25 Beautiful Homes February 2019

I find this month’s cover story very inspiring (page 60). I love the beautiful decorative mural in the dining area and am impressed by the spatial wizardry in the sitting room (a Crittall screen sections off a snug TV zone). It’s a home packed full of ideas. But it is much richer than just that. Riddhi and Mick’s story brings colour and context to an interesting design. It really is hard to imagine that this London new build was a plain white box when they bought it. Here at 25 Beautiful Homes we hope to offer you much more than straight-up projects every month. The homes we share are all a reflection of the owners’ personalities. Take the boho pad of Peggy Bell and her partner, Phil, as another example…

I find this month’s cover story very inspiring (page 60). I love the beautiful decorative mural in the dining area and am impressed by the spatial wizardry in the sitting room (a Crittall screen sections off a snug TV zone). It’s a home packed full of ideas. But it is much richer than just that. Riddhi and Mick’s story brings colour and context to an interesting design. It really is hard to imagine that this London new build was a plain white box when they bought it. Here at 25 Beautiful Homes we hope to offer you much more than straight-up projects every month. The homes we share are all a reflection of the owners’ personalities. Take the boho pad of Peggy Bell and her partner, Phil, as another example…

Eager to leave her native city of Belfast for the coast, Peggy Bell went to view a Victorian terrace in Bangor with her partner Phil. ‘It was love at first sight,’ she says, ‘but it was out of our price range and I wondered if it was too good for the likes of me.’ But negativity isn’t in Peggy’s vocabulary. ‘I’m a Law of Attraction convert, so I set about getting myself in the right mindset. I attuned myself to the house – every night I visualised living there.’ Sure enough, just before Christmas 2015, Peggy and Phil, together with their children Sia, five, and Ben, three, moved into their new home. For Peggy, the first few months in the seafront house was spent perusing Pinterest for home decor inspiration and…

Moving to the Cotswolds from Bristol, architect Lydia Robinson and her husband, project manager Lawrence Grigg, wanted a property that they could get their teeth into. ‘One of the reasons we moved here was to be nearer where my horse, Mandela, was stabled, but we also love the countryside and just fancied a change. Our design practice, Design Storey, is based in Cheltenham, so the Cotswolds is an easy commute.’ And, when the couple spotted a well-built 1950s two-bedroom house online, they could see it had enormous potential. ‘It was right in the middle of a quarter-acre corner plot and we knew we could make huge improvements,’ says Lydia. ‘It had been decorated in a typical country style, with carpet and floral fabrics, which weren’t very us. But the basic structure…

Eager to leave her native city of Belfast for the coast, Peggy Bell went to view a Victorian terrace in Bangor with her partner Phil. ‘It was love at first sight,’ she says, ‘but it was out of our price range and I wondered if it was too good for the likes of me.’ But negativity isn’t in Peggy’s vocabulary. ‘I’m a Law of Attraction convert, so I set about getting myself in the right mindset. I attuned myself to the house – every night I visualised living there.’ Sure enough, just before Christmas 2015, Peggy and Phil, together with their children Sia, five, and Ben, three, moved into their new home. For Peggy, the first few months in the seafront house was spent perusing Pinterest for home decor inspiration…

Moving to the Cotswolds from Bristol, architect Lydia Robinson and her husband, project manager Lawrence Grigg, wanted a property that they could get their teeth into. ‘One of the reasons we moved here was to be nearer where my horse, Mandela, was stabled, but we also love the countryside and just fancied a change. Our design practice, Design Storey, is based in Cheltenham, so the Cotswolds is an easy commute.’ And, when the couple spotted a well-built 1950s two-bedroom house online, they could see it had enormous potential. ‘It was right in the middle of a quarter-acre corner plot and we knew we could make huge improvements,’ says Lydia. ‘It had been decorated in a typical country style, with carpet and floral fabrics, which weren’t very us. But the basic…