HOMES Beautiful weaves for your furnishings, white winter style, luxury kitchens and timber-framed structures.

To make the best of these fabrics, seek out one of the county’s leading interior design specialists to create bespoke soft furnishings and decoration for your interiors...

Top: Clarke & Clarke Thornton in Denim £42.50/m; Rowland in Denim £22.50/m; Malone in silver £42.50/m. Above/Right: Rowland fabrics £42.50/m. Right: Malone and Thornton in silver, £42.55/m.

Chairs in Thornton moss and Malone in moss, £42.50/m.

Stamford & Rutland Interiors: Broughtons: Leicester, 0116 2341888,www.broughtons.com. Delcor Interiors: Stamford, 01780 762579, www.delcor.co.uk. Elizabeth Stanhope Interiors: Oakham, 01572 722345, www.elizabethstanhope.co.uk. H-Works: 01780 754605, www.hworksdesign.co.uk. Hunters of Stamford: 01780 757946, www.huntersinteriorsofstamford.co.uk. Sarah Harding Interiors: Uppingham, 01572 823389, sarahhardinginteriors.co.uk.

An example of the interior design specialists’ talents.

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White Winter Style

A beautifully curated range of products from Elizabeth Stanhope Interiors...

1. White ball ceramic vase, £79.99. 2. Max cushion, 60cm x 40cm, £75. 3. White vintage cushion 62cm square, £18. 4. Alang alang diffuser, £119.99. 5. Vintage bedspread 260cm x 180cm, £99. 6. Wall clock, 107cm, £199.99. 7. Rustic bobble lamp £130. 8. Champagne saucer, stars, £75. 9. White wash basket, 630mm high, £180. 10. Seagrass baskets, £18/sm; £22/large. 11. Fishbone throw, silver/grey, 150cm x 183cm £60. Mill Street, Oakham, Rutland, LE15 6EA. Call 01572 722345 or see www.elizabethstanhopeshop.com. 9

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Luxury At Home with COOKS & COMPANY

From living kitchens with beautiful bespoke cabinetry to bars and libraries, reception rooms and bedrooms with dressing suites. Luxury and functionality each combine to best effect with the design flair and expertise of Newark-based Cooks & Company...

Words: Rob Davis.

At the very pinnacle of where luxury meets design, and functionality meets style, is the newly opened Cooks & Company kitchen design studio.Specialists in creating luxury at home, the 50-year old family-owned business recently enjoyed the official opening of its new design studio with over 6,000sq ft dedicated to showcasing beautiful designs. The firm is already renowned as the UK’s largest retailer of premium appliances with 15,000sq ft dedicated to luxury brands like Sub-Zero, Wolf, Aga, Lacanche, Gaggenau & Miele. Back in 2020, the team also set about creating a premium interiors studio designing and installing kitchens, pantries, bootrooms, studies, bedrooms, dressing rooms and reception rooms such as media rooms, libraries or bars. “The studio opened officially last month, and is aimed at providing a single point of contact and meticulous project management from the design and planning of your room through to its installation,” says Cooks & Company’s senior designer, Chris Wilburn. “Our preferred building, plumbing, electrical, gas and interior design specialists can complete every element of your new kitchen, for example, and with our appliance studio next door, we can fit the very best quality cooking, cooling, and extraction appliances, as well as boiling water taps, dishwashers and so on.” “Popular with our clients are solid worktops, and we supply heritage sinks from British firm Shaws, established 1897.” “Our partnership with cabinet makers Charles Yorke and Bauformat enables us to create bespoke door designs, tailored to a customer’s wishes, right down to the millimetre.” >>

>> We work with Bauformat for truly contemporary kitchens, and we can colour match furniture to any paint shade or even an object. Our 3D photorealistic renders will also give a precise idea of how your new room will look.”

“Cooks & Company’s showroom is unlike any other, and features living kitchens, pantries, bootrooms, and bedrooms dressing rooms, and a gin bar to inspire clients for their own homes.”

“The ultimate aim is to provide clients with an individually tailored service and bespoke product that is unmatched, with every individual requirement addressed, meticulous planning, and with only the very best customer service.”

Find Out More: Cooks & Company is based at Cook House, Brunel Drive, Newark NG24 2FB. Tel: 01636 593910, www.cooksandcompany.co.uk. Call to organise a home visit or showroom consultation today. n 94 Cooks & Company’s Showroom

All of the images pictured here are taken in Cooks & Company’s impressive 6,000sq ft showroom.

Stunning rooms plus high-end appliances too, from Cooks & Company

APPLIANCES FROM WOLF, SUB-ZERO, LACANCHE, AGA, QUOOKER, GAGGENAU, MIELE AND FISHER & PAYKEL

At the heart of your new kitchen are the latest appliances designed to extend the breadth of your cooking and make life easier. As well as providing bespoke kitchens, bedrooms, media rooms, gin bars and other reception rooms, Cooks & Company can also supply premium-brand appliances.

Cooks & Company has chosen selected brands from premium cooking and cooling appliance brands like Wolf & Sub-Zero, as well as Lacanche and Aga. As well as these larger appliances, the firm is a stockist of Quooker taps for boiling, sparkling or chilled water on demand, plus integrated ovens, coffee machines, under-counter refrigerators, wine coolers, dishwashers and laundry appliances, from names like Gaggenau, Miele and Fisher & Paykel.

Cooks & Company has partnered with Charles Yorke and Bauformat to provide bespoke cabinetry, and its in-house design studio in Newark allows you to visit in person to see the company’s ranges first, then design a room that’s completely tailored to your needs. With 3D visualisation, you’ll be able to see your room evolve throughout a collaborative design process, and once work begins, there’s full project management which means all trades are fully co-ordinated, and all you have to do is await the completion of a stunning new space in your home. n

HOMES & KITCHENS

HELPING AROUND THE HOME FOR AUTUMN & WINTER

WOODLAND WALK, NEW FROM SOPHIE ALLPORT...

Bourne and Stamford-based homeware designer launches new Woodland Walks collection to generate funds for the National Trust...

INSPIRED by local designer Sophie Allport’s love for nature and long woodland walks with her three dogs, this charming design features dog walkers and hikers adventuring out on an expedition, exploring everything the great outdoors has to offer. Perfect for country dwellers and dog lovers, the teal blue colourway is excellent for adding a splash of colour throughout the home... and best of all, the collection will benefit The National Trust too, with a minimum donation of £20,000. “We are so pleased to be working with the National Trust on our Woodland Walks collection,” says Sophie. “Through sales generated from our National Trust collections, 10% of net sales, with a minimum of £20,000, will be given to the National Trust for Parks and Woodland conservation. You will be directly contributing to the National Trusts commitment to the environment.” n www.sophieallport.com Lakeland at Gates Garden Centre Lakeland has a new store based at Gates Garden Centre for all your cooking, cleaning, laundry and home organisation needs. An ideal place to visit to replace aged cookware pre-Christmas!

THERMOMIX. What does it do? What doesn’t it do! It’s a slow cooker, it sautés, sous vides, weighs, stirs, mixes, kneads and chops... think of it as a cooker, steamer and food processor all in one. It’s WiFi connected, too! n £1,189, www.vorwerk.co.uk

CLEVER PANS IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS...

TEFAL reinvented the saucepan with Ingenio and this is the latest incarnation. The handles clip on securely, then detach, which means they don’t get in the way and they remain cool. Everything nests into each other for easy storage. The inductioncompatible stainless-steel pans and non-stick frying and sauté pans are easy-clean, and red felt pan protectors prevent scratching when stacked for storage. n £350/22 piece set from www.johnlewis.com.

HOME & DRY THANKS TO LAKELAND...

DAMP washing hanging around on airers looks untidy, but tumble driers are costly to run. Lakeland has the answer with its heated airers. They dry gently, reducing creasing, they cost pennies to run and fold down to 8cm deep. The deluxe three-tier version here holds 15kg of washing – two washer loads – with 21m of drying space, and there’s a timer too. n £179.99, from Lakeland at Gates Garden Centre.

THE BEST HARD FLOOR CLEANER ON THE MARKET...

We road-tested BISSELL’s CrossWave Cordless Max for a month... and it’s brilliant!

If you’ve hard floors, or kids, or dogs, or horses... or if you just enjoy the simple pleasure of a spotlessly clean floor, stop whatever you’re doing and buy this ingenious machine. It’s BISSELL’S CrossWave Cordless Max. We’ve road-tested a loan machine from BISSELL for a month and having tried it on wood, tiled and LVT floors, we declare it nothing short of brilliant. Mopping a floor is a rubbish way to clean. You have to vacuum first, for starters, and as your mop becomes dirty you end up trying to clean a floor using increasingly filthy water. The BISSELL dispenses only fresh cleaning solution when you hold down the trigger. It wets a rotating microfibre roller, scrubs your floor – using, I have to say, very little water – then vacuums up the dirty water. All in a single pass! It’s cordless and charges in its own stand, giving 30 mins of cleaning time, it’s quiet, light and manoeuvrable thanks to an articulated head. There’s a selfcleaning function too, ensuring its roller doesn’t become dirty over time. Most of all, it’s just brilliantly effective either for a thorough clean or a quick five-minute whizz round when the dog comes in with dirty paws. At £429 it might seem a bit on the expensive side, but measure its worth in time saved, not on purchase price. And trust us, it works beautifully on muddy footprints and kitchen floors. n

£429 inc delivery, from John Lewis or buy direct at www.bisselldirect.co.uk.

HANDCRAFTED TRADITIONAL TIMBER FRAMES

PORCHES • CAR PORTS • GARDEN ROOMS • ROOF TRUSSES • OUTDOOR LIVING

SPACE & STYLE with

NATURAL STRUCTURES

From concept to completion with whole project management, Natural Structures designs, creates and installs buildings with space and style, helping with everything from planning permission to the completion of simple, functional, beautiful design...

Even the most beautiful period property might not translate well to modern living.

The way we use our homes has changed over the past century or two, and so rooms like the kitchen have undergone a dramatic transformation from places of domestic drudge to enjoyment.

Reception rooms, too, have a dramatically different remit, and modern families are always keen to gain useful space in their home, particularly if that home is a period building. Happily, you can extend your older home, or create a totally new property with compelling style and lots of space – as well as lots of natural light – thanks to traditional oak framed buildings such as those created by Natural Structures’ Simon Lewington and his team.

Based at Tur Langton, Simon’s unique selling point is providing turnkey structures created in oak which can incorporate living kitchens, reception rooms, swimming pools or spaces for those working from home. Independent structures, extensions to existing buildings, structures for storing prestige cars or creating outdoor kitchens... nothing is beyond the remit of Natural Structures. >>

>> The most compelling aspect of a Natural Structures design is a unique aesthetic which somehow suits both modern and period properties equally well and sits beautifully adjacent to listed buildings or those located in a conservation area.

The use of heritage materials also provides the benefits of sustainability and enables the structures to age gracefully, blending in further and further with adjacent buildings as they age. But there’s another advantage to a Natural Structures building in the respect that they’re mostly fabricated off-site in the firm’s workshops using a combination of traditional heritage joinery techniques like mortice and tenon or scarf joints, but the latest millimetre-accurate machinery too. This means much of the construction work is completed before installation on-site. In turn, that means less disruption, and less time is spent on site with a more rapid installation. “Because we specialise in this specific style of building and in the techniques required for timber-framed buildings, we’ve become extremely adept at understanding the potential of the building method and in the planning and design involved.” “That means you’re dealing with experts right from the outset, from the creation of 3D concepts with accurate costings to expert project management throughout.” “Some people are torn between a fondness for their period property and the need for a space that can accommodate modern family life.” “Using natural timber-framed building techniques could be the difference between moving out of a property you love or staying in your home but creating a brand new space that’s purpose-built, light and modern.” “Every single one of our commissions is unique, so as much as our portfolio is a reflection of our skill, we’re always happy to offer a free, no-obligation chat about your own home and your ambitions for it.” n

Find Out More: For a free no-obligation design and feasibility discussion about your project, call Simon Lewington and the Natural Structures team on 01858 545518 or see www.natural-structures.co.uk.