The latest Lissett park home – one of the largest in the Lissett portfolio – has just arrived at one of Britain’s most impressive park home estate villages… Think big, think impressive, think top quality – and elegance

The first impression of the Sandalwood is simple: space – everywhere. The kitchen and adjoining utility room are large and, as you walk from the kitchen into the dining room, the lounge comes into view – and the impression of space grows. Even the study – so often the smallest room in a home – has space as its keynote.

The showhome Sandalwood had just arrived at Warfield Park at the time of our visit in April. Groundwork at this impressive park in Bracknell, Berkshire, was still going on and the landscaping and planting which will create a fabulous garden on this large, corner plot, had yet to start. Not all of the lounge and dining room furniture had arrived but it was easy to envisage the Sandalwood as an elegant and cosy home.

The steps had yet to be built; the front entrance will be rather imposing when finished but we entered at the rear of the property, where brick steps were partly complete – stepping straight into one of the Sandalwood’s most practical assets, the utility room, rather than entering through the wide hallway with its coat-and-shoes storage cabinets…

Utility room

An entire wall of cabinets and shelves, plus work surface, gives you a room that can have a multitude of uses. The Bosch washing machine with dryer function and the central heating system are disguised within the suite of gloss-grey cabinets. Just as important as hideaway practicalities is the amount of floor space in the utility room – not simply enough space to take off shoes and towel-dry the dogs after a rainy walk, but even space to put an extra cabinet if you wish.

Kitchen

The kitchen can only be described as fabulous. Size impresses you first. Then you start to notice the details. First the shape. This room is almost square, yet it’s in fact composed of two L-shaped unit arrangements which combine to create a capacious kitchen that we are sure would be a joy in which to cook – and use as the hub of the home.

As with all Lissett homes, the appliances are made by Bosch. In the main kitchen area there’s a fridge-freezer, an induction hob and a shoulder-height grill with an oven below it. The microwave is set into the reverse L-shape opposite – ideal so that microwaved dishes can be brought out in a separate surface area to the main cooking region. This kitchen has been very well designed for cooking practicality!

The aesthetics are a delight – an ultra-modern combination of grey shades integrate superbly. We love the very pale grey wood-effect surface and the ripple-effect tiles, in particular.

The reverse L-shape houses two wine racks and incorporates a two-seater breakfast bar. Opposite, the Rangemaster sink and drainer is just about the highest quality you could get anywhere, with a draining rack that has grooves to channel water into the sink. Nearby is the dishwasher and, in the corner, a cabinet containing carousel shelves which make sure you can use the whole of the space.

One of the biggest fitted cutlery drawer we’ve ever seen is below the hob, with two deep drawers beneath it. Storage space in the Sandalwood’s kitchen is phenomenal. And the icing on an excellent kitchen cake? A roof light with remote controlled open and blind function.

Dining room

Like the kitchen, the dining room is a pleasantly light space, this time thanks to two windows, one of them very deep with a wide windowsill that could well be used as a window seat, with the addition of a cushion or two. It’s a lovely big area, enhanced by the high vaulted-sloping ceiling into which spotlights are set.

Lounge

The sloping vaulted ceiling shape with inset lights continues into the lounge – a delightfully large room furnished in calm fawn shades, with a close-pile, top-quality, pale mushroom-hue carpet and just a hint of palest pastel mauve in curtains and cushions. The suite includes an ottoman-style seat-storage box (stylish and very useful!)

Between the two floor-to-ceiling windows a coal-effect fire is set into the wall and framed in brushed steel. The whole lounge effect is cooly modern.

Study

The study is awesome. That’s not just about generous size, it’s about the way the furniture has been designed to accommodate large amounts of books and all sorts of other home office paraphernalia. A shelf runs around two of the walls. Beneath it, a strip of LED lights is hidden away under a small pelmet, to cast light down the walls. Six drawers and two double-doored cabinets, plus an array of shelves in the corner tucked away into the L-shape of the furniture suite – and a lovely large L-shaped desk… This is a fine office/study. There are four power points and a cable aperture in the desk so that everything keeps tidy.

I quickly made myself at home in the office, laptop on the desk, creating this review, and swiftly began to feel that the design and size of this room alone would be a strong selling point of the Sandalwood, from an essentially practical point of view.

Bedrooms and shower rooms

The calming mushroom, cream and fawn tones of the lounge continue in the bedroom palette. The pastel suggestion of mauve shade used in the lounge curtains and cushions carries through into the master bedroom’s colour theme. Here, it’s bolder, on the deeply upholstered plush bedhead that’s constructed in a series of buttoned squares; on a bed runner and just a hint in a floral pattern in the curtains and two of the cushions. Like the lounge, the over-arching impression here is of a calming, relaxing environment, beautifully created.

Lissett manufactures all of the fitted furniture for its homes; every piece has rounded, lipped edges and is totally high-end domestic in terms of thickness of wood.

The master bedroom has a walk-in dressing-storage room, with two rails, seven large shelf areas and five drawers. Two floor-to-ceiling shelved cabinets are in the bedroom. Three more drawers and two more hanging rails are within a wardrobe in the bedroom. With six drawers in the dressing table and three in each of the bedside cabinets, it’s easy to envisage the Sandalwood’s main bedroom being an easy place to keep tidy.

The en suite, with almost-white wood-effect flooring and matt grey tiles, has a large, rectangular shower and wide washbasin sitting up on a dark grey cabinet of two drawers. Stylish and so modern!

The main shower room has all of the same delightful styling; this time the shower is corner-shaped. Both shower rooms have mirror lights that are switched on and off in response to passing a finger tip close to the switch.

In the second bedroom the pastel palette switches to pink and brown, with the same-style square buttoned plus deep headboard as in the master bedroom. Here again, storage is brilliant, with an entre wall of wardrobes, each having rails one above the other. Brilliant!

Our view

The spacious Sandalwood, sitting surrounded by sizeable gardens on its open-aspect corner plot at Warfield Park, is a really special home with outstanding practicality. That’s in terms of vast amounts of storage capability, plus the large utility room and the study with its generous cabinet and shelf accommodation.

Like all of Lissett’s collection, the Sandalwood is a luxurious home, robustly constructed and with attention to furniture-finish detail evident throughout. Perhaps it’s the kitchen, though, that, for me, steals the show, for its stunning wow-factor grey-hues modern looks and its hub-of-the-home design.

Contact
Lissett Homes
Pocklington, York YO42 1NR
lissetthomes.com
01759 302801