Inside an £8,000,000 Estate with Breathtaking Gardens

Hi Luxury Home Show, I'm Gemma Friday. Welcome to Foxfield, here in South Wales, Cardiff. Come on, let's go and take a look inside. Okay, so welcome inside. For those that don't know, we're in Liz Bay in Cardiff, South Wales. This property sits in just under 24,000 square foot. It sits in 24 acres of superb grounds and it's never been owned before. The owners completely built this as a labour of love from scratch. This staircase is absolutely amazing. It's completely bespoke handcrafted in American white oak. It somewhat resembles the shape of a rugby ball, which is great here in Wales, and the owner did have a love for rugby. And it has, I mean, you'll see when we head up there, it has the most spectacular view when you're looking down as well. Before we head down to the kitchen, I just wanted to show you this area is so beautiful, it's so full of light. And you've got a service entrance here, you've got laundry room, his and hers office on this floor. So you've got main office here, an additional one. You've got lift that services all three floors. You've got one of two downstairs cloak rooms. You've got second staircase, second office, and then the kitchen. So the kitchen designer was small bone. You've got melee appliances all built in. And then you've got these granite worktops with a kind of green effect, which ties in nicely to the tiles behind the oven here. What I love is although this house was technically built just before 2000, the architects done such a great job of all of the details. So you've got the shutters, the detailing around the ceiling. So it kind of gives off that stately home feel, even though it's quite a modern property, actually. And that's the thing with this house. Although it's such a large property, it has been a family home, like the family will tell you they've had some parties here on a Sunday. This is full with four generations. The owner, whenever I'm here, usually she is in here cooking. So this is a functional, you know, well-used kitchen space that was designed with family in mind. Even the fact that it then opens up to the family sitting room here. And then you've got this garden space on the back. And what I really like on this house is every room has doors that open out to the garden space. And you've got fantastic views. So just in the field up here, quite often you've got horses that come down that you can see, which is really lovely. And obviously all the blossom is starting to come out now as well. So this then opens up to the dining space, which is great because if you are a cook, you know that you don't want people under your feet when you're cooking. So it means that family can be here enjoying the space. You've also got the large larder here. And then this door leads through into the family sitting room. So coming into this room, then again, as I mentioned, you've got the doors that lead out onto this terrace that wrap around all the front of the property. And I mean, this is a lovely terrace and it's so bright. And then something else I really like in this room. Again, you have this stone fireplace design and then all the joinery of all these built-in cupboards here. And this doorway, I really love just the double doors that you open back up. And this is going to make sense. We're going to head back through and then we'll be in the entrance hallway with the staircase. And I'm going to take you over to the dining room. The owner's daughter's here, Debs, and she's going to tell us a little bit about what it's been like to grow up in this property. So now we've got the lovely Debs who has agreed to give us a bit of a tour today. We're heading through into the drawing room first and the dining room. So we thought it'd be great for you to tell us a little bit about how you've used this space as a family. Of course. So this is the heart of our home. Over the years, we've had so many parties here. We find that it's like the perfect space, be it at Christmas when the fires are lit and the tree is up. And we have a lot of singing and dancing and music in this space. Or just a more formal drinks party on a Sunday before lunch. We often have a drink around the table. It just lends itself with the light and just the atmosphere to having a lot of people here having fun. And yes, the drawing room. So funny enough, we don't do a lot of drawing in the drawing room. It's a more of a formal space where we sort of gather and have a drink before dinner. And we've had, after we've dined, we come back in and often there's a good party in here. So we've got lots of friends who are musicians and keen to get on the piano and we have a sing song, light a fire, that kind of thing. But yeah, it's certainly seen some really good parties over the years in here. I bet. I mean, we were saying what a great party house this is anyway earlier. So and then, OK, well, the dining room as well. So what about this? I mean, this table is huge. So I guess you can throw a great dinner party here. Absolutely. We've had amazing Christmases and lunches and dinners here over the years where it can seat 16. And I think that's my favourite when we lower the lights and the candles are all lit and you come in for dinner on a special occasion, be it a black tire event or just a Sunday lunch and you look around the table and people are eating and drinking and having fun and just generally happy. I mean, it's designed so beautifully with the Linley furniture and it just feels really sumptuous and really elegant. And I think, you know, you mentioned earlier when we were chatting that you spent Covid here and it was almost four generations. Yes. So this must be the great space to enjoy. We had great weather. Yeah, totally. We had we had an incredible month back in April of 2020 where obviously we were out in the garden the whole time and we were dining out there. But we had, like you said, four generations here and it never felt like we were on top of each other. But we would all come together in these really sort of precious times and eat together and, you know, make the most of lockdown. And I think with this property, the thing that amazes me, although it's such a big, vast property, it really is a family home. And I think what's evident when I speak to you and the rest of your family is you've loved living here. And that's really what this was designed on. It was designed for families from babies to the elderly. And we've all been here through those those times in life, you know, saying goodbye to grandparents, welcoming new babies. And it's a party house, too. But you go into the grounds and you're kind of in this beautiful countryside, which is nestled just further enough into nature where you don't feel like there's a sprawling capital city around you. But it's beautifully, again, beautifully designed and somewhere that I've got lost in since the little girl to now watching my daughter go and get lost in the woods and lost in the fields and the meadow. And it's, yeah, it's beautiful. Deb, you're going to join us again in the gardens. Yeah. We'll take a look upstairs and then head back out to the garden and do a bit of a tour if that's okay. Of course. Lovely. Thank you so much. How impressive is this staircase as you're looking up and you're looking down, especially with the light coming through today, because you've got this glass ceiling above, which is beautiful. And I always think it'd be lovely. Imagine having a big Christmas tree. It'd have to be pretty big. But to fill this space here. So you've got two entrances to the master suite. You have one on the other side where the lift is, and then you have these double doors that lead through. So in this room, you've got his and hers dressing room. Hers is a lovely, bright space. Perfect for getting ready in the morning. This is the other entrance that I mentioned. So you can come in this way. This is just a storage cupboard. So there's additional storage there. And then his dressing room is supposed to be a replica of Ralph Lauren in Bond Street. So a little bit more masculine and perfect for getting ready for men, plenty of space to put your shirts and ties and then the main bedroom. So this is such a lovely light room. You've got the veranda here, which you could open up in the morning, have a coffee and then looking out onto the front here. This is where you have the entrance. When you drove through, you've got the two lakes, one with the water fountain, and then just in the distance, you can see the view to the channel as well, which is great. And Deb's going to meet us a little bit later so we can take a look out there. But for now, let's carry on with the tour. So additionally, then we've got this gorgeous ensuite bathroom with a huge shower, this lovely bath and his and hers sink. I always think this bathroom just resembles a top hotel bathroom. You couldn't really get any better. And then you've got fantastic views out again onto the gardens. So let's go through and take a look at the rest. So as we come back onto the landing area, you've got this lovely sitting space, which again, is huge. And this area leads on to a veranda. And just up here, you've got a glass design with the three Welsh feathers on there. Again, as I mentioned, the owner was a keen rugby fan. And when the sun comes through, that lights up a big hologram on the wall above, which is pretty cool. Then coming through, we've got seven bedrooms in total on this floor, including the master. So this one currently, they're all on suite. This one currently is being used as more of a nursery. So when the grandkids come to stay, this is their room. And then each room has a bit of its own sort of flair. I guess maybe the children have their input when it was designed. But again, you've got another lovely ensuite bedroom here with water bath. This room's got quite a cool design because you have the curved wardrobes and dressing area that followed this wall. And then leading through over here, we have another bedroom, which actually links up to the third floor. So this was the son's bedroom and he's got on suite and then this spiral staircase. And this leads up to a bit of a sitting area. So you'd have it as a study or a TV space. So quite a cool teenage boys room, I would have guessed at some point. Okay, so there's a couple more bedrooms at the end, but I think it's just worthwhile having a pause and taking in the staircase from this angle again, because it's just so beautiful. So lift access, which as I said earlier, gives access to all three floors. This door takes you back through to the master bedroom. And then the doors behind us here lead to the second staircase. And then you've got another two lovely ensuite bedrooms. They all have built in storage and again, lovely bathroom designs. Okay, so that's the seven bedrooms on this floor, but we're not done yet because there's still plenty to see. You could take the lift to the third floor, but I'm going to head up the staircase and show you what's up there. Welcome to the top floor. So to your right, we have another cloakroom. And then we have this sitting area, which again is a lovely space, quite versatile. And then heading through here, we've got a bit of a games room bar area. So one of my favourite features up here has to be this bar area. Imagine at weekends, being able to entertain friends and family. This area again is really interesting space. You've got the lift over here, and then all of these beams that run through. And although they used it as a space to entertain watching the rugby, imagine being a child growing up here and having this space that you could bring your friends over at weekend. So yeah, and I mean, you have this, and then there's also additional space on the other side. So they've got a bit of a yoga studio. There's loads of storage. So whether you wanted extra bedrooms, craft room, whatever you might need, it really is just a great space. So now this is the top of the staircase where we were looking up earlier. And again, this is this rugby ball shape at the very top. The light that you have coming in is just amazing, isn't it? It's so bright up here. This doorway and the doorway that leads around is just storage. So things like suitcases, Christmas trees, decorations. And then this is the yoga area that I mentioned. And further on, if you remember earlier, we mentioned that bedroom that had the spiral staircase that leads up to the room at the top. And there's a lovely area for study TV. So, Deb, you know this house better than anybody. So I'm going to follow you. You lead the way and give us a tour of these amazing grounds. Come with me. And this is your dog. This is Moses. Yeah, he's coming along. He's like my little shadow. So this is the family garden. Have our summers out here and all the kids congregate. Like I said, we've got four generations that live around the area, so we always congregate here on a sunny day. And there's a lovely eating area just attached to the kitchen with a fire pit and a barbecue. So we have, you know, on a day like this, we are always eating outside whenever we can. It's nice that it's so enclosed, actually. Yeah, exactly. And it's all sort of lit well at night and get the fire going. And then when all the fruit trees and the blossoms out, it's absolutely beautiful. Yeah, I noticed with this garden, all the blossoms that you have are leading up the driveway. It's beautiful. Yeah, well, we've got an orchard here. So these apples are absolutely covering the ground from August, September onwards. And yeah, you're seeing a good time because everything's coming into bloom. Let me take you up now through into the orchard. So this is really pretty as well, having this kind of design, isn't it? Yeah, I absolutely love it. We've got all our fruit trees here. And like I said, a few weeks time this blossom will be out. But it's just it's just so handy right next to the kitchen to come and eat here of an evening. I'll take you now to what we call the Ring of Roses garden, which is just a really nice place to sort of sit and have your coffee in the morning and I'll take you down to the pond. So this we call the Ring of Roses garden. I love it. It's just a really lovely spot where you can come and have a quiet coffee in the morning, read your paper and just sit and reflect really. It's gorgeous. It's a gorgeous little spot that the kids have always played hide and seek around here a lot. So you'll always hear one or two of them trying not to be found while you're having a quiet five minutes. It's a great spot for hide and seek. Well, this whole house is great for hide and seek. Yeah, it's got lots of nooks and crannies where you can totally get lost. I'm going to take you down to what we call the events lawn now. And wasn't that where the original house was? It was a Spanish villa. Yes. Before Foxfield was built. Yes. So it was the first Foxfield, if you like, was actually on this events lawn. And we lived there from 1983 to 1999. This took just shy of two years to build. But yeah, when we moved here in the early 80s, this was actually our house. And these were all paddocks and fields and lakes. And it's such a big open space now that we have. We've used it for weddings and big parties because it can hold a lot of people. But yeah, the original house was actually on this land when we moved in 1983. You'd never know that there was a house here before. No, I know. And then we built Foxfield number two. Yeah, great. The house was designed very much understanding that with the mountain behind us, there's a lot of natural spring water. So it was quite wetland. We had to put the three lakes in to accommodate that. The top pond, we've had lots of fun while swimming and boating. And the kids go and have lovely picnics on the island. And then the middle and the bottom pond are really where we keep the fish. But again, in springtime, it all comes into full blossom and bloom. This house is so private as well. I think for years I've driven past the gates at the front and always thought, what house is behind there? And never knew and actually feel so privileged now to have been up here and to see just how amazing it is. And I think so many people probably feel the same. Yeah, you just don't know it's here. And I think that's been the beauty of it. And the time that we're here is that it's very sheltered. So you've got the woodland and the trees that, like you said, beyond the gates, you don't know that the house is here. So there's not that exposure, which has suited us really, really well as a family. I've got to go, guys. I'm actually in the school room, but it's really lovely to have you here. Thank you for coming to see us. Before you go, Deb, we're going to head back into the house. What is your favourite room? Because we're going to go there next and check it out. Oh, have you seen the wine cellar yet? Not yet. Ah, OK. Well, you do have to see the wine cellar. That seems like a great place. Yeah. Well, lovely to see you. Yeah, thank you so much. Bye. So, as Deb requested, we're now down in the basement to check out this wine cellar. So let me show you. So you can kind of see why this may be her favourite room in the property. I mean, how impressive is this space? And you've got a bar, a table to come down in the evening and enjoy a good bottle of wine. OK, so the tour's not finished. We've still got a gym, and we've got a Before we head into the gym, we come through to the carport. Just over here, we have just storage cupboards and the lift that brings you down to this floor. And then you have the carport. This has a wash station over here. So you drive in up from the driveway, come through, and I reckon maybe you could fit 10, 11 cars, maybe more. You've got the electric charging point where your car is charging, ready to go home. And as I said, you've got the wash station for ballet service. And then through here, you then have this gym. Now, the owners didn't want a swimming pool, but you could easily add a swimming pool onto the side of here and make this into a kind of leisure suite. But again, you've got shower changing rooms over here, and then not really much need to join the gym. It's all here for you. So really, you could work up a sweat in here, burn the calories, and then go next door and drink lots of wine. Well, guys, we've come to the end of the tour. Thank you so much for watching today. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Don't forget, this property is for sale for £8 million. The details will be below the video. And be sure to click up here as well to watch another. Bye. Hi, Luxury Home Show. I'm Millie Turner, an interior designer. Welcome to our project in the Cotswolds. Come on in.