Twelveswood Cottage

The main floor is kitchen, dining and a fireside sitting area, in beiges, light blue and cheerful green that make the whole thing feel welcoming and lived-in. An A-frame ceiling, a detailed stone fireplace and a rustic brick feature wall in the kitchen give the cottage its shape, and the brick wall carries three gilt porthole windows — the first of the oceanic references that run through the house, in honour of Llymaen. A picnic basket left on the dining table and cookie-baking materials out on the kitchen counter suggest idyllic moments playing out here rather than a room staged for show.

Downstairs starts at a shrine: two ship's wheels and glowing wall fountains flank a candlelit altar, framed by teal curtains, with a painting of a ship hung in the hall on the way down to it.

The centre of the room is a living room and a desk, worked into a wall of full-height bookshelves — a gap in the shelves is what defines the desk space, moon and star lights hung above it. A globe, a green sofa and low armchairs make up the sitting side.

At the back wall, a bed nook is cocooned under its own A-frame ceiling, in a deep teal the rest of the floor doesn't use, with bookshelves either side of the alcove. It reads as a separate space because of that ceiling and that colour, even though a round window mirrored on both sides of the room ties it back to the desk across the floor.

Outside, the cottage sits among Twelveswood trees hung with wisteria, a glowing fountain set into a shaped hedge, and a vine-covered deck looking out over the water.