An unexpected 'wild card' entry has just secured the title of Britain's Best Home at the uFurnish.com Home Awards: a £250,000 new-build property lovingly turned into a cozy countryside retreat.
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entry → secure → retreat
Tucked away down a quiet Somerset country lane, the home was transformed by Jade Fish, a busy mother of two working in Police HR who never imagined making the finals, let alone beating four other stunning homes to win the grand prize.
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who → tuck → prize
The prestigious accolade was handed out by Deirdre Mc Gettrick, the CEO and founder of uFurnish.com, an AI-powered furniture search site that lets shoppers compare prices in real time across more than three million products from over 100 retailers, from John Lewis to Dunelm.
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shoppers → hand → Dunelm
Another 18 winners took home titles, including NHS psychiatrist Orima Kamalu, who bypassed a bumper £60,000 quote to overhaul her kitchen for a mere £600.
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who → take → 600
Joining her was former TV design contestant Ben Irurzun, who saved £2,600 by flipping 84 IKEA drawers into a stunning antique-style cabinet for £400, and Emily Barratt, a Lancashire mum who fired her plumber and tiled her own 'bathroom of doom' herself.
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who → join → doom
Jade, who bought the winning property with her husband eight years ago, said of her new-build with oddly shaped walls: 'I feel I’ve created the home that best reflects me, my surroundings and my personality.
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that → buy → me
It’s homely and inviting, fresh but cosy.
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It → ’ → ?
An unexpected 'wild card' entry has just secured the title of Britain's Best Home at the uFurnish.com Home Awards: a £250,000 new-build property lovingly turned into a cozy countryside retreat
Tucked away down a quiet Somerset country lane, the home was transformed by Jade Fish, a busy mother of two working in Police HR who never imagined making the finals, let alone beating four other stunning homes to win the grand prize
The judging panel for the uFurnish.com Home Awards, which is in its third year and attracted 1,400 entrants whittled down to 90 finalists, included interiors journalist Barbara Chandler, TV presenter Max McMurdo and Interior Design Masters designer Nicki Bamford-Bowes.
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which → secure → Chandler
Deirdre Mc Gettrick, who launched uFurnish.com, said: 'These awards celebrate real homes and the people who make them, and this year’s winners show what you can do with a bit of vision, a lot of graft and, in one case, a £100 worktop paint kit.'
BEST BATHROOM
Nick Toteda, London | Instagram @nicktoteda
Nick Toteda and his partner Ant wanted a bathroom that felt like a living room, so they hung curtains instead of a glass shower screen, added cornicing and ran Mandarin Stone tiles floor to ceiling around a huge window
Nick Toteda and his partner Ant wanted a bathroom that felt like a living room, so they hung curtains instead of a glass shower screen, added cornicing and ran Mandarin Stone tiles floor to ceiling around a huge window.
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they → launch → window
They put in two sinks, but four years on, 'we still both use the same one'.
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we → put → one
Their four-bedroom Victorian house in Clapham Junction, London, had stood empty for about ten years when they viewed it in 2022, with trees growing inside and rotten joists.
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they → stand → trees
Halfway through the build they turned the spare bedroom into the bathroom, which their builders hated.
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builders → turn → which
When Emily Murray's two sons hit their teens, she turned the top floor of her Edwardian house in Dulwich, London, into a bedroom suite she could escape to
When Emily Murray's two sons hit their teens, she turned the top floor of her Edwardian house in Dulwich, London, into a bedroom suite she could escape to.
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she → hit → suite
Behind one door there’s a sitting area, a terrace, a mirrored wet room and the bath she’d always dreamed of, based on a room at Babington House in Somerset but in a softer pink.
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she → ’ → pink
Emily, a journalist and author whose boys are now 13 and 16, has renovated the house twice in nine years.
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boys → renovate → years
A former gymnast, she took up athletics in her 40s and is now British age-group champion in triple jump and long jump.
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she → take → jump
Emily Barratt’s seven-bedroom house in Lancashire had just one bathroom, so rather than lose a bedroom she squeezed a new one into the top-floor space that once held two water tanks.
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that → have → tanks
She calls it 'the bathroom of doom'
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She → call → doom
After: After ten weeks of no progress, Emily, 41, sacked her plasterer and plumber and tiled the floor and walls herself
Emily Barratt’s seven-bedroom house in Lancashire had just one bathroom, so rather than lose a bedroom she squeezed a new one into the top-floor space that once held two water tanks.
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that → sack → tanks
She calls it 'the bathroom of doom'.
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She → call → doom
Her plasterer cried on the first day, and two months into a job that was meant to take a fortnight, her plumber still hadn’t done the first fix.
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plumber → cry → fix
After ten weeks Emily, 41, sacked him and tiled the floor and walls herself.
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Emily → sack → floor
'I was like, "I’m done with trades",' says Emily, who has 198,000 Instagram followers.
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who → do → followers
It was finished a fortnight later.
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It → finish → ?
BEST DIY CREATION
Ben Irurzun, West Midlands | Instagram @bygonebenagain
Ben Irurzun turned 84 Moppe drawers, some bought second-hand on Facebook, back to front and fitted them into a wooden frame stained to look old
Ben Irurzun built the antique-style apothecary cabinet in his kitchen from IKEA drawers for £400, when a real one would have cost around £3,000.
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one → turn → 3,000
The former Interior Design Masters contestant turned 84 Moppe drawers, some bought second-hand on Facebook, back to front and fitted them into a wooden frame stained to look old.
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some → turn → frame
He found 84 matching handles at an antiques centre, printed vintage French labels and topped it with marble from an old fireplace hearth.
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He → find → hearth
It took three or four days.
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It → take → days
'On the TV show we have to do everything in two days,' he says, 'so I learned everything very quickly.
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I → have → everything
Kerry Davison’s garden on the edge of Newcastle was designed for parties, and her dad did all the work for nothing.
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dad → design → nothing
Raymond, 72, a retired engineer, rewired it for a hot tub, put in new drains and fitted the panelling indoors
When the patio doors open, the dining room (pictured) and garden become one space, and guests spill out to the hot tub and hammock
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guests → rewire → tub
Kerry Davison’s garden on the edge of Newcastle was designed for parties, and her dad did all the work for nothing.
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dad → design → nothing
Raymond, 72, a retired engineer, rewired it for a hot tub, put in new drains and fitted the panelling indoors.
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Raymond → rewire → panelling
'My dad should be getting this award,' says Kerry, 41.
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Kerry → get → award
Her Instagram fans tell him he looks like Harrison Ford.
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he → tell → Ford
Kerry, a mum of two, bought the new-build four years ago for £370,000.
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Kerry → buy → 370,000
When the patio doors open, the dining room and garden become one space, and guests spill out to the hot tub and hammock.
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guests → open → tub
Before: When Suzy Broome moved into her Victorian house in South Yorkshire, one side of the grey double front door was rotting
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side → move → door
After: Suzy stripped the other, fitted an antique knocker and brass handles and painted both orange, before finishing with green, orange and yellow tiles
Suzy Broome laid the tiled path to her bright orange front door herself over a single weekend, and passers-by still stop to admire it.
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passers → strip → it
She chose green, orange and yellow tiles to suit her Victorian house in South Yorkshire.
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She → choose → Yorkshire
…and 55 more, not listed.
The Aporia
