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How to create a rustic, East Coast kitchen in an English home
A mix of Shaker-style cabinetry and cherry red injects the kitchen of this London home with plenty of New England charm.
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What guests will and wont notice in your house this Christmas
The secret to entertaining is to expend time and effort on touches guests will notice and forget about those they won’t, says Arabella Youens.
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Can a good pub sell a country house?
A good pub within walking distance is on most buyers’ wish lists and can even uphold an area’s value. But what makes the perfect village pub? Arabella Youens investigates.
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The key to a beautiful guest room: Bold colours and distinctive patterns
Throw away the nice white sheets and washed out, floral wallpaper.
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How a derelict cattle shed became a traditional farmhouse kitchen
A transformation on this scale takes time, effort and good materials. Luckily, Helen Parker had all three.
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Inside the designer's home: Birdie Fortescue's picture-perfect house in Norfolk
The designer and antique dealer Birdie Fortescue has decorated her Norfolk house in a highly distinctive style. She spoke to Arabella Youens; photographs by Simon Brown.
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How to transform a shepherd's hut into the perfect, country guest house
In North Yorkshire, Melanie Phipps has furnished a pair of shepherd’s huts with every creature comfort.
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How to seamlessly blend the old and new when transforming old rooms into country kitchens
Charlotte Hughes has created a family kitchen that looks as if it has evolved over time.
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Bathtub in the bedroom: Should you try it at home?
Arabella Youens examines the growing trend for baths in bedrooms.
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An antique wallpaper so extraordinary that an entire room was built around it — including raising the ceiling
The Court of Noke in Herefordshire is the home of designer Edward Bulmer, and the antique wallpaper in this bedroom shows some of his thought processes in action.
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A Cornish cottage transformed in a perfect local style by a designer famed for exotic opulence
A look inside this guest cottage on a West Country estate demonstrates the versatility of its interior designer.
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Three ideal homes in the small but perfectly-formed city of Winchester
Property writer Arabella Youens is naming her favourite small cities in Britain. Today she turns her gaze towards the fine little spot of Winchester.
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Three marvellous homes in the idyllic city of Oxford
Property writer Arabella Youens is naming her favourite small cities in Britain – under the microscope in this piece is Oxford.
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Three gorgeous homes in the delightful city of York
York is a city whose restaurant scene ensures that no metropolitan exile will miss the culinary delights of their former home.
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The 50 best places to live near London
Where are the best villages, towns and small cities which are a pleasure to live in, but still offer a decent commute to the capital?
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How to transform a dark Victorian kitchen into a charming social space with bespoke joinery
Charlotte Crosland redesign project turned into an entire refurbishment when it came to this Victorian house in London, including this stunning kitchen, brightened by the addition of bespoke windows and stunning furnishings.
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A perfectly-formed small bedroom, as designed by Nina Campbell
If you're looking for inspiration on how to make a small bedroom both beautiful and comfortable, take a look at how designer Nina Campbell transformed this guest bedroom with a space-defying scheme.
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How to use pieces from around the world to create a fine English bedroom
Designer Sophie Paterson explains how she used influences from around the world to transform the master bedroom of a town house in Chelsea.
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Country Life Top 10: Luxury dog beds
As our four-legged friends take over our lives, Arabella Youens charts the unstoppable rise of the luxury dog bed.
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Escape from the city: The Cotswolds v the Hamptons
Jay Gatsby frequented one, Kate Moss the other, but what makes these rural hotspots so desirable?
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The dovecote which became a delightful country home
A long career at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler was the perfect preparation for Emma Burns’s greatest design challenge yet: the sensitive transformation of the former dovecote and stables in Oxfordshire she inherited.
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The rise of the ‘super cottage’: Underfloor heating, dining table for 12 and claw-foot baths in the bedroom
Creaking country piles with drafty corridors and leaky roofs are increasingly a thing of the past - today's homes in the country have a very different list of features, many of which you'd normally associate with top-end hotels. Arabella Youens speaks to a pair of experts who explain the phenomenon of the 'super cottage'.
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The benefits of four-poster beds: 'I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t sleep better in one'
Interior designer Veere Grenney tells Arabella Youens why the only bed to have is a four-poster.
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A beautiful townhouse in Deal with a kitchen that mixes modern and Georgian
This town house on the Kent coast has been restored by its actor owner to create a kitchen that’s sympathetic to its Georgian roots.
