Pocket Cottage
Stillington, North Yorkshire
Grade II listed, 1746
Pocket Cottage is an 18th-century house reworked within a modest historic footprint. The project centred on preserving proportion and introducing colour with control rather than contrast.
Before decoration began, the internal layout was reconsidered. A former wet room was removed and the plumbing rerouted beneath a lifted floor rather than boxed into the adjoining bedroom. Protecting usable space was prioritised over convenience, allowing the rooms to retain clarity and flexibility.
Colour is used in repetition rather than contrast, creating continuity across floors and rooms. A hand-painted chequerboard floor links the garden room and kitchen, reinforcing this rhythm and preventing the scheme from feeling fragmented.
Lighting was approached as part of the architecture.
Wall lighting, low pendants and concealed warm LEDs are used to wash beams and panelling softly, insuring warmth without glare.
Pocket Cottage sits in the village of Stillington, approximately ten miles north of York and within reach of the Howardian Hills National Landscape.
Menagerie House
York, North Yorkshire
Menagerie House is an early Victorian townhouse situated within York’s Bar Walls in the historic centre of the city. Built in 1861 and located within a designated conservation area, the house retains its tall ceilings, sash windows and timber shutters.
The interior works within this architectural framework rather than competing with it. A disciplined base of white walls, dark joinery and a staircase rising through the house establishes structure, allowing colour and layered detail to sit with control.
Original fireplaces and Victorian proportions are balanced with considered mid-century pieces. Decorative references appear across the rooms, but they are integrated into the architecture rather than applied as novelty. The effect is characterful without becoming themed.
Despite its central location, the retained shutters and proportions give the house a quieter atmosphere than its setting might suggest.
About
Cottage were created by Sarah and Christopher Glass as independent projects shaped by the same underlying principles.
In both houses, the architecture comes first. Proportion, light and circulation are resolved before decoration is considered. Colour and detail are introduced with control, allowing richness without visual strain.
Neither property was conceived as a neutral rental interior. Each was developed as a complete domestic environment, where structural decisions and decorative elements form part of a single composition.
The result is two distinct houses in different settings, connected by a consistent approach to spatial integrity, rhythm and restraint.
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Sarah Glass