This week we’re starting off with a house that is all about the outside. Gorgeous gardens and an amazing extension. Sometimes it’s very hard to find houses with the sorts of interiors we like here in The Mad House and, given that we’ve been looking at things for inside all week, I wanted to show you this beauty in Devon. It’s on the market with The Modern House for £1,999,950 (really? Are we fooled by this? It’s two million quid for goodness sake).
Anyway, this five bedroom house near Totnes, in Devon, was apparently described by the writer Alain de Boton as “one of the most beautiful things I have seen” is set in around four acres. It is actually a replacement for the original farmhouse that stood on the site, but the new one has been built using the old bricks. You can read more about it on the website of the architect Fiona MacLean of MacLean Quinlan.
But it has to be said, if I ever had any money to spend on an extension and, I guess, I didn’t live in a terrace house, this is how I would like to do it. And if you were in any doubt about painting your window frames black to frame the house (husband of Paula I mean you) then look at this.
Inside it’s mainly open plan downstairs and there’s a huge master bedroom with a glass wall that looks down over the valley. Fancy it?
If that’s all a bit too rural for you and, possibly, a little bit over budget for a holiday cottage then let’s come back into town, to this (marginally cheaper) two bedroom contemporary house in Islington, north London. It’s also on with The Modern House for £1,295,000 and is another house with an interesting exterior.
Years ago when I used to write for The Daily Mail property pages, I was asked to find ten houses for sale for £995,000 following the news that one of the Rothschilds had spent precisely this sum on his first marital home. I think he married a Goldsmith, but since several of them have done that and since divorced, I forget which one it was. Anyway, I duly found the houses and filed the copy to be told: “Oh we can’t use this. They all look like houses.”
I know! I think they meant they wanted windmills and modern towers and follies and the like but they just weren’t for sale at that very particular price point. I digress. When did I ever not? Don’t answer that.
This is rather cool though don’t you think? The reed steel banister is almost like a work of art although I think, were I to move in, that I might want to paint it in some jolly colour to stop it looking quite so much like bars. Cobalt blue or a pale olive green for example.
Elsewhere it’s all polished concrete floors and bespoke joinery and I particularly like the colours in the kitchen. On their own they are unusual choices for a kitchen, together it makes for a stunning combination. You could add some pale green Eames Eiffel chairs and change the table and it would be an amazing space.
Right well that’s me then, I appear to have spent virtually four million quid. I’m off for a lie down.
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from Mad About The House http://www.madaboutthehouse.com/the-househunter-9/
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