Reader's home of the month
This month's £150 Habitat giftcard goes to lindsaydglasgow's 'terrace on a teeny budget'...
Barn-style new build
Take a tour around this super-chic country home...
For Fiona and Alex Cox, owning an airy, modern house in a rural setting had long been their dream. So discovering a plot of land, right beside the Thames, in a local newspaper was practically a fairy-tale ending. Or should that be beginning?
Because although the perfect piece of land was now theirs, there was the small matter of gaining planning permission and actually building a house before Fiona (the creative director of interiors company Cox & Cox), Alex (a film and television location finder and manager) and their children (Gabriel, nine, Orlando, six, and Marni, four) could move from the airy London warehouse conversion they called home.
After a gruelling five-year battle with the local planning authorities, the couple were finally granted permission to build a new house on the Oxfordshire plot. Miraculously, at the same time, a cottage came up for rent just a stone's throw from their land.
Fast-forward two years: with the building work complete, the attention turned to finishing the interior. As the build had sucked away more of the budget than the couple had expected, they were forced to rethink their decorating plans.
Take a room-by-room photo tour around Fiona and Alex's country new build to see how they balanced resourcefulness with creativity to achieve their ideal space.
Because although the perfect piece of land was now theirs, there was the small matter of gaining planning permission and actually building a house before Fiona (the creative director of interiors company Cox & Cox), Alex (a film and television location finder and manager) and their children (Gabriel, nine, Orlando, six, and Marni, four) could move from the airy London warehouse conversion they called home.
After a gruelling five-year battle with the local planning authorities, the couple were finally granted permission to build a new house on the Oxfordshire plot. Miraculously, at the same time, a cottage came up for rent just a stone's throw from their land.
Fast-forward two years: with the building work complete, the attention turned to finishing the interior. As the build had sucked away more of the budget than the couple had expected, they were forced to rethink their decorating plans.
Take a room-by-room photo tour around Fiona and Alex's country new build to see how they balanced resourcefulness with creativity to achieve their ideal space.
