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Designer Brian Gluckstein outdoes himself with a must-see showhome that holdsthe promise of life well lived. Like the glamorous lead in a classic Hollywood film,this year’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Home Lottery Showhome makes an alluring firstimpression: it greets you in a dramatic fashion and dazzles you with gorgeous looks, butis careful notto give away too much,too fast. From the extratall foyer justinside the front door, a tiger-print rug worthy of Lana Turner can be glimpsed in the home office across the hallway. “It’s similar to a carpet I had in my New York City apartment years ago,” says designer...

A large single-storey extension and some careful replanning has unlocked the potential of Lizzy and Ricky Stringer’s terrace. Like many London buyers, Lizzy and Ricky Stringer could only step up the property ladder by taking on a project. Having already moved the bathroom upstairs and created a bigger kitchen in their previous home, they were keen to renovate again on a larger scale when a Victorian villa came up for sale in Dulwich. ‘I looked past the dated decor and noticed the high ceilings, generous room sizes and beautiful wide staircase,’ says Lizzy. ‘I knew we could strip everything back...

S am and Guy Dawson have lived a back and forth life together for the past 14 years. Guy’s work as a non-executive director means being based in London, and Sam had ties to Hove where she lived with her children, Holly and Charlie, now 22 and 20. When the couple bought this Victorian London townhouse four years ago, a Bob Dylan print in an art gallery sparked Sam’s decorating ideas. ‘I instantly loved its blend of dusky pinks, deep purples and blues – and these colours became the inspiration for our whole house,’ she says. ‘I’m amused that the...

Practicality was paramount for Charlotte and Leigh Bowen, but they still managed to combine clean looks with good design After buying an unremarkable seaside Sixties bungalow on the West Sussex coast that was in need of serious TLC, Charlotte and Leigh Bowen were confident they could turn it into a coastal home packed with style. ‘We wanted a home here as it’s a special place to us,’ says Charlotte, a design consultant who works with husband Leigh, an eco architect, at their practice, 50 Degrees North. The couple may have had a head start in terms of design skills, but...

AT FIRST, THEY ignored it. “When I bought the house, it was sort of just there,” says textile designer John Robshaw of the old barn a former owner had attached to the side of his 1840s farmhouse in Sharon, Connecticut. “I was using it as a print studio.” He and his wife, Rachel, finished a gut renovation of the main house before realizing their mistake. “I had guests coming over, and I didn’t have a bathroom downstairs— which my mother kept complaining about,” Robshaw recalls. So, with the help of architect Colby Wong and decorator Sara Bengur, Robshaw set about...