A Charming Cottage in the English Countryside l HOUSE TOUR

Hi, Homeworthy. I'm Jess. Welcome to my home in Norfolk. Let me show you around. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. I'm Alison Kenworthy, the founder of Homeworthy, and we take you inside the world's most beautifully decorated homes and introduce you to the brilliant people who live there. Hi, Homeworthy. I'm Liz Lang. Welcome to Grey Gardens. Click the Join button below to access all of our latest episodes ad-free and watch extended cuts of this and other homes, opening the doors to new rooms and exclusive content featuring our beloved hosts. I can't wait to see them. I'm so excited. And if you're looking to shop items inspired by this and other Homeworthy tastemakers, be sure to use the product links below or scan the QR code on screen to find fabulous furniture, coffee table books and accessories that can transform your house into a home. Hi, I'm Jess Daines. I'm a content creator from Norfolk. We've been living here for roughly about eight years now, and we loved the fact that the property itself had an old feel, but actually they were only built in the early 2000s. So it means that we've got like the old house charm, but without all of the problems that come with an old house. So I feel like we've got the best of both worlds here. Welcome to our living room. This is pretty much where we spend a lot of our time, especially with the autumn and winter season coming up. I love the fact that we've got our log burner here, which everyone crowds around in the evenings after a long muddy dog walk. We've got two couches here, which are usually filled with family, which I love. And just a lot of pattern going on, which I feel like I've got a lot more confident with. And again, just toning in with lots of different earthy colorways. I love all of my accessories and things. I think that's really important. The details, I always find that really important with my rooms. The other thing that I think I couldn't be without is the lighting, a lot of lamps and things. So lots of layered lighting, natural textures, patterned lampshades, just lots of different levels of light, I think really helped to bring the coziness to a space. I tend to find a lot of inspiration from paintings. And this one particularly has a lot of meaning as it has been passed down through my Dutch family. Even though it's quite a dark painting, I do love the fact that it has that moody, like cozy feel. And I've been able to pull out some of the blues, which you can kind of see accented around this room. This media cabinet was built by my husband, and it's where our TV hides. And I really like that it gives us a lot of opportunities for styling and a lot of storage as well. And the doors just kind of open like this to reveal the TV. So that's probably one of my biggest loves, I guess, is that we can just hide the TV away and the TV's then not the focal point of the room, whereas like I really wanted the wood burner to be like the focal point. So this mirror I actually found in a secondhand antique shop. I was really looking for something that was going to work on a landscape basis, and I love that it kind of picks out the deeper tones and it has that ornate kind of finish. I really, really love to mix old and new, so I feel like that really does bring some personality and charm into the space. So the rug, I actually get a lot of comments on this rug, and it was probably one of my best buys for this room because the size and the colour and the fact that you can wash it really easily as well. I like that it kind of picks out all of the different colours that we've got going on in here, and I feel like it really does ground the room and it brings that level of cosiness as well. I always love to have a tray for another styling opportunity on our footstool, and it's somewhere that we can rest our feet in the evenings. But also I like to have like my candles, and a few of my favourite coffee table books, and of course another little lamp. I think that's always a really nice thing to do in a scheme is just to bring those little extra details in. I really struggle to find artwork big enough to fill these square panels, so I thought that wallpapering inside of these was going to be the best thing to do. I feel like it really has a lovely cosy impact on the room, and it's also another opportunity to bring in the colour and the pattern, and I think that it really does have that wow factor, and it's quite easy to achieve as well because you don't have to spend a lot of money on wallpaper for the whole back wall. You can kind of pick out these little moments, so I think yeah that's probably a really good tip. This console was another secondhand like antique find for me. It actually belonged to my parents, and then when they moved house they didn't have space for it, so I was like yes that's definitely going to be mine, I've got the perfect spot. And again just another lovely area to display like candles and some greenery, and then the oversized piece of artwork as well, which I always think people tend to go a little bit too small sometimes on artwork, and I think to really have an impact it's nice to have a big statement piece. And I kind of love how this is a little bit more modern, so you've kind of got that mix of old, new, like modern, old, yeah I think it works really well. So this is another really great piece which you can use to rest your feet, and it also can be used to store blankets as well, which I really love. And again it's another opportunity to introduce that other pop of colour as well, and really easy to do without kind of committing to a big sofa or anything like that, so I think the blue and the burnt orange really tie in the sofa really nicely. The wooden floorboards were actually here when we moved in, so we were really lucky with those. I believe it's engineered oak, and I love the warmth that it brings, and again it just has that practicality element with a toddler and a dog. And I love to then layer with the rug, I think that really works really well. A lot of my book collection I've kind of styled all together here. I love to see a lot of books stacked, I think it's one of my favourite ways to style something is with a lot of books, especially with the lovely spines. I can't say I've read all of them, but I just love the way that it looks. I think it brings that lovely warmth and layered feel, and I really, really am a big fan of crockery, pottery, anything with that kind of handmade, crafted element. I've got just a real mix of sentimental and newer pieces, again mixing the old and new. These ornaments here were actually belonging to my grandfather on my mum's side, so that's a really nice thing to just keep in mind as well, just lovely family heirlooms. Yes, just a lot of the florals as well, a lot of these are faux, but I just love to have that kind of connection with nature again. I have a background in PR, I worked in fashion PR in London for a fashion brand, and I did that for a number of years, and then I realised that the London life just wasn't for me, and I wanted to move back to Norfolk, and my husband's also from Norfolk, so we knew that was going to be our dream to move back to the countryside. Basically, when we moved back to Norfolk, I wanted to start sharing our home, the process, and the different ways that we were choosing to design our home space, and it naturally just kind of happened really, and I really enjoy sharing our home and everything, even though it's quite a personal thing to be sharing your home and everything like that, I really do enjoy creating warm, inviting spaces, and I really hope that it comes across in that way. From our living room, we have this flow right into our new dining space, which we finished earlier this year. I love the natural light that we've got coming down from our roof lantern. This is a north facing area of the house, so it was really important to allow as much natural light in this space as possible, which then floods into the kitchen as well, but we'll get to that bit. Again, this is just a really lovely place to gather. I really wanted to have the circular table to kind of make this whole space feel less angular. I wanted that round, organic kind of shape, and I've kind of mirrored that with the tray and the round kind of bars, and again, lots of natural woods. That natural texture is just really, really important to me. I feel like it brings so much warmth, particularly as we've got the neutral kind of walls, and again, we've got the layered lighting. I just don't think you can ever have enough lamps, to be honest with you, and this armchair here, this is what everyone fights over in this house. It's a perfect spot for your first cup of tea in the morning. Theo has his morning milk here as well, which is just so lovely, looking out onto the garden, and having these bifolds has been just wonderful during the summertime, just opening that all up and having that connection into the garden, and again, that connection to nature, which has really felt like an extension of our home, so that's probably one of my favourite features. We've recently added these lovely curtains. I didn't want anything too heavy, and I feel like they filter the light really, really beautifully, and also help frame and soften the bifolds. The sideboard, I really wanted to just have another area for storage, really, so we've got a lot of extra dinnerware and glassware in here, and it's a place where I keep a lot of my candles as well. We're coming into candle season, so I've always kind of got candles on the go, and the mirror, again, this actually belonged to my parents, so that's a really, really lovely thing, and it's great to be able to bounce extra light around the room as well, and I love that you can have the reflection of the kitchen as well coming through there, so it kind of frames the view really nicely. I also really love to change up my floral arrangements to reflect the different seasons that we're in, so we've got quite an autumnal arrangement here with the berries and a lot of foliage, and again, like lots of books, this time we've got some antique ones here, again, I think that brings that element of old and new, and this, actually, this little hedgehog, this belonged to my grandmother, and I just, I just find it so cute, and so that just sits on top of there, it just makes me smile. The two paintings that I've got in here, they balance off each other because they tone really, really beautifully. This one actually has been passed down from my Dutch family side, and I always remember this painting in my grandmother's house, so I just really, really love to have this in our home now, and just thinking of those memories, visiting her in the summer, it's just so lovely, and I just, I think that might be one of my favourite things in our home, to be honest with you, and this painting actually was recently gifted from my mother-in-law, and I just love the colours, and the fact that, I believe this is a Dutch painting, but I love all the brushstrokes, and yeah, it's just, art can be really a tricky thing, but I think it doesn't have to be expensive, I think as long as you've got that kind of personal connection to it, you can have anything you like, and yeah, I think it's a really great way to bring in personality. So it's a beautiful day today, let me show you the garden. Stepping from our dining space out onto our patio, we had this laid after our extension was done, and this is just a lovely entertaining space, we have our garden furniture out here ordinarily, but we've kind of been cleaning that down, and ready for the autumn winter season, but it's just a beautiful space, and it's somewhere where I can put all of my pots, I can talk you through some of the planting that we've done as well. I really wanted to have like a cottage garden feel, but low maintenance, so my husband built these raised beds, and also this pergola, which we've got Jasmine growing up here now, and I really wanted just to have something that felt really breezy, and just having that cottage garden feel, so we went with a scheme of pink, white, and purple, and I think that really gets a lot of movement, and the scent as well in the evenings is beautiful. I just love the again, the natural textures that we've got going on, so we've got the oak beams, and the shingle, and then the oak raised beds as well. I just love the different levels in this garden, and then it just leads out onto our grass lawn, and this is just a lovely space for our son to play, and it then leads out onto the field down the back where we walk our dog, so it's really ideal. I really am drawn to colours that are found in nature, a lot of earthy tones, pops of colour that are easy to live with, and just a lot of natural texture as well, I think that's really important to me, and just yeah, celebrating nature I guess. Let's head back inside, and I'll show you my kitchen. So welcome to our kitchen, this is definitely my favourite room in the house, and we have seen some changes in here as well. First off, the wonderful kitchen island that we have, this is a great space to prepare food on, we can bring Theo's high chair up here, and it's a really social space, it also enables us to have a little bit more storage, and it's maybe a great opportunity to have more of an informal dinner, which is lovely. I also love to celebrate the different seasons as well, so it's a great opportunity to have a lovely arrangement. Now we've got the beautiful squashes and pumpkins, so autumn is my favourite time of year, I think this house really comes into its own, it's just so cosy. So I also love the fact that we decided to go with a colour contrast as well, all of the cabinetry in here is neutral, so I really wanted to make this a real big focal point, and red has just had a resurgence, and I just love it so much. I never thought I would be a red kind of person, but you'll see that there's lots of different red pops throughout the house, I just think it just brings the space to life, and I think the muted tone really does help bring that cosiness and the warmth, and I think it's, yeah, it's actually a lot easier to style with than people think. I love that we've got this garden view from the kitchen sink as well, it's always really lovely to do the washing up and look outside and appreciate the garden, and all the hard work that we've done out there. And this is probably my favourite corner, this is probably what I'm most known for, I'm always styling this area up in different ways, but it's functional and it's got all my favourite things in it as well. I've got a lot of collected pottery from France, where we've been on holiday, and again we've got some little heirlooms from my grandparents as well, these little robins, I always remember these in my grandmother's kitchen, so now she's no longer with us, it's really lovely to have those. And I think this is just, it just adds personality and charm to your kitchen, so I really really love that. The other thing that I really want to share with you is our amazing dresser, so this was actually, we found this on Facebook, I think we paid £100, it was crazy, I've never driven so fast to pick something up, it was just, yeah, absolutely fantastic. I love the fact that we've just left the natural wood, I think people are always really quick to paint things nowadays, and I think it brings so much warmth and personality and charm to our kitchen, and I love that it's a new unique piece, no one else has this and I really love it. And the same for our larder cupboard as well, that houses all of our dry foods, and it's again a great, a really great storage piece, and it kind of allows us to not have so many cabinets on the walls, so we've been able to have all of the open shelving, which has enabled more styling opportunities, which is music to my ears. So we've got this beautiful teapot and family little cups here, which were a beautiful gift just before we had our son, and I think it was probably one of the first things that kind of made me realise that we were about to become parents, I know it sounds crazy, but just seeing like mummy, daddy and baby, it was just, it's just really special, and I can't say that we've used it because I just, I'm too terrified of anything breaking, so yeah, that's probably one of my favourite pieces on here. Probably just want to talk about this painting actually, because this is where I've drawn quite a lot of inspiration for the colours in here. The reds from the painting are reflected in like the island, and the different pops of red from like the rug and the lamps, and again some more artwork here, and the greens as well, I really wanted to have another colour pop, subtle but still tones in with the rest of the kitchen, and the green tiles really are a lovely focal point, so that is probably the inspiration to the colour palette in this kitchen. The lighting in here, I really wanted to have something that's kind of anchored to the island, and I love the softness of the like cotton shades, which have a little fleck in them, and I wanted to bring more of the brass, the warmth of the brass elements through, so that it was just a perfect, perfect piece, and again more of the natural texture, we've got these really lovely woven bar stalls, which are really super comfortable, I must say, for a bar stall, and I love the woven natural detailing on here, and yeah, they're really perfect for enjoying a morning coffee. It has got a cottage feel, it can be quite dark, but we did put an extension on the back of the house to join our living room and kitchen space, and that has really opened things up for us, the abundance of the natural light coming in when you come down the stairs in the morning, it's just wonderful, and so as you come into the house, you've got a long hallway, and the living room, and our snug-cum playroom for our son, and then it leads onto the kitchen, and through to the dining space, and then out onto the patio and garden, that's the downstairs, and then upstairs we've got the master bedroom, a guest room, family bathroom, ensuite, and our son's room. The thing that I love the most is the feeling that I get when I walk through the front door, like your shoulders just drop, and the smell, and just that welcoming feeling, it doesn't matter where you've been, just coming home and having that feeling when you walk through the door is the best thing, and it's really important to me as well. Next up, let me show you upstairs. Welcome to our master bedroom, this has been a newly decorated room, and I really feel like this is my boldest design yet. We have wallpapered all of the walls and the ceiling in this beautiful botanic wallpaper, which again picks up on like the reds, and the greens, and the and the mustards, which are kind of reflected in other areas of our home, which I really feel like helps with the flow of the house, and then we added this lovely panelling in this beautiful shade called Tuscan Red, which I think brings such a warmth, and it works so well with the woods, and the windows, and I love how we've left the dado rail in this beautiful oak as well, that was one of my husband's ideas, and again we've got this beautiful light fixture, which brings more of the warmth through with the antique brass, and the glass really helps to elongate the ceiling, and got a beautiful view out to our garden, which is really lovely to wake up to, and just opening up the blind in the morning, and and seeing that it doesn't really matter what the weather's doing, I just love to see that view out into the fields. To bring more of the red elements, I really love this kind of like boucle, like wool accent chair, I think it's just it's so fun to have a colourful kind of interesting pop of colour when it comes to seating in a bedroom. I can't say I spend a lot of time sat there these days, but I think it's just a beautiful feature to have in a bedroom, and it adds another level of softness. As you can see the bed is full of cushions, and this lovely beautiful velvet bedspread, which I've recently added as the evenings are getting a lot cooler now, and I just love to have that like full, like abundant, comfortable feeling to our bed, so it's a place that you know you come back to in the evenings, and you just want to dive dive straight in. I could dive straight on there now, but I won't. It's a sanctuary, it's a sanctuary, and yes it's a room that I'm quite proud of, because there's been so many different elements that have needed to come together, and yeah I feel like it's, I feel like it works, even though there's a lot going on. I feel like the colour palettes and everything bounce off each other and work really well. So this is our ensuite bathroom, which kind of echoes the similar sort of colour palette to our bedroom here, and I love, I think one of my favourite elements is the terracotta tiles on the floor, teamed with the green tiles that we've got going on in the shower. I think it's just so beautiful and warm, even though it's you know quite heavy on the tiles, which can feel quite cold I think due to the colour palettes. It really does help to bring that warmth, and again I love the fact that we've continued with the antique brass in here, and the gold elements. It kind of brings that level of luxury to like a country house, so yes, I really, I really do love this bathroom. Even though it's small, it's mighty. I really love it. Home is my family first and foremost, and again just the feeling of belonging and safety, and somewhere that you can truly be yourself and relax. It's been so fun showing you around Homeworthy, but it's time for you to go. I need to go and play with my son. Bye! Thanks for watching. Be sure to go to homeworthy.com for exclusive content, shopping guides, and so much more.