25 Beautiful Homes Jan-2019

Brrr. Winter is well and truly upon us and, while I will never be a chilly weather person at heart, this year I have been enjoying the feeling of warmth that envelops you when walking into a toasty home. When we redesigned our house, we invested in underfloor heating. It has been a game changer and left our place feeling so cosy – and ‘cosy’ is a word I keep hearing at this time of year. In the past, it may have meant small, dark rooms, too much wood, squishy furniture, etc, but cosy these days is framed as the ultimate luxury. Let’s call it the New Cosy – think warm, relaxed, comfortable, candlelit. This issue’s homes are rich in New Cosy atmosphere – Jess’s converted engine house in Cornwall…

Brrr. Winter is well and truly upon us and, while I will never be a chilly weather person at heart, this year I have been enjoying the feeling of warmth that envelops you when walking into a toasty home. When we redesigned our house, we invested in underfloor heating. It has been a game changer and left our place feeling so cosy – and ‘cosy’ is a word I keep hearing at this time of year. In the past, it may have meant small, dark rooms, too much wood, squishy furniture, etc, but cosy these days is framed as the ultimate luxury. Let’s call it the New Cosy – think warm, relaxed, comfortable, candlelit. This issue’s homes are rich in New Cosy atmosphere – Jess’s converted engine house in Cornwall…

1 WHAT A CRACKER Christmas tree crackers, £55 for set of six, Thornback & Peel 2 WITH LOVE Mistletoe Christmas card, £2.50, Lucy Bowes Design 3 EVERGREEN BEAUTY Berry stocking, £35, Sophie Conran 4 DRINK UP Wackie Dot glass, £55, Nina Campbell 5 SOFT TOUCH Rubra cushion cover, £60, Oka 6 TABLE TALK Linen napkin in Green/White O and Red/White O, £22 each, Ottolenghi 7 DECK THE HALLS Paper-chain garland kit in Mistletoe, £14.50, The Shop Floor Project 8 FAUX FESTIVE Balmoral artificial tree, £149, Dobbies 9 DECORATIVE TOUCH Rowan spray in Russet, £8, Neptune…

For jewellery designer Julie Wettergren, the festive season begins in October. ‘I put raisins and nuts to soak in rum for the Christmas biscuits that we always bake,’ she says. ‘The children, Conrad, 10, and Telma, seven, and I go hiking in the woods where we collect cones, moss and branches for our decorations. We can’t wait for Christmas to start but we do this in secret because we always promise my husband Christopher that we won’t begin preparations before the end of November.’ Julie starts on her baking projects early, because each year the family makes a beautiful gingerbread house to celebrate Christmas. ‘We bake one weekend, do the icing the next and assemble everything on the third weekend,’ she says. ‘It takes weeks to get a gingerbread house built. ‘Christmas…

1 WHAT A CRACKER Christmas tree crackers, £55 for set of six, Thornback & Peel 2 WITH LOVE Mistletoe Christmas card, £2.50, Lucy Bowes Design 3 EVERGREEN BEAUTY Berry stocking, £35, Sophie Conran 4 DRINK UP Wackie Dot glass, £55, Nina Campbell 5 SOFT TOUCH Rubra cushion cover, £60, Oka 6 TABLE TALK Linen napkin in Green/White O and Red/White O, £22 each, Ottolenghi 7 DECK THE HALLS Paper-chain garland kit in Mistletoe, £14.50, The Shop Floor Project 8 FAUX FESTIVE Balmoral artificial tree, £149, Dobbies 9 DECORATIVE TOUCH Rowan spray in Russet, £8, Neptune…

Each Christmas Eve, the home of Sarah Davenport, her husband Ross Dennison and their two daughters, April, 6, and Verity, 4, is filled with the chatter of friends catching up over mulled wine and festive nibbles. ‘It’s a tradition we started a few years ago,’ says Sarah. ‘Christmas Day is spent with family but the night before is when we catch up with all our friends.’ Sarah and Ross’s Victorian home, situated in a market town in Lincolnshire, certainly lends itself to entertaining, with its inviting, open-plan kitchen and dining space housed in a new extension flowing seamlessly from the sitting room. ‘We wanted a design that felt in tune with the original building,’ says Sarah. ‘The idea was that it should look as if it had always been there.’ INSPIRATION ‘I…