Bursting borders, blue windows, and a sense of perfection in the New Forest

I quite like the colour blue, so I find it interesting that so often the connotations it is associated with are negative. Feeling blue, for example, seems quite negative, while a ‘blue movie’ is certainly one of the last things you would like to find on a hotel bill.

It would be difficult to feel blue when approaching Stocks Hill near Burley in Hampshire. I mean just look at it. Those blue window frames, that delicious terracotta tiled roof, the white exterior. It just looks so inviting. It is for sale with John D Wood & Co for £1.95 million. I am checking behind the sofa cushions.

Like most houses we try and bring you here at Country Life Online, the interiors are just as impressive as the exteriors. It’s quite clear that the current owners have taken a great deal of care with renovating and restoring this five-bedroom house.

Highlights include, but are certainly not limited to, the triple-aspect kitchen/breakfast room which is achingly spacious, a double-aspect sitting room with a recently installed woodburner and a formal dining room.

Upstairs the bedrooms and bathrooms have all been finished to a high standard, and some of the choices of wallpaper are frankly divine. The master-bedroom suite is hugely spacious, and features a free-standing bath, which I always think is a nice touch. One of the other bedrooms even has a little roof terrace.

Back outside now, and the home stands in 1.7 acres of immaculate grounds. Looking at the pictures, it’s hard not to think that this property was specifically designed to be photographed. The lawns surrounding the house are perfectly striped. The beds are bursting with colour. The property is even approached via a tree-lined drive. 

The village of Burley, situated in the New Forest, is only 0.25 miles away and has a range of amenities, such as shops, hotels, a primary school, cricket ground and golf course, that only add to the sense of charm surrounding Stocks Hill. The larger market towns of Ringwood and Lymington are both within 10 miles.

Stocks Hill is for sale with John D Wood & Co for £1.95 million. For more information and pictures, click here

The best places to live south of London, from charming rural villages to picture-perfect spots beside the sea

With more and more of us commuting two or three days a week, taking on a one or two-hour commute

Credit: Strutt and Parker

A Hampshire estate with some of finest trees in the county, as well as an 11-bedroom house

The Shroner Wood estate was once owned by Edwin Hillier, who created a grand arboretum in its grounds.

3,000 pristine acres of Loch Lomond National Park, where red squirrels roam spectacular woodland, have come up for sale

The £30 million Dorset estate that comes with a 200-year-old mansion, a cricket ground, a nature reserve and an entire village

The Bridehead Estate in Dorset has come up for sale — and it's quite an astonishing opportunity. Penny Churchill takes a