Trading up, trading down

Trading up: Gloucestershire. A sizeable chunk of Cotswold stone in the Gloucestershire town of Moreton-in-the-Marsh should allow you to spread your household quite comfortably. Window seats, beams and an inglenook embellish the 21ft sitting room. The dining room of this £385,000 home opens on to the garden and there’s room for a family meal in the newly fitted kitchen. The largest of the three bedrooms has an en suite shower and there’s copious attic storage. Strutt & Parker 01608 650502
Photograph: Strutt & Parker

Trading up: Wrexham. You could host a small ball in the hall without disturbing the cream grandeur of the 26ft sitting room. For a mere £825,000, there's an extra living room too, plus a conservatory, study and seven bedrooms from which to enjoy the views of the Welsh hills. The house, begun by the Georgians and extended by the Victorians, sits in large gardens close to Wrexham. Jackson-Stops & Staff 01244 328361
Photograph: Jackson-Stops

Trading down: West London. The lofty ceilings and big bay window make this studio apartment seem more capacious than it is. It’s a raised ground floor conversion in Hammersmith Grove, with 364sq ft of well groomed living space. The bedroom is a hospitably sized mezzanine above the large living room. It’s in a handsome, tree-lined street a few minutes walk from the shops and tubes of Shepherd’s Bush. Cost: £225,000, Faron Sutaria 020 8740 7766
Photograph: Faron Sutaria

Trading down: North Norfolk. A dainty end-of-terrace in Syderstone, where you can sit down to a family meal in the square Shaker-style, kitchen. An open fire occupies one exposed brick wall beneath the beams of the sitting room, and there's a garage at the end of the private drive of this £134,950 home. The lack of garden could suit your newly reduced circumstances. Keys 01263 713966
Photograph: Keys

Dream home: Suffolk. The charms of this £995,000 home in East Bergholt worked for the painter John Constable, a native of the village, who reputedly worked in an upper room here. The landscapes he immortalised are still largely unchanged and, should you tire of the outdoor swimming pool and surround-sound cinema system you can tramp pastorally to his most famous subject, Flatford Mill. There are four bedrooms, a snug and garden room to supplement the two reception rooms and, outside, stabling, a paddock and a ménage. Fenn Wright 01206 763388
Photograph: Fenn Wright