Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från 25 Beautiful Homes

This month, we’re delighted to feature a truly wide selection of AMAZING homes – everything from a seaside townhouse and a flamboyant Cornish manor to an apartment in Amsterdam and a pied-à-terre in central London. We love the STYLE and VIBRANCY of Michael and Olivia Costello’s Georgian abode in Kent (p8). And take a look at how Amica Studio have brought instant character to a city new build with a balance of understated elegance and splashes of pattern (p37). We’re also keen to bring you rooms in more detail, so take a look at our two fabulous kitchen CASE STUDIES (p80 and p104) for lots of inspiration to help you with your own transformation.…

no. 9 HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY A double-fronted detached house, built in 1860 ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen-diner, snug, boot room/cloakroom, four bedrooms, two bathrooms LOCATION Southeast London ‘Always think about lead times in a renovation – it’s best to have things ordered and delivered way in advance of the builders arriving’ HOW DID YOU COME TO BE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT? I met the owners four years ago when I worked on their holiday home in Suffolk and we had a great rapport. I was honoured when they asked me to design their new, historic London home. We all thought it was a dream of a house so we nicknamed the project ‘The Dream House’ and that’s how we still refer to it! WHAT WERE THE PRIORITIES FOR THE HOMEOWNERS?…

no. 21 HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Four-storey Victorian terraced house ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen-diner, home office, four bedrooms, dressing room, three bathrooms, basement flat LOCATION Kent coast Ally Power and her husband Lawrence found their holiday home on the south coast at the beginning of lockdown and sealed the deal straight away. ‘On reflection, our run-down, sea-view Victorian terrace was a bargain, despite the fact it needed so much work,’ says Ally. ‘A year or so later, coastal homes became super-desirable and prices had soared.’ The couple both consider this their ‘forever home’. ‘We have extended family who live nearby and we wanted a house our children – Myla, seven, Harper, four and Huxley, one – could grow up in,’ says Ally. ‘Our base is in south London, so the…

COSY COCOON It’s the season to enjoy snuggling up by the fire – we’ve got it covered with our fireside finds – think tactile textures and tempting scents JEWEL BRIGHTS Bring dynamic style to your living space with beautiful treasures in an opulent palette that has the beauty of semi-precious gemstones MODERN MONO Light and dark tones dance across sculptural designs – the perfect accessories for a statement look that’s bold but also oh-so chic…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Semi-detached new build ROOMS Sitting room, family room/gym, kitchen, pantry, study, two cloakrooms, utility room, four bedrooms, four bathrooms LOCATION Southwest London HOW DID YOU COME TO BE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT? We met the clients, a South African couple, through recommendation. WHAT WAS THE BRIEF? The clients had bought a plot at the top of the hill and divided it into two, building an identical house in parallel. The difficulty was working with the landscaping and levels to achieve a comfortable property – at its widest point, the house is 4.2 metres and 20 metres long, tiering over four floors and cutting into the landscape, so it was difficult to fit everything in. The brief was to fully design the property, utilising the levels through…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY A three-storey apartment in a new development ROOMS Sitting room, den, dining area, kitchen, cloakroom, four bedrooms, four bathrooms LOCATION Amsterdam ‘WE REMOVED THE WALL BETWEEN THE KITCHEN AND HALLWAY AND REPLACED IT WITH BRASS-INLAID GLASS’ Clashing styles, colours and patterns is not something that deters intrepid interior designer Roelfien Vos. ‘There shouldn’t be any rules,’ she says happily. ‘Mixing colours and prints comes naturally to me. I don’t think you can teach that, but the trick is to ensure that overall an interior remains in tune, despite any bold tones and elements.’ Roelfien’s client bought the Amsterdam apartment as a newly built shell and asked her to design an interior that would reflect their cosmopolitan outlook. ‘The layout was up to us to design,’ explains…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY A five-storey semidetached townhouse, built in the early 1870s ROOMS Sitting room/dining room/kitchen, music room, five bedrooms, six bathrooms, home cinema, laundry, gym and sauna LOCATION Northwest London There were times during the renovation of her Victorian house when Catrin Fenton wondered whether she had been over-ambitious. It took months to gain planning permission and then, once the build started, the house was stripped to its brickwork and exposed from the basement up to the first floor. However, these are distant memories now the work is complete. ‘With our second child on the way, it made sense to have more space,’ says Catrin. ‘And I knew I could turn it into something special. There were original features which we liked and it was well proportioned with…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Three-storey terraced house built in 1860 ROOMS Sitting room, living room, reading room, kitchen, dining room, utility, study, six bedrooms, four bathrooms LOCATION Galway, Ireland A feast for the eyes – this Galway city residence, an amazing project suspended between history and modernity and conceived and brought together by Kingston Lafferty Design – is a never-ending surprise. ‘Today it’s a family home for husband, wife and five children, the very epicentre of a hectic and bustling family life,’ says Róisín Lafferty, founder and creative director. Built in the 1860s, this post-Georgian era three-storey house is part of a terrace of similar homes. It’s been a five-year project. ‘We were first approached to look at the house back in December 2018, with Helena McElmeel Architects having started…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Semi-detached Victorian house ROOMS Kitchen-diner, library/parlour/sitting room, basement bar/media/entertainment room, six bedrooms, four bathrooms LOCATION Southwest London ‘The banquette seating in the corner of the kitchen freed up space for people to gather at the back to chat during get-togethers’ We previously lived in a small three-bed terrace in the shadow of Stamford Bridge stadium in Fulham,’ says Lisa. ‘We had two children, Zac and Darcey, who came into my life when I married Giles, and we were keen to find a larger house. We realised that any plans to extend our family would require more space and we were taken with this area of London’s abundance of greenery and good pubs at the end of the road. We found a Victorian property with bags of…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Edwardian terraced house ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen-diner/living area, cloakroom, two bedrooms, three bathrooms, library room, two studies, gym room LOCATION East London The emotive pull of Kate Clare and Gavin Sumner’s new home kicked in before the pair had even got inside. ‘I loved the Edwardian arch over the front door,’ explains Kate, the founder of Loud Architecture & Interior Design, a creative studio based in east London. ‘We’d seen a few other potential projects, but that’s what really sold it for me.’ Such was the beauty of this elegant curve of brickwork that she decided to use it as a motif throughout the property as she and Gavin made plans to renovate. Having shared Gavin’s flat in east London, the couple had started the hunt…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Edwardian terrace ROOMS Kitchen, sitting room, utility, three bedrooms, bathroom, study/guestroom/nursery, cloakroom LOCATION Southwest London Filled with colour, texture, pattern and quality craftsmanship, this Edwardian house in southwest London revels in its reinvention from a small terrace that struggled to accommodate a family of six (and a dog) to a cleverly designed home where everyone is comfortable and enjoys their own, and communal, spaces. The house is bigger, thanks to a kitchen and first-floor extension but it is still fair to class it as modest, although now it is fit for purpose. It works, says interior designer Henry Prideaux, ‘because every room has a specific purpose with storage utilised in each possible nook and cranny, be it shelves in a doorway, underneath the built-in sofa, behind…

no. 17 HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY Pied-à-terre apartment in a Victorian mansion block ROOMS Open-plan sitting and dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms, bathroom and shower room LOCATION Central London ‘REMOVING THE FALSE CEILINGS REVEALED BEAUTIFUL FEATURES – IT WAS WORTH IT’ Music and art play a pivotal role in Sian and Michael Parker’s lives. Their teenage children, Mia and William, study music at a conservatoire so although the main family home is in Surrey, the couple spend a great deal of time in London, attending concerts and productions. In 2021, they bought a pied-à-terre as a convenient weekend haven. After months of searching they found this well-located three-bed apartment which has lovely proportions, tall windows and looks onto a calm street. Freshly redecorated in neutrals, it appeared to be somewhere…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY A ground-floor apartment in a 1970s purpose-built block ROOMS Sitting room, kitchen/dining area, two bedrooms, two bathrooms LOCATION Milan Francesca Venturoni and her husband, Dino Cicchetti, felt it was time for a new chapter in their life. ‘When our sons Alessandro and Ludovico arrived, everything changed,’ Francesca says. ‘Our family had grown and we needed more space and to be closer to Dino’s and my studio, which are both located in the neighbourhood near the Porta Romana railway station and the Prada Foundation.’ This is an area where prices were rising, so the couple anticipated the move would be a sound investment. In the midst of several schools, playgrounds and parks, Francesca and Dino found their apartment. ‘It’s part of a complex built in the 1970s…

HOME TRUTHS THE PROPERTY A brick-built cottage ROOMS Hallway, sitting room, snug, dining room, kitchen, conservatory, two bedrooms, one bathroom LOCATION Surrey Hills Every house has a story to tell. The cottage belonging to interior designer Jo Brown of Tilehouse Studio has, over the years, clocked up quite a few. Situated at the foot of the Surrey Hills, the house is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, with views that stretch for miles. ‘From the top of Leith Hill you can see into London and down to the coast; it’s the main reason I wanted to live here,’ Jo says, of the impetus behind her move from city to countryside 22 years ago. ‘I’ve had horses all my life, so I needed a safe and beautiful area to ride…