25 Beautiful Homes December 2021

‘Christmas is not the time to be minimalist,’ says Claudia Ludwig, who loves to break her usual restrained style rules at this time of year and indulge in some full-on festive finery in her chic home (page 67). And we certainly agree – we’ve been marvelling at the bold seasonal style that seems to have caught everyone’s imaginations. Unsurprisingly, renowned florist Willow Crossley uses an abundance of greenery against a backdrop of uplifting pattern to bring cheer to her relaxed country cottage (page 52). For those of us who believe colour is not just for Christmas, take inspiration from Liz Caan’s riot of pattern and vibrancy in her amazing house in Boston (page 32). And if you’re still looking for a last-minute present for someone, why not treat them to…

With its spacious, entirely open-plan ground floor, the Dutch home of Lotte and Kees Vink comes into its own at Christmas. ‘We purposefully bought an enormous dining table so that we could entertain family and friends,’ notes Kees, adding, ‘We knew from the outset that we wanted this to be a very sociable home.’ When the 1920s house – which is situated in the town of Wateringen near The Hague – first came on the market, the couple dismissed it as too expensive. ‘We were living in a tiny property in the Hague but I grew up in Wateringen and my father mentioned that this house was for sale over dinner one evening,’ Lotte recalls. She continues, ‘It came with quite a lot of land and storage, which interested my father…

When Viveca and Peter Stewart decided to move from London to Kent in 2012, the prospect of Peter’s commute to the city was outweighed by their desire to bring up their children – Marta, now 12, Maxi, 10 and Scarlett, 8 – in the country. Viveca declares herself ‘a glutton for a handsome house’, and a restoration project was desirable. ‘We wanted space for the children to have freedom to play and explore without us watching their every move,’ she says. The house they purchased is one of those places hidden away without being too isolated. This six-bedroom property with a two-acre garden had once been a priory, and the oldest part of the Grade II-listed building dates from the 16th century with a 19th-century addition. ‘As soon as I went…

Mary-Anne Gallo and her husband Riccardo had been looking for their next home for a while when they spotted a run-down doctors’ surgery in a conservation area of Edinburgh. The large house was ripe for dividing into two homes and they purchased it with a view to converting it. ‘The generous garden confirmed that our plans were realistic,’ Mary-Anne explains. ‘We could see that the basement would make a lovely lower ground apartment and that with the addition of an elevated sunroom, with stairs down to the garden, the main part of the house on the ground floor and upper floors could also benefit from a section of valuable outside space’. The couple handled the project with the help of architect Ron Tremmel, a specialist in period properties in the area.…

Growing up in what she describes as a ‘very non-decorative home’ was probably what first prompted Liz Caan (lizcaan.com) to turn to her attention to colour and pattern. ‘I hated living in a brown house,’ admits the interior designer, adding, ‘I studied at art school where I was encouraged to be bold; as a result, my interiors have never been constrained by rules or theories.’ For the last 18 years, the 1920s Boston home Liz shares with her husband Geoff, and children Henry, 25, Lily, 21, and Leo, 14, has been a veritable hotbed of experimentation where she has been able to fully embrace her maximalist tendencies, layering pattern on pattern and trialling exciting, often unexpected, colour combinations. ‘The house has been constantly changing but we held off on the big…

The mantra ‘don’t move, improve’ is one that Anisha and Jay Radia have taken to heart since taking on this north London end-of-terrace a decade ago. Since then it has been through no less than three incarnations, though this latest, and most dramatic, has been its most successful according to the couple, who live here with son Kyan, five, and daughter Myla, three. ‘When we moved in, we painted throughout and made minor tweaks,’ says Anisha. ‘Then, about six years ago, we went further, knocking through the main bedroom to make a bigger suite, and upgrading the staircase.’ But it wasn’t until the arrival of their children that the couple gave serious consideration to what they needed from their home – and so, with the help of interior specialists KEMSI, in…