Eleanor Whitfield

Eleanor Whitfield bought a seventeenth-century Cotswolds cottage in 2018. It had low ceilings, draughty windows, a kitchen that hadn't been touched since the 1970s, and a sitting room with a fireplace so large you could stand inside it. She moved in with her husband, a cat, and a completely unrealistic idea of how quickly things could be done.

Six years later, she has learned something about the difference between restoration and renovation, between what a house needs and what you want to impose on it, and between moving quickly and moving well. The cottage is better, but not finished, and she no longer expects it to be finished in any conventional sense.

Her writing about heritage homes sits between the practical and the philosophical - there is a lot about lime plaster and sash windows, but also a lot about what it means to live in a building that predates you by four centuries, to feel the weight of that continuity, and to make decisions that you hope the house will forgive. She is particularly interested in the slow renovation: the decision to do one thing well rather than five things adequately, and the trust required to let a house show you what it needs.

Eleanor has written for Country Life, World of Interiors, and The Oldie. She lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, two cats (the original one is still going), and a kitchen that is nearly there.