Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i 25 Beautiful Homes

PROJECT DETAILS DESIGNERS Lucy MacNicoll and Sara Braham at Braham MacNicoll Studio (brahammacnicollstudio.com) PROPERTY Victorian semi WORK Room design as part of a larger renovation LOCATION North Yorkshire Creating a warm and inviting family home was the brief for designers Lucy MacNicoll and Sara Braham. Central to this was the sitting room, which needed to embrace the clients’ love of colour and pattern. 1 STARTING POINT Rich green walls form the backdrop of this sitting room. ‘The colour not only made the large space feel warm and inviting, but also created a beautiful connection with the mature trees visible through the large bay window,’ says Lucy. 2 FURNITURE ARRANGEMENT The client envisioned a sitting room that would serve as a welcoming space for entertaining friends – one that felt cosy…

PROJECT DETAILS DESIGNER Veronika Lovasova, Higham Furniture (higham.co.uk) PROPERTY Victorian semidetached house WORK New kitchen as part of a wider renovation LOCATION Northwest London A family of five were able to see past all the work their new home needed as it was characterful and full of potential. ‘The house had been split into two flats, so it needed lots of rethinking to restore it back to a single home,’ says Veronika Lovasova, designer at Higham Furniture. 1 CREATING THE SPACE While there had been small kitchens in both flats, the owners wanted to replace them with a single and much larger cooking-dining space on the ground floor, designed for family life with their three children and for relaxed entertaining and socialising with friends. By removing internal walls, they were…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY A converted 1980s home ROOMS Kitchen, dining room, living room, two bedrooms, bathroom LOCATION Southern California Elfin Forest – the name alone conjures up a magical realm. But if that wasn’t enough to intrigue, then the home of Andalynn and Brandon Richie certainly will. Set above a multilevel terraced garden and surrounded by an abundance of fragrant roses and aromatic lavender, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the South of France… but the setting is in fact southern California. When the Richies acquired the property in 2012, it held no resemblance to its current and undeniably French elegance. ‘A dear friend found the house for us,’ recalls Andalynn. ‘Though there was absolutely nothing appealing about it, she knew it could be amazing. And…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Apartment in a Grade II-listed Victorian detached villa ROOMS Kitchen-diner/sitting area, two bedrooms (including main dressing area), two bathrooms LOCATION West London WHAT WAS THE BRIEF? To reimagine the property as a refined pied-à-terre – a space that could be both a serene escape and an elegant setting for entertaining. The layout featured just one bathroom shared between two bedrooms, so adding a separate guest bathroom was key. The client also wanted a fluid, open-plan kitchen, dining and sitting area that felt bright, sociable and effortlessly stylish. Restoring the home’s Victorian character was essential. We reinstated sash windows and shutters, reintroducing a sense of grandeur and symmetry. Our client drew inspiration from the refined ambience of Estelle Manor and Saint James Paris – spaces that feel…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY A classic shingle Hamptons house ROOMS Sitting room, living area, kitchen, dining area, office, five bedrooms, six bathrooms, pool house LOCATION The Hamptons, NY HOW DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT? This is a second home I have designed for one of my oldest clients. The couple fell in love with the bones of the home and asked me to design it with a portion of the furniture that they already own, with the addition of some new pieces. We suggested new paint colours for the rooms, light fixtures and window treatments throughout and transformed an upper floor into an office, gym, bathroom and wine room. The client has excellent taste and wanted everything in the house to be top quality. Once the interior was…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY 1930s double-fronted semi ROOMS Kitchen, snug, sitting room, playroom, cloakroom, utility room, five bedrooms, office, two bathrooms LOCATION Southwest London Laura Brown and her husband Alastair never envisaged moving out of their cosy Victorian terrace. The Glaswegian-born couple, who’ve made London home for the last 20 years, were happily ensconced with their children Murray, 14, and Theo, 11, plus Cavapoochon, Koda, when the pandemic made them rethink their priorities. ‘Like many families, we found ourselves spending most of our time at home,’ says Laura. ‘As that period progressed, we realised we craved a place with more lateral space, a wider garden and a hallway that we didn’t need to file down individually when friends visited.’ A 1930s semi in the neighbourhood, spied by a keen-eyed friend,…

PROJECT DETAILS DESIGNER Lauren Gilberthorpe of Lauren Gilberthorpe Interiors (laurengilberthorpeinteriors.com) PROPERTY Converted barn WORK Room design as part of a larger renovation LOCATION The Cotswolds In search of a quieter life, one couple moved out of London to a converted barn and tasked interior designer Lauren Gilberthorpe with creating ‘a bedroom that was a peaceful retreat, made the most of the views and felt utterly elegant’. 1 STARTING POINT The brief was to soften the existing architecture, source furnishings and antiques and style the space in a way that felt considered and calm. ‘The barn’s raw materials, including stone, timber and metal, were full of character and the views beyond the windows were a constant source of inspiration,’ says Lauren. ‘From there, it was about introducing softness and warmth to…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY 1940s detached house with new extension ROOMS Sitting room, dining room, kitchen, utility room, snug, playroom, cloakroom, five bedrooms, four bathrooms LOCATION Hertfordshire With its large garden and five bedrooms, Louise and James Woods knew this house had the potential to become a welcoming family home to share with their young children, Grace, nine, and Max, five. ‘But first we had some work to do,’ recalls Louise. ‘The house felt dated with a rather higgledy-piggledy layout of small rooms on the ground floor, which needed rethinking to make it more suited to our lifestyle. It was also lacking in natural light, despite being south-facing at the back.’ Louise and James asked a local architect to draw up some plans to reconfigure the ground floor and add…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY An Edwardian semi, built in 1905 ROOMS Kitchen/dining/living area, sitting room, utility room, cloakroom, study, dressing room, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, outdoor sitting room LOCATION Devon ‘To emphasise the pared-back design, good storage was essential – we also chose handleless kitchen units so the look is sleek and unobtrusive’ Evelyn and Simon Burton had very particular criteria when they began to look for the house they now call home, back in 2018. ‘We wanted a period property, decent parking, a level garden and, last but not least, a view,’ says Evelyn, who works in interiors and retail. ‘But while some might think all that should be fairly easy to achieve, it proved quite a tall order here.’ The beautiful Devon town where they were looking has…

PROJECT DETAILS DESIGNER Rebecca Nokes, John Lewis of Hungerford (john-lewis.co.uk) PROPERTY A four-bedroom 1930s house WORK Whole kitchen renovation to create a generously proportioned space LOCATION Southwest London This typical London terrace had a lot going for it in terms of extension potential. Built in the 1930s, its footprint was significantly wider than its tall, but narrow, Victorian predecessors, making it a dream commission for designer Rebecca Nokes of John Lewis of Hungerford. 1 THE BRIEF ‘The owners wanted a kitchen that was a flexible, multi-use space for both family living and social get-togethers,’ explains Rebecca. ‘The existing, tight galley kitchen layout was clearly not going to work, so the brief was to knock through, adding a side-return and extending out into the garden. It’s now almost triple the size…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY New-build house ROOMS Kitchen, utility room, boot room, cloakroom, study, media room, snug, formal sitting room, dining area, four en-suite bedrooms LOCATION Kent HOW DID YOU COME TO BE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT? I was introduced to the clients by a mutual friend and colleague. The owners were keen to engage a designer as soon as possible, having succumbed to the overwhelming task of designing their home from scratch. They’d lived on the plot for more than 20 years and adored the countryside views, but they craved a more modern and spacious home so they approached Turner & Hoskins Architects and Studio Leat to design their new-build project. DESCRIBE THEIR STYLE. While the house is very modern, the owners were keen to point out that they…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Riverside holiday home ROOMS Three reception rooms, kitchen-diner, cloakroom, utility/hobby room, four bedrooms, five bathrooms LOCATION Cornwall Many of us look back on 2020 as one of the most difficult years in our living history, and it was a time that Chris Maughan assessed his values, realising a second home should become a priority. ‘I’d been looking for a place before Covid but not seriously. Then the pandemic came and it kind of brought a bit of reality back into life. After that I put some real energy into the property hunt,’ says Chris, who runs wholesale business Dragonfly Venture Group. Drawn to the Cornish estuary town of Fowey, Chris had actually been to view another house when he saw the sale sign outside Trevail House…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Edwardian terrace ROOMS Two sitting rooms, open-plan kitchen-diner/living/study area, garden office, cloakroom, four bedrooms, two bathrooms LOCATION North London ‘WE CHOSE A COHESIVE LOOK OF CALMING NEUTRALS AND BLUE TONES, INTRODUCING OCCASIONAL TOUCHES OF RICHER COLOURS’ HOW DID YOU COME TO BE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT? Zoe: the client is a good friend of mine and asked me to get involved. When I had to take a step back halfway through due to unforeseen circumstances, Valentina stepped in to complete the project. Valentina: the client gave me a full overview of the project and Zoe’s ideas and I was able to move things quickly by sourcing all the products from the mood boards, producing drawings for the builders that were already on site and taking on…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Contemporary new build ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen-diner/living area, snug, utility room, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, two cloakrooms, sauna LOCATION Isle of Harris it was a stroke of serendipity that led Anna and James Reader to purchase a holiday let on the Isle of Harris. ‘James has loved the Outer Hebrides since he was a boy and has explored much of the region – though he’d never actually been to Harris,’ recalls Anna. ‘We planned a trip with friends, and while we were there, we struck up a conversation with the owner of a small coffee hut. She mentioned that she and her husband were about to sell their holiday let, so we arranged to view it that same day. When we saw the location, overlooking Luskentyre…