In search of inspiration?

Outside, a dense wisteria winds its way up grey stone walls to give this 18

-century Cornish cottage an unmistakable and perfumed presence on a quintessentially quiet village road. Inside, the stripped back interiors – exposed joists, limewashed walls, curved alcoves and a tonal, textured palette – create an air of lightly worn luxury. The main bedroom is especially noteworthy for its textured archway and strokable walls.

The South West Coast Path is nearby, as is the St Tudy Inn for a post-walk pint. Gleaming secret swimming spots await discovery just moments from your diminutive front door. In essence, this is a home that feels like an unending holiday.

This storybook cottage ticks all the boxes with knotted vines snaking up its creamy white facade, a meticulously manicured thatch and more than one cosy inglenook. It cleverly retains its 16

 makes way for more modern comforts: in the kitchen, for example, Carrara marble countertops sit happily next to original exposed brickwork, while a topsy-turvy, plank-and-muntin oak screen encloses a comfortable cinema room.

Hop over the babbling brook at the bottom of the garden and head out into wilder terrain: Exmoor National Park is only a short drive away. As they say, when life gives you lemons …

A happy marriage of two cottages brings a unique openness to this much-loved, red-brick Georgian home. The bright, balanced interiors provide open-plan spaces to congregate, as well as more secluded living spaces (warmed by a double-sided woodburner) in which to hunker down. A light, layered scheme is underpinned by well-trodden flagstones and original floorboards that keep this home connected to its past.

In the kitchen, a stable door opens out on to a glass-roofed porch, ushering in views of the densely planted garden that froths and sways with a careful selection of grasses, climbing roses, geraniums and herbaceous perennials. There are also secret storage spaces to be found throughout the house and grounds: a larder in the kitchen, a Scandi-style summer house for guests and even a garden studio to sprawl out into.

Surrounded by green fields and a canopy of mature trees, this rural, north Norfolk cottage has a dollhouse-like quality that is impossible to resist. Behind the symmetrical façade are a series of spaces that have been thoughtfully extended over time to create a capacious home that hangs on to the rusticity of its agricultural origins.

A woodburning stove in the living room creates a natural hub, but equally magnetic is the adjacent study with vaulted ceilings and wrap-around windows that call for quiet contemplation of the garden. Here, productive raised beds give way to the wider landscape, where a majestic oak stands sentinel. A garden studio provides a secondary workspace. Battle it out between you.

A tiny window at the front of this pint-sized, Grade-II listed Pembrokeshire cottage was once used to collect tolls from those wishing to use the medieval thoroughfare that once traversed this area of west Wales. That window remains intact, as does much of the original interior – from the espresso-coloured doors and floors to the knotted and gnarled beams that run overhead. These rich, wonky timbers are interrupted by a hefty slate inglenook that provides a gathering point for folk who have spent their day exploring the Pengelli forest on the edge of the village or – further afield – the unchanged Preseli mountains. From here, clamber up the creaking staircase to sleep under vaulted ceilings.

Cat Sarsfield

Homes

Behind stone walls and under thickly-thatched roofs are layered and storied spaces in which to live out your most wholesome, bucolic fantasies. As we wait for the arrival of spring, we’re imagining a simpler life with the doors flung open in these five cottage-scapes – from the rugged edge of Cornwall’s north coast to Pembrokeshire’s ancient woodlands

Cottage Craving: five storybook dwellings that capture the quintessence of cosy