A coastal retreat

This stunning home by the sea offers a touch of luxury for its owners

Is it possible to combine the human desire for luxury living with creating ideal habitats for all those creatures already inhabiting the space? Moulded into a south-facing grassed slope in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty near Port Isaac, the Coastal Retreat attempts to create this perfect balance. The building itself replaces a dilapidated farmhouse and outbuildings with a new luxury home that embraces its countryside setting of wildflower meadows and Cornish hedges with careful attention paid to provide ideal homes for the many other inhabitants that occupy this stunning part of Cornwall’s coastline.

The sympathetic design of the house responds to the sensitive site. The house has two wings linked by a glazed central entrance and stairwell. Entry to the house is down a flight of granite steps, set between two Cornish hedges.

The house makes the most of the views and the light with huge sliding glass doors that frame views out to the coast and the countryside. An 18-meter sliding door opens out on to the pool, decking and hot tub.

The interiors have been designed to be elegant and timeless with dramatic and playful volumes. The careful use of natural materials, lighting, and subtle features for storage and decoration with stimulating long vistas through the building and out to the landscape beyond focus back to this.

Inside is where style and fun playfully collide. The children’s bedroom incorporates a mezzanine den and plays net that allows its inhabitants to be suspended over the room. The games and movie room utilises space over a secret study to create gaming for older children and a bookcase doorway conceals the secret study entrance.

Each of the bedrooms and their en suite bathrooms have their own interior concept: global chic, Scandi, eclectic and rough luxe.