25 Beautiful Homes March 2022

Many of the readers we speak to tell us about their desire to give their homes individual style and in this issue we have some amazing examples of people who are not afraid to go beyond current trends to express their own character. Take Natasha Lander. In her Victorian terrace (page 62), she used bold colour-blocking as a background for her one-of-a-kind collection of retro furniture. Clare Bolger has complemented the period features of her Edwardian villa (page 90) with a unique combination of mid-century and contemporary furnishings. Also bursting with exceptional style is Michelle Kelly’s coastal home in Kent (page 105), which she has transformed with Victoriana-inspired textiles and a palette of modern, punchy colours. However big or small your interiors project, we hope these houses, and the stories…

For 10 years, Liz Matthews dreamed of owning this elegant Georgian house in south London. ‘It is one of two villas set back from the street and we would drive past them on the school run,’ she recounts. ‘While we were waiting at the traffic lights, I would look at them and wonder who the lucky owners were.’ Then, in 2018, Liz and her new partner, Al MacCuish, were looking to buy a home together. ‘I was scrolling through Rightmove on holiday when this house popped up - I was so excited that I dropped my phone in the sand,’ she laughs. Liz and Al both work in the creative industry and between them they have five children: Bram, 16, Gabe, 12, Buddy, 12, and nine-year-old twins Teddy and Wren. ‘The…

For Malin Keatley, the Pasadena home she and her husband John moved into was always going to be their ‘forever home’ and accordingly she put love and care into planning its renovation. To help create a space that would meet the needs of the couple and their three daughters, Maja, 17, Stella, 14, and Tilde, 14, Malin called on the services of designer Amy Sklar. ‘She’d designed our first home, so when we moved back here after living in my native Sweden, she was the obvious choice,’ says Malin. The brief was to create an interior that could grow with the family as the girls got older. ‘It also had to combine the traditional style of the property with Malin’s Swedish aesthetic,’ says Amy. And a vital part of the updating…

With her father a property developer and stepmother an interior designer, Charlotte Drinkall grew up with dinner table talk focused on house renovations. Unsurprisingly, she followed in the family footsteps and set up her own interior design company, Shere Madness. One of her recent projects has been the top-to-toe revamp of the fixer-upper that she and her husband bought two years ago, in a Surrey village, to share with their daughter, Ella, now 9, and Margot, the Siberian cat. ‘It was a wreck,’ Charlotte says of the house, which dates to around 1800. ‘When we viewed it, the estate agent turned the handle to a lean-to at the back and the door came off in her hand! But my heart skipped a beat with the potential I could see.’ Charlotte was unfazed…

INSPIR ATION ‘We like to take everything back to nature – the colour pairings in our home can all be seen in the garden’ ‘Perfectly imperfect’ is how Vanessa Bold sums up the interior of her London home, with its raw elements, vintage finds, upcycled pieces and tactile surfaces. ‘When we found this house five years ago, we wanted to experience every season living in it before making any changes,’ says Vanessa. ‘We knew that we only wanted to make thoughtful alterations that could stand the test of time.’ Vanessa took careful note of where the light hit at different times of the day and how the family, including husband Noah, and children, Carmen, now seven, and Delilah, nine, wanted to live in the house. In keeping with their organic approach, Vanessa…

When Julia and Peter Larsson decided to update the interior of their London home, they enlisted the help of an expert interior designer. ‘I had a very clear idea of our taste as a couple, and although I wanted the lead to come from the designer, I also wanted to be involved in the creative process,’ says Julia. After looking around on Instagram, she came across Rebecca Hughes’ work and sensed that the designer’s love of collaboration could prove to be a great asset during the project. After a preliminary meeting, Julia commissioned Rebecca to help carry out the revamp. The Larssons had bought their London house in 2010 and waited a few years before embarking on the remodel. ‘It was still in good condition after a previous renovation, but we…