25 Beautiful Homes October 2021

One of the many advantages of being able to feature so many home projects each month is the fact that we can present every type of house, from country barns to bijou apartments. Despite the great variation, the one thing they all have in common is the care each owner has poured into their home. We love how Emily Hutchings went to great lengths to make the conversion of her barn in Devon sympathetic to its surroundings (p34). Having moved from Hong Kong to London, Pauline Gidoin was familiar with enhancing small spaces and drew on her architecture skills when it came to maximising every inch of her new apartment (p95). We were also impressed with how Laura and Kevin Purdy planned the redo of their period property and then…

Hidden behind a tall brick wall and large timber gates, Rachael and Tom Somerville were not sure what to expect when they first saw this house. But as they made their way through the gates, they spied rolling lawns and leafy green trees, dropping down to woodland beyond. ‘The house is in the centre of town but with a huge garden backing onto a beautiful conservation area, so it feels as if it is in the countryside,’ explains Rachael, ‘yet we are only a five-minute walk from the local supermarket and butcher.’ While they admired the original features of the house, including tall ceilings, sash windows and shutters, Rachael and Tom knew they had some work to do on the interior. ‘The layout of small rooms didn’t work for us because…

Eight years ago, when they realised their new romance had turned into something more serious, Naomi Stuart and Richard Fetherston felt it was time to swap their two separate properties in different Hertfordshire towns for a home they would choose, renovate and decorate together. After viewing and discounting 45 houses, the couple finally found this quaint and very pretty Victorian two-bedroom cottage in a peaceful Buckinghamshire village. ‘It was a little further away from our main business premises than we would have liked,’ says Naomi, who is owner of an online sustainable and ethical fashion brand (ambreclothing.co.uk). ‘But when we saw Grove Cottage for ourselves, any reservations we had disappeared,’ she explains. The potential to reveal the original beauty in the building once we peeled back the many layers of decoration…

Tamara MacDonald and her husband Martin bought their Glasgow home long distance from London, knowing they wanted a good-sized family house within the catchment area of a good school. ‘My dad showed us around on FaceTime and we immediately knew we wanted the property,’ says Tamara. ‘It was in need of renovation but Martin and I were very happy to undertake a project and we didn’t want to live with someone else’s taste, so it felt less wasteful to buy something in relatively poor condition.’ The south-facing garden, with a stand-alone garage they could convert into a recording studio, made it a must-have for the creative couple. Martin is a film editor and Tamara is a singer-songwriter who, during lockdown, set up a female music collective, Hen Hoose, with the aim…

After a two-year wait to find the right property, and losing one they’d set their heart on, Annie and Richard Radley were delighted to find an unmodernised Victorian terrace just waiting for them to stamp their very individual mark on. What’s more, it was opposite a small park, making it ideal for their three children. ‘The property had not been touched for 30 years, which was perfect for the kind of renovations we wanted to carry out,’ says Annie. ‘We loved the good Victorian bones of the house and wanted to keep the faith with these while giving the inside some TLC and adding a modern extension to the rear. It had a quirky layout which was different to other Victorian properties we’d viewed.’ CREATING MORE SPACE Phase one of the renovation work…

Having spent every family holiday in Devon since she was four, Emily Hutchings was eager to escape the rat race in London and move to the county. The dream was to run a holiday accommodation business with husband Raymond Seager, and give their children, Archie, six, and Lottie, four, new life in the country. In London, Emily had a career in publishing, which wasn’t compatible with living in Devon, so she retrained as a reflexologist and acupuncturist. Raymond, too, was keen to leave his job as a consultant in the City. The search for a suitable house with an outbuilding that could be converted into a holiday let began, with weekends spent travelling from London to Devon. ‘It was an intensive search because we were so clear about what we wanted…