St Peter’s Manor

St Peter's ManorSt Peter’s Manor is a stunning building!

Thought to have been built in 1618 and restored in 1867, it’s a beautiful black and white Grade II listed half timber framed Manor House.
Pucture 9 appeals to the booklover in me, with bookshelves, a desk and a window seat.
There’s also a wood panelled dining room which has a large inglenook fireplace with a historic medieval stone tablet above shown in picture 8!
Utterly lovely house!
It’s on a guide price of £985,000

Birch Farm

Birch FarmBirch Farm is at Button Bridge! What a fab place name!
It’s a 7 bedroom detached house for sale at £6,000,000 and is in Button Bridge, Kinlet, Bewdley, Worcestershire

Grade II* listed Georgian farmhouse with 7 bedrooms in need of renovation
And it’s a really stunning house from the outside. There are sadly no photos of inside. What a stunning house though!

Two cottages and flat
Range of farm buildings including grain storage
Commercial arable land
Amenity woodland
About 642.52 acres (260 ha)

Holbeam Cottage at Ogwell

Holbeam CottageHolbeam cottage at Ogwell, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 is quite remarkable! It’s an old cottage thats been given a modern twist.
It’s got the period features of a Grade II listed, thatched, 1640s cottage combined with an ultra modern extension that is very Grand Designs! It’s had some serious renovation work done with architects Minale + Minale and expert finishing by Bovey Construction.

I’m afraid though I’m not a fan of glass stairs but thats mostly because I’m not terribly good with heights.

Holbeam CottageThe house does look at first glance like two separate cottages and it’s only looking more closely you see the glass join!

The listing is very detailed and mentions the Gaggenau gas range, Philippe Starck WC and bidet and a Caesarstone engineered quartz stone island in the kitchen.

It’s certainly a nice mix of old and new!

The extension won an award for Best Domestic Extensions and Alterations PDF file

2009 – LABC – Building Excellence Awards – Finalist Best Domestic Extension & Alterations – Holbeam Devon

Lovely house book – The Arts and Crafts Country House

The Arts and Crafts Country HouseThe Arts and Crafts Country House is a lovely book that will be on the wishlist of anyone who loves the Arts and Craft period.

The Arts and Crafts Country House: From the Archives of Country Life

The book has 192 pages which make it a good sturdy book you’ll enjoy. The book – The Arts and Crafts Country House is completely fascinating survey of some of Britain’s most important houses.
It is beautifully illustrated with photos from 25 major houses and the architecture that makes them so special. The pictures date from original black and white taken nearly 100 years ago to more modern photos.

The Arts and Crafts Movement produced some of our country’s greatest works of design, architecture and decorative art. It grew out of a reaction against the Industrial Revolution in the late 1850s, inspired by an alternative vision of life based on the revival of traditional building crafts and the use of local materials. Country Life magazine illustrated regular articles with specially commissioned photographs.
In his stunning book, Clive Aslet draws upon this unique archive to provide a detailed survey of 25 major country houses, designed by the movement’s foremost architects, including Lutyens, Webb, Williams-Ellis and Blow. He also shows how the Arts and Crafts tradition continues to influence architects today.

The Author Clive Aslet was Editor of Country Life for thirteen years and is now Editor-at-Large. He writes for The Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times, and is the author of many books, including The Last Country Houses, The English House, and Villages of Britain.

A house cake mould

house cake mouldPossibly the strangest thing I’m going to post on my blog but I thought it was cute and if you had a friend who was moving house then you could make them a celebration cake with it!
The house cake mould is only £4.99

Flexible silicone non-stick cake mould which allows you to make several house shaped cakes. A fun and amusing idea that we think you’ll quite enjoy using and eating the results. Perfect for house warmning parties.

Kevin McCloud Book

Kevin McCloud's Principles of Home: Making a Place to LiveKevin McCloud’s Principles of Home: Making a Place to Live

Kevin McCloud’s Principles of Home: Making a Place to Live

An interesting book looking at different aspects of the home and discussing amongst many things sustainable housing such as that built by his company Hab Housing.
Kevin addresses very real and solvable domestic issues: What is the perfect kitchen layout? How to create a feeling of space in traditionally sized rooms? How to create an extension that works? How best to choose colour for function? What to use for insulation? How to shop for second hand? And how best to manage home waste and recycling?

Zero Carbon
Zero Waste
Sustainable Transport
Sustainable materials
Local and Sustainable Food
Sustainable water
Natural Habitats and Wildlife
Cultural Heritage
Equity, Fair Trade and local economy
Health and Happiness

Complete collection of Kevin McCloud books

Solar Protection Blinds

I was recently reading about thermal blinds that are designed to keep the heat in, and thought what a good idea they are.
At 247Blinds they have Solar Protection Blinds which are dual purpose – they help keep the sun’s heat out during the summer and keep the warm in during the winter. These ECO2 blinds can provide energy savings of up to 12% which sounds like a fantastic idea especially as energy bills seem to be going up all the time.

Picking the right blind colour can be tricky but luckily they allow you to order swatches as samples to check for colour matching. Sometimes it’s nice to use a bold colour and use this as a highlight on other accessories.
It sounds very simple having blinds that help keep the heat in, but perhaps something we should all be looking at doing for every room in our homes!

Designer Wallpaper

Is designer wallpaper worth the money?
Many people think that by having a beautiful home, you enjoy it more and are more happy and content. The whole idea of having wallpaper up you don’t like would be silly, especially when there are so many lovely wallpapers. But do you have to have a designer wallpaper?

To compare similar wallpapers it’s nice to get samples and at Wallpaper Direct you can have two samples free and if you want to add more then there’s a small charge! They’re A4 sized samples to give you a real idea of what you’ll be buying.

How to use a sample of wallpaper. As well as holding it and feeling the quality of the paper, you can fix it up on the wall you’re going to put the paper on and spend some time looking at it. Imagine how it’ll look when you do the whole wall. Use the sample to see how it’ll look with your furniture too, and your carpets and curtains!

50's Housewife (Half Scale)
There are some utterly stunning wallpapers such as this 50’s Housewife wallpaper that is a really wonderful unique pattern that will look funky in whatever room you put it in!
It’s made by Dupenny who make some really unusual wallpapers that have been used by top designers like Pearl Lowe.
If you’re after something with more wow factor then a designer paper is more likely to do this! There are lots of bold wallpapers available too that are considerably cheaper than the Dupenny range. These will still give you a feature wallpaper with colour and pattern! You should pick something you like so you’re not stuck looking at it wanting to paint over it! Sometimes a paper will grow on you! Wallpaperdirect have the new Arteco by Jeff Banks. This collection is full of stunning geometric designs in metallic ink finishes and water colour effects. is an interesting designer range with patterns explored in a range of colours to suit you.