Since 2005 property lovers of all budgets have escaped to The Modern House to soak up the magazine-style photography and browse the beautiful homes featured on its pages. It matters not that they have no intention of buying or that they (by which I mean we) probably can’t afford any of the properties anyway, for it has become an alternative interiors magazine. A sort of Elle Deco and World of Interiors in picture form. The site was so successful that it began stretching its original remit to feature period home with, well, just a modern extension, or one that was newly renovated.
And it became a logical step to expand that into a sister site Inigo (named after the architect Inigo Jones) which will feature the best Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses from around the country. And the founders Matt Gibberd (who we interviewed for the podcast last year) and Albert Hill, have brought their signature luscious photography and styling to these homes too. So beautiful is the site that you forget it’s an estate agen there to sell you houses and that of the nine homes currently listed only two are under a million.
That doesn’t even matter (unless you really are visiting with a view to buying) because this is the original property porn, or as we have come to know it on these pages, fantasy house-hunting. Who hasn’t procrastinated before a stack of invoices or an accounts meeting with a quick whizz around Right Move? In recent years The Modern House was the fantasy destination of every graphic designer I have ever met, an interior designer’s dream and a place to while away a rainy afternoon playing “When I win the Lottery”.
But for many of, while the photography was dreamy the houses were, perhaps just a little too modern. Great to stroll around a modernist white monolith in Dorset or a glass box in Leeds – just to see what they’d done but most people didn’t actually want to live in one.
Now, the landscape has changed. Because these period properties – these “splendid” properties as the site’s description says, are going to to lure you in. Here are the small rooms, low ceilings and wonky walls that many of us are dealing with. Here is the inspiration that might help with your own quirky homes if only you had the budget.
And there’s the rub. For this, for most of us, is still only window shopping. But what a window.
Very nice article.Thank you for sharing!!!
I feel that in truth, the men that brilliantly began The Modern House, and now Inigo, are so successful because they possess the genius to make the most of the houses they have to sell. The photography and intelligent script lure us in.
There are many homes for sale which with flair and an interiors consultant to accompany the photographer, could look just as enticing. I wail as I see the offerings of estate agents in southern England advertising similar terraced houses as the one on Inigo but we have the piled high work surfaces in the kitchen, the horrible rug, the curtains roughly pulled back, the unappealing collection of memorabilia on the shelves and so it goes….
Wow. Being from the U.S. I had not heard of these sites. Love the Modern House. I’m a bit stumped by that toilet in the 3 picture. Is that just right there in the bedroom? If interested here is a similar sort of site that I look at here in the U.S., if you scroll down you will find some interesting things, none with your history of course. https://www.curbed.com/real-estate/
I think its a bathroom, if you loo to the left there is a set of sinks in the top of the cabinet. But yes it very much doesn’t look like a bathroom!
Ah. Yes. But if you look in the mirror you see what looks like a bedroom wardrobe or armoire. So I’m not sure where the shower would be.
I’ve been impatiently waiting for Inigo to launch for ages! As soon as the listings came in I was merrily clicking through all the pictures. The farmhouse in Sussex is my dream! Just need a *touch* more money first…
The first and second pictures are my dream homes in the city. Absolutely lovey!
I have gone into an Instagram rabbit warren of loveliness after receiving this email. Oops its 2pm!!
Can’t even deal with how much I love the Twickenham house…
I got this email about the time i was making my first cuppa for the day. Lovely start to the day. The cupboards in Twickenham and the picture gallery above the fireplace my favourite details.
These homes are wonderful. They have soul, and haven’t had the heart ripped out of them in the name of the now ubiquitous crittal window extension. They have personality and warmth. I hope it catches on!