25 Beautiful Homes January 2022

Back in the spring we announced our first Reader Awards and we’ve been so delighted with the wonderful entries sent to us. Going through all the different properties was a complete pleasure and this month we reveal the first winner – Lara Kott. Her amazing home is a testament to all of the hard work she and her husband Lee put into it and the results really do speak for themselves (page 72). So many of us love to be in our homes at this time of year and if you’re in search of some seasonal inspiration, take a look at cookery writer Skye McAlpine’s cheerful family abode (page 84). She has skilfully combined a comfortable, lived-in style with elegance and her fabulous festive look relies on an abundance of greenery.…

BEST BUY ‘The steel doors – they have a strong presence and the large panes of glass help to keep the house feeling light and open’ It’s hard to imagine that the newly built home of artist Lydia van Wolfswinkel (@lydiavwolfs) didn’t exist five years ago but now with the decorations up, the fire roaring and the candles lit, it is all ready to celebrate the festive season. ‘It’s such a joy for me to use lots of natural foliage from the garden and to light the fire and the candles as it’s been quite a journey to get to this point,’ explains Lydia. The house is situated by a lake in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. Lydia and her husband Ruth-Jan were familiar with the area - it is…

Out of the reach of most carol singers, a private farm track winds up a steep woodland incline leading to the prettiest converted chapel imaginable. It has blue painted shutters and arched Gothic windows and a high apex roof. ‘My husband Sam and I fell in love with this characterful little gem at first sight,’ Laura Melville-Brown admits. ‘And we love Devon, so when a job came up for Sam locally, we thought, why not?’ Laura and Sam are both teachers and share an interest in history, and this property certainly has plenty of that. ‘It has a chequered past,’ says Laura. ‘There are some bars at one or two windows – a legacy of when one of the rooms was used as a holding cell. Rumour has it the cottage was…

DESIGN TIP ‘If you want to go bold with a kitchen colour, a two-tone option is a great idea’ When an estate agent handed Lydia Draper a pair of shears to hack her way through the overgrown garden behind an unloved, dated house, the experienced renovator realised that she had just discovered her next home. ‘I adore breathing new life into period properties to give them a modern twist, and regularly hound estate agents to show me homes that other house hunters would be loathe to view, never mind buy,’ says Lydia. ‘This lacklustre house was crying out for a major transformation and, when I could eventually see the 40-foot garden properly, I knew there was plenty of scope to create something special for our growing family.’ Back in the spring of 2019, Lydia,…

The house has gotten a great workout,’ says American interior designer Victoria Hagan of the Aspen chalet that she and architect Joeb Moore meticulously remodelled for a family of outdoor-living enthusiasts comprising a couple and their three children, ranging from teens to grown-up. Built right into the side of a mountain, the home has breathtaking views, instant access to the slopes and a dynamic, multilevel layout. BEST FEATURE ‘The vast window in the sitting room – it’s cut from one continuous piece of glass and it pulls the view into the room’ The price to pay for such a premier position, however, was a challenging redesign undertaken during the coldest months of the year, when snow and ice were at their peak. ‘There wasn’t an elevation that wasn’t altered,’ says Victoria of…

When Elie Jones viewed a dated and oppressive 1930s property in Surrey, her creative instincts were twitching; she instantly realised that by extending the house outwards and upwards, she could create a light-drenched and sophisticated yet family-friendly home. ‘The fact that the exterior needed some attention, the hallway was dark and, at three metres square, the kitchen was rather cramped, actually made the property even more appealing,’ says interior designer Elie. ‘All I could see was the potential to transform it into a wonderfully airy home, bursting with surprise design elements.’ Back in 2009, Elie, of Elie Jones Interiors, and her husband, Chris, director at Great With Talent, began hunting for a more spacious house, close to good schools. ‘At the time, our daughter Eva, who is now 15, was about to…