Comfort & JOY

Emma Sims-Hilditch has infused her Cotswolds family home with character and warmth, making it the perfect backdrop for festive gatherings

- RACHEL LEEDHAM

When the village carol singers drop by the Cotswolds home of Emma and John Sims-Hilditch, they are treated to mulled wine in the covered loggia, where candlelight flickers in hurricane lamps.

'At this time of year, I love to think about how a house looks outside as well as inside,' says Emma. 'I'll always put a Christmas tree by a window, for example, so visitors can see it as they arrive, and I like to place a lantern by the front door to offer a welcoming glow.'

The couple have lived here since 1991, when they bought a row of three Grade II-listed workers' cottages dating from 1790. In the early 1900s, the cottages were converted into the village school, which closed in the 1970s – although we had the lovely caretaker living as a tenant in one of them until he died,' recounts Emma, who founded her interior design practice from the family kitchen table.