I'm guilty of sending friends and family pictures of things I think they’ll love. Wee snapshots of a coffee shop that strikes me as so ‘them’, a new bowl or candlestick I can imagine in their home, or a magazine cutting of an interior that nails the style they’re aiming for in their own place. It’s a love language for me; a way to let them know that I know them.

The properties and projects in this issue are united by a common thread; all are deeply personal spaces that their owners took their time to get to know. By doing so, they learned what they loved. They got to know their own building’s quirks and foibles, and to understand what needed to change so it would be a space they could truly call home.

At Technique Studio’s project in East Lothian for example, the owners followed their hearts rather than their heads when choosing the site of their family home. Amanda Pickett, meanwhile, fell so hard for Mallorcan village life that she set up home permanently on the island. Jane Manifold uprooted her whole family from Singapore to return to her grandmother’s Fife farm and renovate the 18th-century steading; she has turned it into a clutch of boutique holiday lets so handsome you’ll be taking snaps to inspire your next home update.

We’ve headed outside to help spruce up the garden, compiled an extended travel section and sampled Scotland’s latest bars, restaurants and cafes to help nudge you into summer holiday mode, at home and further afield. My hope is you’ll be snapping and sending as you make your way through this issue.