Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Just in case viewers of autumn’s Netflix whodunnit The Perfect Couple were in any doubt as to the scale of the wealth enjoyed by Greer Garrison Winbury and her husband Tag — they are, after all, described as “Kill someone and get away with it rich” — their maid Gosia reveals during police interrogations that their house has a gift-wrapping room. Not that Greer, played by Nicole Kidman, actually uses it. “I wrap all the gifts in my room,” Gosia says. A gift-wrapping room is niche, to say the least. Yet the handcrafted kitchen and cabinetry maker Plain English does field requests for them: often featuring a desk area with a row of shallow drawers below for scissors and pens, cubby holes for cards and carved wooden poles for rolls of paper. Such indulgences are part of a growing desire for carving out a space, large or small, dedicated to calm and escape — an antidote to the bustle of open-plan living. “Forget quiet luxury, this is the luxury of quiet,” says Max Rollitt, the interior designer and antiques expert: “It’s about the snug, smaller spaces.” “We’ve seen a shift in what people now consider to be ‘luxury’ in their homes,” says Sharnie Rogers, head of Suffolk and Essex residential for Strutt & Parker estate agency. “While it might have once been about having all the bells and whistles — tennis courts, party barns and games rooms — we now also see demand for spaces for more peaceful hobbies and pastimes.”The trend for flower rooms — essentially an extension of the potting shed, for keeping seedlings, and preparing and arranging cut flowers — has blossomed. Emma Sims-Hilditch, founder of Sims Hilditch interior design studio, is often asked to build them into her schemes; she has a flower room in her own home too. “It’s a quiet nook to enjoy a moment of solitude, to reconnect with nature and enjoy a slower pace of life,” says Lindsay Cuthill, co-founder of Blue Book Agency. “And it’s not always just the gardening that draws people in — it’s the simple joy of pottering about, listening to the radio or savouring a quiet cup of tea.”For those with vegetable gardens, the equivalent is “a place indoors for pickling and preserving produce,” says Charlie Wells, managing director of the buying agency Prime Purchase. Architect Richard Parr is in the process of creating one for clients for whom he is restoring an old manor house. “It will be simply presented, with soft back lighting filling the room with reflections and shadows from jars as they are stored empty, filled and then displayed,” Parr says. “It’s a larder with a special and very specific angle.” He has also created a room for the washing and prepping of produce brought from the kitchen garden. “It’s a halfway house between the garden and the kitchen,” Parr says. Libraries are also being re-appreciated, as spaces distinct from the living room, or home office. In a Grade II-listed terraced house in Primrose Hill, north-west London, that has been a home for one family for more than 20 years, architect Robert Rhodes, director of Robert Rhodes Architecture + Interiors, has added “the look out”, a cosy children’s reading room tucked away on the first-floor extension with custom-made shelving. “It’s a dedicated, quiet space for the children to read, with views over the surrounding tree tops and gardens,” he says.It might have once been about having tennis courts, party barns and games rooms — but now we now see demand for spaces for more peaceful hobbiesThe renewed popularity of vinyl has also given rise to the “listening room”. For a client who wanted to immerse himself in his vast record collection without any distractions, Darren Price, design director at ADAM Architecture, created a room filled with vinyl and furnished with only an armchair and a record player. Meanwhile, in Surrey, SHH Architecture & Interiors has just created a dedicated music pavilion. The design meets stringent acoustic requirements, ensuring not only the highest quality of listening but also of sound isolation from the outside. And Mark Lawson, partner at buying agency The Buying Solution, recently helped a client buy a country house in England with a stargazing room. “The owners renovated it with comfortable beds and mod cons, but there was no roof. It was open to the sky and stars,” he says. Over in the British Virgin Islands, architecture and interior design company OBMI has created a custom-built observatory for the hilltop home of a client with a passion for astronomy — he now spends each night gazing at an inky black sky illuminated by stars.On the flip side, OBMI has also created a room for enjoying the sunset, in West Palm Beach, Florida. “The ‘golden hour studio’ is designed for the client to rest and enjoy time slowly,” says Allie Bergeron, a senior interior designer at the firm. “It is full of shimmering surfaces that play in the natural light. It is designed to be a sanctuary that allows for reconnection.” The sky’s the limit, you could say.Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
