hellobeautifulcreatures

Sign up for eletters today and get the latest how-to from Fine Homebuilding, plus special offers. As Reid Highley wrote in the pages of Fine Homebuilding in 2012 , at its best, an entry door is a condensed reflection of a home’s design, projecting the outward attitude of a house to visitors and passersby. A door can convey an image of formality or playfulness, solidity or lightness, privacy or hospitality. The choices you make about door size, placement, and materials define a personality that sums up the character of the home. For this reason, entry doors are often placeholders in an architect’s drawings until late in the design process, when the character of the home is more fully developed. The first design decisions for a new door include careful consideration of its size and its location in plan. These choices establish the door’s impact on views, privacy, traffic patterns through the house, and the transition from outdoors to indoors. With that in mind, please click the slides...

I have never been as underprepared for a trip to the Lake District as I am today. Stepping off the train at Oxenholme in ballet pumps and a flimsy jumper, I’m more fit for London, which I left behind less than three hours ago, than the great outdoors. As the rain begins, I wonder whether I should have at least packed a waterproof jacket. Happily, I’m bound for the Brimstone Hotel , which recently partnered with Berghaus to lend city-slickers wet-weather gear, so they can make the most of the location minus the luggage. Set in the 35- acre Langdale Estate at the entrance to one of the most beautiful Lake District valleys , the hotel is surrounded by fantastic fell walks . Billing itself as “beyond boutique”, it opened in 2013 next door to sister hotel the Langdale, which has 56 traditional rooms and a spa that Brimstone guests can use. Within 45 minutes of being collected from the station in a gleaming black Land Rover (a free service available to guests) I’m outside the slick buildin...