Holiday homes

Taking on a brief to create a holiday mood in this house on the coast of Kent, Nicola Mardas has filled it with bright colours and bold patterns, making it an irresistible retreat from city life

In an extract from Miguel Flores-Vianna's new book Haute Bohemians: Greece, the author explores the magical world of the designer's historic Lindos house

The Argentinian architect Mario Connio has spent four decades transforming this traditional Andalucian farmhouse into a bright and welcoming retreat.

A longstanding love affair with Mallorca led the owner of Bennison Fabrics and her husband to make a home there, and their translation of a classic English aesthetic to this new setting is a masterclass in pattern and placement

Having sold their house in Wiltshire, Charlie and Tweenie Wrey decided on a whim to move to southern Sri Lanka, where they have built a calm, comfortable house in the local architectural vernacular and embraced a relaxed way of life

Since he was a child, Russell Pinch’s family has been restoring a sleepy hamlet in western France. Now he and his wife Oona Bannon have transformed the last building, an old cowshed, into a holiday house filled with their elegant furniture

The English buyers of a dilapidated, seaside house on Cap Ferret knew how they wanted to use it. A collaboration that included a local and a London architect resulted in their perfect holiday retreat

On the Caribbean island of Mustique, interior designer Veere Grenney has redesigned a bamboo house that is a study in neutrals and natural materials, set off by the green of the palms outside and the glorious blue of the ocean

After a five-year search for a property in Sicily, Jon Moslet and Marco Scire discovered the abandoned Rocca delle Tre Contrade on the east coast, and set about turning it into the welcoming and relaxing holiday home it is today

Searching for a project, author and designer Paul Golding fell in love with a neglected Maltese palazzo, which he has now carefully restored and subtly modernised to enhance its eighteenth-century glories

Over the past 20 years, British Vogue’s well-travelled former fashion director Lucinda Chambers has filled her house near Toulouse with an eclectic mix of colourful flea-market finds

Having inherited this house in the South of France, Anne-Marie Midy of Casamidy has skilfully updated it, while retaining the charming feel she and her brother remembered from their childhood. Anne-Marie and her husband Jorge's house in northern Mexico features in the May issue of House & Garden (out now) click here to download for free or subscribe to a whole year for £12.

This house in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, designed by Andrzej Zarzycki, is a break from the norm, with large, airy rooms that blend seamlessly with the outside space and Provençal countryside

Just across the river from the Dominican Republic holiday home of her childhood, Kyra Montagu has created a very different haven of calm and simplicity, with a focus on spirituality and holistic living in harmony with its Caribbean setting.

Lady Wakefield and her husband Peter bought this ancient Spanish mill in 1965, and slowly set about transforming the various buildings into habitable, and stylish, holiday houses