Houses that you like!

[OutComeTheWolves]

This is sort of a thread about a thread as I've been reading the 'naff things in a home' thread and noticed a lot of things I quite like (family photos on display/bookshelves) other people don't like.

I love looking in other peoples homes and I love seeing how differently people decorate and how different our idea of the ideal room can be. So I thought it'd be nice/interesting if we shared what we all thought was really good home design or just a room that looks really nice.

I love the whole Scandi look but never fully achieve it (probably because of all the books and photos cluttering shit up) but this pic (from Google - not of my home!) sums up what I'd like my home to look like. Nice and airy, neutral colours and no clutter everywhere.

@inmyslippers that bathroom is a thing of beauty.

@inmyslippers, I love that house! What lovely colours. That wardrobe in the bedroom is gorgeous and I also love the bathroom! I want a pink suite.

I like this kitchen. Nice and bright and not grey!

I wouldn't have things hanging down from the central bit, mind, but I do love yellow and green.

Ooh that’s a lovely kitchen, yy the hanging stuff that would annoy me & be a dust/grease collector.
@Arbadacarba some really beautiful properties you posted as well rightmove is my guilty pleasure.
My house is quite colourful, barely any ‘new’ furniture most of it picked up at charity shops/auctions/antique shops don’t have lots of Knick knacks but what I do have are items that are loved & usually have a sentiment attached to them, sometimes I think I would like to be very minimal & stick to a very neutral colour palette but I just can’t do it.

That is a nice kitchen. I think I'd prefer a round table to the island unit and I agree, not keen on ceiling dingle-dangle.

You're right about the round table, @Arbadacarba, it would look more homely. I liked that barn conversion you posted, plenty of gorgeous beams! Is that in Bradford as well?

Stone floors in every room and a door in each to the outside. An opening at different times of the day welcomes in the seasons. We have the sunrise streaming into windows on the east at 5am. In Autumn leaves will blow into the kitchen and hallway, under our feet and into the corners, like but not really like cobwebs. Just scattered around friendly and benign. In April we get a shape on the wall where the setting sun plays with a chandelier and makes a pattern on the dining room wall. In Autumn it is stronger and red, gold and orange, with the shadow of apple tree branches projected. We watch the little grey shapes of goldfinches gently move up and flit their way into the the deeper branches ready to sleep the night away. All this projected through the window onto a large bare wall.

Any house that brings nature in is alive.

Bend around nature. Don't try to bend it around us.

@TeardropsFallingOnHotSand - that sounds absolutely gorgeous. You create such a lovely image. Where do you live?

I like a red front door!

No, the barn conversion is in Kirklees although it's a Wakefield postcode, @Maireas. They tend to be not quite as much house for money as Bradford, and it's a village location as well.

Given the choice I think I'd go for the earlier one I posted in Low Moor as the barn conversion hasn't much outside space (they rarely do for some reason) and it is only 2 bedrooms where I'd ideally want 3.

All totally academic because both are well over-budget, but that never stops me analysing a house.

Oooh, that sounds lovely @TeardropsFallingOnHotSand . Is it an old farmhouse - it has that vibe from your very evocative description?

I was fuming when someone bought it! I

Yes, an old farmhouse. It could be anywhere of course, but just happens to be here. The same as being over there, with you.

But with the windows open and the doors open because the connection with the outside is then complete. I shuffle out barefoot onto the evening dew-grass to refresh my soles and back in again, many times. There is no better heaven. We are connected ultimately through our feet to everything else on this big ball. Gravity does that.

Weeds are allowed to appear. The truth is they are collectively more powerful than me and they grow if they will. Flowers are sown, they spread and drop their seed. The mower and strimmer used sparingly. Rabbits eating the flowers and sometimes getting into the vegetable patch and I have to put sticks up to restrict them enough for them to know they are tolerated trespassers for now. What we don't get between us goes to seed. These are returned to earth for next year. Or goldfinches and mice will take their fill first and drop them off in scattered places.

There are three dark patches in various places. Holly tree, laurel, bay and privet grow towards each other then stop. Just enough interaction to support and shelter each other. Without mocking, ridicule or malice against their neighbour. Nature does not do woke. A previous owner had a thing for dark evergreen, I wonder. That theme, just different shades of green, would never regularly appear in a garden magazine. But it is in those places that blackbirds nest and wrens flit and shelter. It is a sanctuary from hot sun, biting cold wind and all forms of sparrow-hawk. Which means every evening around all the seasons we have glorious evening song. That original Victorian farmhouse owner and their spouse met the great-great-great-grandparents (etc) of those same birds we hear now. We are in their places, they are not in ours I wonder. Sometimes we need sanctuary too, so I leave those dark places alone. Trees, brushes, plants and flowers are furniture.

And every garden is another room.

@inmyslippers

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/94917686?utmcampaign=property-details&utmmcontent=buying&utmmedium=sharing&utmmsource=copytoclipboard#/media?id=media0&ref=photoCollage

Oh my goodness this isn't my usual style at all but I love it! It's just gorgeous.

Absolutely love the second house @Arbadacarba posted, and the one @inmyslippers posted. I’d move into either one tomorrow (although my commute would increase by several hundred miles!).

I have no vision and very boring taste :(. I’d love to have an eye like whoever decorated the 2 houses I’ve mentioned.

I like 20s/30s detached and semis as they tend to have a nice 'square' layout, not too linear or narrow (our house is tall but slightly narrow Edwardian, which has its own)

I like colours and patterns, like maximalism/boho more than I like minimalism. Scandi is nice when it's a bit more colourful.

DH claims to like colour but baulks every time I try to get anything strong in the house!

I love a thirties semi😄.
You are right it's the layout that appeals.

I grew up in one - i like the way they tend to have rooms clustered round a hallway/landing rather than long corridors and such. When house hunting, none of the ones we saw in our budget were really big enough - some had loft extensions but the stairs tended to cut into one bedroom leaving it too small to actually use as a bedroom.

Yes, 30s semis can be really nice - they usually have lovely hallways. We lived in one, and only its downside really was a lack of storage. The 3rd bedroom was very small - it lost a chunk of space to the bulkhead.

My parents have a detached house in that style. Unfortunately they are hoarders so most of its best features are buried under mounds of junk.

I like colour in a house. My favourite house that I would love to own, but is way too expensive, is this one

I agree with everyone about 1930s semis.
I like the bay windows, and usually the doors and windows had a bit of stained glass or other decorative interest. I think the layout is usually practical.

If you were in the market for a doer-upper, this could be made amazing:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109655621#/

Looks like it hasn't been touched for about 40 years but such potential, and Todmorden is lovely.