According to Chloe Grimshaw, a quiet revolution has been taking place in the English countryside. Homeowners are embracing a rustic way of life but with contemporary style, designing homes that "take their inspiration from the landscape and architecture of their surroundings" but also include modern comforts - underfloor heating, power showers and high-tech kitchens - with not an Aga in sight.
To illustrate the point, Grimshaw and photographer Indrid Rasmussen have selected a group of rural retreats - from a converted 12th-century stone abbey in north Devon to an isolated coast guard's cottage, formerly used as a lookout for smugglers, in Kent - to feature in a new book.
This is a familiar world for Grimshaw. Her parents (architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and designer Lavinia Russell) converted what remained of a derelict barn ("actually it was just three stone walls") overlooking the sea on the edge of a nature reserve in Norfolk.
Two years ago Grimshaw was working for a public relations company during the week and rushing off to rural corners of England at weekends to research her book. Back in the office she was amazed how few of her co-workers had ever been to Yorkshire, Devon or the Cotswolds.
"I found it quite shocking that people are happy to go to Paris or Florence for the weekend but don't know their own country," she says.
Grimshaw hopes the book will inspire readers to be "more adventurous and explore the countryside".
Gothic Modern
In the 1980s businessman Greville Worthington bought an abandoned neo-Gothic chapel in a remote corner of North Yorkshire. Built between 1823 and 1832, it had fallen into a miserable state of disrepair and was, he admits, "pretty horrible". Worthington has since transformed it into a unique home filled with fine examples of modern furniture and art as well as a vast collection of bamboo. "I grow every single species that can survive in this climate," he says. Worthington confesses to having "a terrible need to collect", and it's not surprising to learn he runs the local Sunday market in nearby Catterick.
His wife Sophie selected elegant pieces of contemporary furniture - Capellini chairs upholstered in blue and brown Pucci prints, sensuous white Italian leather sofas and a dining table carved from a single piece of oak, upon which sits a line of white pots by Edmund de Waal. Contemporary art is everywhere - works by Langlands and Bell, Richard Long and Donald Judd are a few of the highlights in the couple's collection, and in the children's bedroom 13 Damien Hirst prints hang above Ikea beds. Ethnic textiles brought back from travels contribute to the warmth and personality of the interior.
Seaside Industrial
Grimshaw quickly cites this house - a coast guard's tower where photographer Peter Marlow, his architect wife Fiona Naylor and their two sons spend weekends - as her favourite.
The property is set in Dungeness on a shingle beach next to a nuclear power station but surrounded by land that encompasses a bird sanctuary and is home to more than 600 varieties of plants.
Marlow and Naylor, whose primary residence is a converted factory in London's Clerkenwell, were quick to spot the tower's potential. In spite of the ferocious gales that blow in across the English Channel, the open-plan interior of their retreat is warm and cosy.
Many of the materials used - steel, wood and stone - reflect natural elements found along the beach. And, to better satisfy their "getting away from it all' needs, there is no telephone, computer or television. At the top of the house is a viewing platform where coast guards once kept watch; now the room is heated by a wood burning stove, transformed into the ultimate "room with a view".
Farmhouse organic
Peter and Juliet Kindersley created their home from a derelict Berkshire farmhouse acquired in 1970. Having retired from the successful publishing company they founded, the couple bought Sheepdrove, part of an original arts and crafts farmhouse, built during the 1850s.
According to Juliet, restoring the house and gardens was "something of a challenge". They approached the task with determination and a clear vision and for the first ten years managed with no electricity.
Four Gothic windows bought from a local architectural antique shop became their style guide and, with the assistance of a local architect and builder, the Kindersleys did most of the work themselves. Wide boards of English oak on the kitchen floor complement original chairs from the arts and crafts period. William Morris prints are used on sofas, curtains and cushions and parquet on the living room floor was recovered from a nunnery in Kennington, south London.
Juliet admits to being "totally obsessed with going to a particular auction once a month" and scours local junk shops for furniture. She is particularly proud of two sofas purchased "for about £11". A rug designed by CFA Voysey spotted in a Liberty archive was made by hand on a loom in India and covers the floor of their conservatory.
The New Country Style, England: Inspiration for Modern Living (Thames & Hudson, £24.95)
