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 Llymlaen. 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, an aether crystal glowing at the centre of a shaped hedge, and a vine-covered deck looking out over the water.