A return to normal this week with two properties – one town and one country and the country one belonging to Will Young at that. Mind you, his, in the middle of Bodmin Moor, is the cheap one. So let’s start in London with this rather wonderful five bedroom house near Wandsworth Common.
It’s on the market with The Modern House for £2,650,000 and was designed by Marie-Sophie Roussel in collaboration with Studio McW. It’s a wonderful combination of black, white and natural wood which is a great place to start if you’re unsure about colour.
Here, rather than lots of colour, interest has been added with texture and lots of it. From the rattan bar stools to the marble island, the rustic table, the sleek doors and wide plank floorboards.
On the one hand it’s incredibly simple, but it’s not cheap to pull off a look like this. It relies on good quality materials that have been really well-installed with attention paid to all the tiny details.
The bedroom below is beautifully simple and I love the subtle green accents which echo the trees outside. We took a bedroom away to make an en suite bathroom and if you can afford the space it’s a great idea. After all a big bathroom will always feel like a luxury so rather than cramming in a tiny shower room and leaving a big bedroom think about having a smaller bedroom – or perhaps moving a wall so the two rooms are of a more equal size.
Mind you – if you could have this as your en suite then there’s nothing more to add really is there. Apart from – where’s the curtain?
Moving now to the country to this charming barn which belongs to the singer Will Young, who has used it as his country bolthole for the last few years but told The Sunday Times that he was selling as he didn’t really have time to go there any more. It’s in Bodmin, Cornwall, and is on for £615,000 via Stags.
It’s sweet isn’t it? So often you see houses belonging to celebrities that are just a mass of corporate, greige furniture that looks like no-one lives there at all, never mind someone who probably has enough money to buy whatever they want. There are exceptions to this of course but there are still a lot of criminally boring houses.
This looks like Will really does come here and does use it. I rather love the coral pink accents in the kitchen and the fact that the estate agent clearly came round to take pictures when the washing machine was full of stuff. It looks like a real home and, as Will said: “I don’t get to spend enough time here. It has been a wonderful friend to me and now it’s time for it to be a wonderful friend to someone else.”
The sitting room is a great space – the white painted beams will help raise the ceiling and the fact that it has three windows makes it lighter than many country cottages.
The barn is a one bedroom detached building which is perfect for guests – especially those who might want to stay up later than you do. Which happens to me quite often these days….
The bedroom in the main house is also beamed although not as low as many an attic bedroom I have seen and I would imagine the views over the moors are wonderful.
So town or country? Who’s moving where this week?
