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The Househunter: Room by Room

A classic Cotswold stone house from the outside this honey-coloured grade II listed old forge is all white washed contemporary living on the inside which is the perfect foil for the low ceilings and heavy beams. It’s on the market with Strutt & Parker for £1,750,000 and consists of a five bedroom house with a two bedroom attached cottage. Perfect for Granny, guests or as a holiday let.

Coming in? The front door opens straight into a boot room with a pretty tiled floor – patterned to hide the mud – which is perfect for country living which probably involves wellies. Next to that is a pantry, cloakroom and utility room while another door leads to the kitchen. Note how painting the beams white stops them from dominating the room and helps you forget it’s a low country cottage.

The crittal style windows also let more light in. What with the low ceilings and small windows, houses like this have a tendency to be dark and, you don’t see that many of them painted white like this, which really helps bounce the light around.

I grew up in my Grandmother’s house which dated back to the 14th century and although the walls were white, she kept the beams black (to match the outside I guess) and the small windows had lattice panes in so parts of it were indeed quite dark.

This is the dining room, viewed from both sides. I think I might spend most of my time in here as it’s clearly the brightest, has a view of, and access to, the garden and a wood burning stove for winter and chilly evenings. Might add a rug for the acoustics though.

Here is the pretty sitting room which is one large room with a more formal drawing room at the other end of it.  All these rooms so far are in a line and you must pass through one to get to the others. But from this point there is a corridor and you can get to two bedrooms and a bathroom.

Upstairs there are three more bedrooms and a bathroom. I love these wooden twin beds don’t you? This is a very sweet ilttle bedroom.

This is the bathroom next door which is a decent size, particularly for a cottage. At some point a choice was clearly made (given that this was a working forge originally) to have a large bathroom with a small (13’4″ x 6’8″) bedroom next door. If you didn’t need five bedrooms this is ripe for use as storage or even a walk-in wardrobe – it doesn’t have to be next to the bedroom after all.

And don’t make the mistake of designating the smallest bedroom as the office because you will never work in there. Not when there’s that wonderful dining room to spend all day in.

This is the sitting room of the cottage, which has a kitchen and two bedrooms. Between this and the entry of the main house is a barn which could be turned into a gym or an extra room. A connecting door between the two is currently blocked off but it would be easy enough to restore.

It’s funny how although I never set out to link the posts during the week, we came in with pale neutrals and lots of plants and have ended up pretty much back where we started with a house to buy that embodies both of those things. I’ll finished with the garden. Wouldn’t this be a lovely spot to spend the weekend. Tell you want – you buy the house and I’ll rent the cottage from you.

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

3 Comments

  1. A very appealing house, perfect for “Bank Holiday Dreaming”. In an old house I have always liked an enfilade rather than a corridor. A corridor being a waste of space and often dark in my opinion. You are so right, a big rug under the dining table and chairs would be the finishing touch.

  2. Oh yes please! Really nicely done. If only the Cotswolds wasn’t so far from London for commuting purposes…

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