Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i 25 Beautiful Homes

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Semi-detached house, built in 1920 ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen-diner, utility room, study, cloakroom, four bedrooms, dressing room, bathroom LOCATION West London Cara and Andrew bought their west London home wanting more space for their two cats, Calvin and Grant. ‘We had been living very centrally in London,’ Cara shares, ‘and although it was great to be able to walk to Buckingham Palace, we knew we wanted a garden.’ Cara had spotted the work of interior designer Sean Symington online and immediately fell in love with an image of his cockapoo on a coral sofa. ‘I love coral and realised he was the designer for us,’ she laughs. ‘We engaged him sharply after we moved in as we quickly realised we had too many ideas and needed…

PROJECT DETAILS DESIGNER Dan Mazzarini (bhdmdesign.com) PROPERTY 1926 apartment WORK Sitting room renovation LOCATION Greenwich Village, New York When interior designer Dan Mazzarini and his partner Andy Grover bought an apartment, they wanted to pay homage to the building’s history by preserving its period features. ‘We also aimed to add our own touch,’ says Dan. 1 KEEP THE CHARACTER The couple’s first impression of the property was that it had great potential. ‘I love old buildings,’ says Dan, who was surprised at how much light the sitting room’s north-facing windows allowed in, while recognising this space needed an overhaul. ‘I wanted a clean, classic look, something that matched the vibe of the building and neighbourhood, with enough things we love in it, too.’ 2 ADD TRANQUILLITY When it came to…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Detached Edwardian house, built in 1908 ROOMS Family room/study, sitting room, kitchen-diner, cloakroom, utility room, playroom, five bedrooms, dressing room, four bathrooms LOCATION West Yorkshire Having struck gold and found a period property in her favoured area, when it came to turning the house into a beautiful home, Am Hayer had a secret weapon up her sleeve. ‘As my husband, Aman, and I both have busy jobs and are far from design experts, we hadn’t the time or skills to do our last house justice,’ Am says. ‘When we bought this, I knew I’d need help from a designer, and was lucky to cross paths with Sarah Gordon, who has created the home of our dreams.’ Back in 2019, the couple were living in a semi…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY New build ROOMS Kitchen-diner/living area, two bedrooms, bathroom, guest house LOCATION Antwerp, Belgium Years ago, during a walk, I stumbled upon an isolated farmhouse and barn in a rural area between Antwerp and Mechelen. It clearly was empty and dilapidated. But I immediately felt the energy and potential. You could turn it into something beautiful,’ recalls the Antwerp doctor who owns this rather special Belgium home with his wife. ‘Shortly afterwards, we moved abroad for five years. When we returned, I was surprised the property was still there. An omen, I thought, so I took a chance and tracked down the owner, who wanted to sell the property.’ The package not only included a 19th-century farmhouse with a bread oven, but a barn, a meadow and…

PROJECT DETAILS DESIGNER Richard Atkins, managing director at DesignSpace London (designspacelondon.com) PROPERTY Arts and crafts detached house WORK Part of a whole house renovation LOCATION North London When a family with one teenage son moved into a handsome property from another house on the same road, they had a clear idea of what they liked and what worked for them. In order to put their ideas into practice, they called on Richard Atkins from DesignSpace London to support their vision for the family bathroom. 1 FINDING THE RIGHT DESIGN ‘The priority was to create a bathroom that offers storage solutions and interesting colour and material choices,’ says Richard. ‘I work with clients to find solutions that work both aesthetically and functionally.’ The layout they came up with suits both the…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTYDetached house, built in the 1920s ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen-diner/living area, dining area, study, four bedrooms, two bathrooms LOCATION Essex HOW DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT?Homeowners Michael and Emma were seeking a ‘non-Essex style’ interior designer to help, initially with the entrance hall scheme and cabinetry in their detached property. I was engaged to provide interior designs throughout, including advice on colours and finishes, plus the creation and delivery of bespoke cabinetry. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE HOMEOWNERS’ STYLE? They like modern, bold designs and Michael, in particular, loves big windows maximising natural light. But at the same time, they wanted to preserve the house’s 1920s character while creating a practical, comfortable home. WHAT WERE YOUR CLIENTS’ BIGGEST PRIORITIES? First, they wanted to make their home more…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY An arts and crafts home dating from around 1920 ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen/dining area/snug, garden room, utility room, cloakroom, four bedrooms, two bathrooms LOCATION Surrey Purchasing a new home brings excitement as well as trepidation about what lies ahead, but for Zoe Brookes and her husband George, who have two children, Oliver, 16, and Sophie, 15, there was the added feeling of responsibility at owning an early-20th-century arts and crafts gem. ‘After living in a modern house for years, we were hoping to find a characterful home full of charm, but never expected to find ourselves the custodians of such a property,’ says Zoe. With a rich narrative and timeless quality, the house had been rented for more than 10 years and was tired and dated.…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Art deco house ROOMS Sitting room, dining room, kitchen, snug, cloakroom, three bedrooms, dressing room, four bathrooms, courtyard LOCATION West London ‘BESPOKE CABINETRY WITH A WINE FRIDGE HAS CREATED A SMART BAR AREA IN ONE CORNER OF THE KITCHEN’ WHAT WAS THE BRIEF? The clients wanted a family home that they could entertain in. They wanted it to be stylish, but at the same time unpretentious, warm and inviting. At the beginning, we focused on the outdoor area and created a Moroccan-inspired oasis. The original art deco architecture of the property influenced certain aspects of our design. We tried to be subtle with it and introduced art deco-inspired internal doors, ironmongery, skirtings and cornicing. DESCRIBE THE HOMEOWNERS’ STYLE The clients’ tastes were not always aligned; The…

PROJECT DETAILS DESIGNER Chris Spink, director, Hush Kitchens (hushkitchens.com) THE PROPERTY 1970s-built detached house WORK A new kitchen LOCATION Gloucestershire ‘The owners of this house had been gradually working their way through their property, remodelling each area, eventually arriving at the kitchen,’ explains Chris Spink, founder and director of Hush Kitchens. ‘The room was dated and not designed for family life today.’ 1 BEST USE OF SPACE ‘The existing layout was based on an L-shaped run of units with a table in the centre, with a lot of wasted space,’ says Chris. ‘The owners – a couple with teenage children – wanted a well-organised room as a backdrop to busy family life, with a layout better suited to gathering together and socialising with friends.’ Although the size of the kitchen…

PROJECT DETAILS OWNERS Sam Withall, who owns fashion and lifestyle shop Sam by the Sea, and her husband Toby PROPERTY Detached house built in 1800 with two later Victorian extensions WORK Total refurbishment of the house LOCATION Fife Sam and Toby Withall renovated a former doctor’s surgery and home to create a chic residence in a coastal village in Fife. The previous owners had opened what is now the sitting room and main bedroom into a large drawing room. Sam and Toby reinstated it as two rooms. 1 DRAWING INSPIRATION ‘I wanted a soothing scheme where I could relax,’ says Sam. ‘I aimed to reflect the stunning coastal scenery we are surrounded by but without an obviously “seaside theme”.’ She used the original features as the basis for her design,…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTYSemi-detached, single-storey barn conversion, originally built in 1780 ROOMS Open-plan kitchen, dining and living space, two bedrooms, one bathroom. A one-bedroom timber cabin provides additional accommodation LOCATION West Cornwall Victoria, a florist and surf teacher, was living her dream Cornish lifestyle when she came across a range of unconverted barns for sale, set among the tiny, ancient fields near Land’s End, and fell in love with her vision of what these tumbledown ruins could become. Built from local granite during the 1780s and unused for decades, the barns were on the brink of total collapse. Despite them being sold with planning permission for conversion, Victoria hired local firm Coal Architecture to redraw the plans, as ‘they just love old buildings’. Working with her builders, Melvin Construction, Victoria…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Detached Georgian house ROOMS Sitting room, dining room, study, kitchen, utility/boot room, breakfast room, cinema room, five bedrooms, four bathrooms, converted garage/home gym and separate barn LOCATION Hampshire Interior designer Laura Hammett had always dreamed of an idyllic country life, but the practicalities of running a business in the capital kept her family firmly rooted in London. Until lockdown, that is. ‘With our design studio based in London, we never thought moving to the country was an option, until remote working showed us it was a possibility,’ she says. So, in 2020, Laura, husband Aaron, daughter Willow and son Fox, along with their cats Lilo and Coco, sold their London home and moved. ‘I fell in love with Hampshire many years ago,’ she says. ‘So as…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Victorian semi-linked terrace house ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen-diner/snug, cloakroom, utility room, five bedrooms, three bathrooms LOCATION Southwest London ‘Quite a few new skylights were put in during the renovation, including one at the top of the stairs that helps to stream light throughout all of the house’ You could say the timing was serendipitous when Katie and Andrew Probert began their search for a new home. ‘I used to walk down this road on my way to work in my twenties dreaming of owning a home here,’ says Katie, who liked the street’s Victorian architecture and the wide, quiet road. The couple’s move was linked to needing more space for their growing family – they have three children Poppy, now aged nine, Archie, eight, and Teddy,…

PROJECT DETAILS OWNERS Kelly Black lives here with husband Jon and their two children PROPERTY 1950s detached villa WORK A double-storey rear extension with an open-plan kitchen-diner/living space LOCATION Dorset Kelly Black and her husband Jon bought their detached house in Dorset for its huge garden so they could build a double-storey extension to the rear of the house. In particular, they wanted to create a new kitchen space as the existing one was cut off from the rest of the downstairs. 1 OPENING UP This dark, cramped kitchen just wasn’t big enough for modern family life. ‘The open-plan space was super-important for us,’ says Kelly. ‘We wanted somewhere to cook, eat, hang out and where friends and family could congregate, but something pretty to look at too! Not to…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Victorian terrace house ROOMS Sitting area, living area, kitchen-dining room, boot room, utility room, five bedrooms, three bathrooms LOCATION West London When Rossella and Tim van der Weyden first viewed their future home they found themselves somewhat overwhelmed by the extent of the many improvements it would need. ‘We actually discarded the house after that first visit because we just felt it would be too much work,’ says Rossella, a property surveyor. But a love of the area and desire for a change of lifestyle meant the couple decided to reassess their original decision. They were also eager for more space for their two children, who are eight and six, as well as Millie their Bengal cat. ‘We had lived in our old home during the…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Self-built Huf Haus ROOMS Kitchendiner/living area, two bedrooms, bathroom LOCATION Surrey ‘The house is pre-constructed in Germany and completely bespoke – with the aid of architects, you create a design that suits your unique requirements’ When your beloved family home of nearly four decades is in need of extensive repair, and you have spent four fruitless years unsuccessfully searching for the right plot on which to build something new, how do you finally reach the bold decision to tear down your own home? The answer for David and Greta Iredale was to find a truly sensational replacement. David and Greta had built their previous home in 1965 in leafy Surrey. The house was perched five feet off the ground, supported on steel stilts. The exterior was…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTYA three-storey, detached 17th-century Grade II-listed farmhouse ROOMS Sitting room, snug, kitchen, dining room, seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, garden room and games room LOCATION Suffolk ‘A MAJOR RENOVATION IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE SUSTAINABLE – HERE THERE IS A WOODCHIP BIOMASS BOILER’ Although they’d owned their historic house for many years, Penny and Richard Ballard became aware three years ago that the property needed a major overhaul. The couple, both former solicitors with four grown-up children and six grandchildren, had taken their eye off the ball when it came to the interior decoration. ‘The Farmhouse is part of the larger Nether Hall estate, and it used to be the farmhouse for the largest of the five farms that served the estate,’ says Penny. ‘It suddenly began to…