REAL LIFE EXTERIOR, NEW ENGLAND

$Pic by Roberto D\'Addona$

SIXX DESIGN‘S Robert and Cortney Novogratz know families (they have seven kids, including two sets of twins) and they know houses (they’ve been renovating them all their married life). And so it was an obvious thing to share their knowledge in a book about renovating chic family homes that is genuinely useful. Our favourite tips from Downtown Chic (released the end of April, see sneak peek visuals below) include getting to flea markets before 6am, because all the best stuff goes before then; probing your local restaurant owners as to where they source their functional, stainless steel kitchens; go to the design fairs which are now open to the public as well as design professionals; don’t overextend yourself on your holiday home and do rent it out to help pay the bills. But although Robert and Cortney do interiors casually and beautifully - with their mix of high and low end, and always one eye on the budget - we especially love their fun, exterior details: their heated swimming pool (for wimpy city kids, admits Robert) with its deck-style diving board (so all the kids can fit on it at once), the basketball court on the top of their New York home with a net cupola over the top to keep the ball in play, and this, the sunken trampoline in their holiday home in New England. Sunken because it’s both practical and cuter: lower means safer, especially for little ones, and hidden means eliminating unsightly raised trampoline legs. You can do it yourself too: just dig a 3 foot deep trench, build a timber foundation, add rocks for irrigation, and create drainage to avoid waterlog.