Rural Retreats: country homes to escape to | The Modern House (2024)

This peaceful house is sequestered away in a quiet corner of Norfolk, secluded in its own little idyll with ponds, vegetable-yielding beds, lawns and terraces. It all makes for the most charming of countryside retreats, as pleasant on a balmy sunny day with the French doors swung open as on a chilly wintery night with the log-burning stove roaring.

For times ahead, when socialising can resume, Rushall, the local village, is known for its welcoming community spirit, local pub and the communal green – the site of neighbourhood meet ups and Christmas carols. And when you’ve depleted your own vegetable patches, the field behind the house is owned by an organic farm which provides fresh, seasonal produce for the six houses in the hamlet.

View listing

The winding road that leads up to this house snakes through the south-western edge of Dartmoor National Park to cross the River Plym via a stone bridge before running through a ring of trees that encircle the house. The journey to the hidden-away cottage becomes, then, both physical and psychological – a meandering venture into a quieter, more peaceful setting.

Once there, the house has everything one needs from a bolthole in the country. Architect Mike Hope conceived the design, with windows that give peeks of the dramatic beauty of Dartmoor beyond the woodland, and a wood-burning stove for cosy evenings. The exterior is clad in corrugated sheet metal on one side, and the oak-framed extension is clad in larch – both materials reminiscent of the farm buildings found nearby.

View listing

For perhaps the ultimate countryside escape, be transported to the sunnier climes of California with this mid-century house, inspired by the open, free-flowing, outdoor-embracing vernacular of the sunshine state’s modernist typology.

The Ranch sits in its own acre of land, with lawns stretching out from the house and towering mature trees beyond, creating an enclosed sanctuary of vegetation. The connection to nature is felt beyond the fence too, where the 417-acre Chailey Common is a biological site of Special Scientific Interest supporting various heath communities of rare butterflies and bird species. Opposite the property is a gate providing direct access to the reserve, where there are grazing sheep, Sussex longhorn cattle and ponies.

View listing

If you’re hankering for some clean air but your idea of country living is less about Agas, low ceilings and higgledy-piggledy floorboards, this contemporary barn conversion not far from the coast in Suffolk could be the one for you.

The design installs a modern format for living into a former threshing barn, at once referencing the agricultural context with a semi-industrial palette of concrete, brickwork and exposed timber, while the addition of soaring glazing panels and an open, spacious arrangement soften the mood, adding light and airiness too.

View listing

View listing