ says Camille. ‘Although we found this house charming, we knew we faced a challenge trying to channel more light into it, particularly as the property is north-facing.’ But the house ticked several boxes and had plenty of green spaces nearby, as well…

The dramatic and often playful photographs from the collaborative Paris-based duo Mia Macfarlane and Julien Crouigneau, best known as French Cowboy, can now be found on Runway Gallery – the exciting new venture that showcases affordable, contemporary art for the home. We talk to French Cowboy about their curious name, their favourite projects, and how they found inspiration in a papal statue. IT STARTS WITH A STORY ‘French Cowboy was born when Mia and I were on our first holiday together,’ says Julien. ‘We were in Mallorca, in a car with the windows down enjoying the warm air blowing through our hair, and we came up with this strange character – a French cowboy who tries his best to be a real cowboy. We spent our entire vacation imagining awkward,…

Finding a barn in need of renovation in Oxfordshire is rare enough, so finding two together was a dream come true for Sarah Allchorn, an architectural interior designer based in the Cotswolds. ‘I was already living and running my business, Style Infusion, in the area, having bought and renovated an old property several years earlier,’ she explains. ‘I then started looking for a house that also had a separate building large enough for my studio. Fortunately, I saw a barn for sale with an adjacent smaller one included in the price. Both were ripe for renovation.’ The main barn, once used for threshing, had been converted into a house in the Seventies and was looking rather tired and in need of a complete refurbishment. The smaller one was originally used…