Barton Meadow Lodge

Few properties distil the romantic essence of the Cotswolds quite so completely as Barton Meadow Lodge. Discreetly positioned within the village of Guiting Power — one of the most cherished and unspoilt corners of the national landscape — this is a house of enchanting proportions, where every detail conspires to create something altogether extraordinary.

Peer inside and you might think the house had looked this way forever, which, of course, is the point. In the kitchen, Plain English cabinets contribute to the distinctly cottagey feel. Raw timber boards were lime-washed to create a textured effect.

When the builders laid the smart new oak floor in the sitting room, they swiftly covered it up with protective plastic, only for the designer to insist that they take it off, keep their muddy boots on, bring in their wheelbarrows and trample all over it. 'There's no point being precious,' he says. There can be few greater pleasures than flinging open the doors when the meadow is in flower. This is a space transformed with gusto, imagination and sensitivity; the owner and their designer with an enthusiasm, insouciant attitude and creative use of old pieces has instilled the barn with an enchanting timelessness entirely appropriate for its bucolic surroundings.

The lodge is of genuinely modest scale, yet there is nothing modest about the life it affords. Within its compact walls, Christopher Howe — the celebrated London antique dealer and one of Britain's most revered arbiters of taste — has fashioned interiors of uncommon beauty and refinement. Howe's touch is unmistakable: antique furniture of the finest provenance, layered textiles and a palette drawn instinctively from the surrounding landscape. The effect is one of effortless, lived-in elegance; a space that feels as though it has evolved over centuries rather than been designed. It is an interior that rewards the eye at every turn.

Guiting Power itself adds another dimension entirely. The village with its ancient stone and its profound sense of rural tranquillity — is the Cotswolds at its most authentic and unapologetically lovely. It is the sort of place that is discovered rather than arrived at, and quietly, fiercely protected by those fortunate enough to call it home.