A graceful Cornish country house restored to its former glory

There are houses that repel with gates and buzzers, and then there are houses that open their arms in welcome. Set in one of the lushest and loveliest parts of Cornwall, overlooking an estuary and close to the sea, this house is a welcomer.

While you wait on the threshold, you may hear the piano and catch the faint spicy scent of Rhododendron 'Fragrantissimum' flowering in pots by the front door. The entrance hall is comfortably messy, a mix of elegance and clobber: the hatstand piled with coats and straw panamas, the diagonal chequerboard of the stone floor edged with a scatter of children's shoes. A pair of alabaster urns on scagliola columns stands guard on either side of inner doors, and there is a view across a hall into the dining room and the drawing room. The invitation has been extended even before the owner ushers you inside.

It is a perfect introduction to a house in which classical proportions, antique furnishings and fine paintings coexist happily with the informality of family life. The architectural style is late Georgian, with generous sash windows, deep eaves and a dash of Italianate villa, thanks to a balcony that sits above the drawing room bay, and a pair of triple-arched windows across the first floor of the south-west façade where terraced lawns drop away to woodland.

The house was built in about 1840 for Reverend Samuel Wallis, a founding fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, who inherited the estate and promptly commissioned Plymouth architect George Wightwick, a former assistant to Sir John Soane, to replace the existing house. Wightwick made a fine job of it, matching the handsome exterior with an interior of light, high-ceilinged rooms enhanced by architectural detailing that is robust, refined and, in places, almost Soanian.

In the past 100 years, the house has been a hotel and a Christian refuge, and even divided into flats. Despite these changes of use and fortune, it has survived intact, complete with its marble chimneypieces, panelled doors and acanthus cornices. Perhaps this is partly due to the convenience and appeal of its layout, which places the reception rooms and three principal bedrooms in the main body of the house, and smaller, secondary rooms and the large kitchen to one side. Linking them all is a wide, central hall, which allows a long internal vista from the kitchen, past two smaller sitting rooms, the staircase and the doors to the drawing room and dining room, and into the library at the far end.

The owners moved here from Trematon Castle, a house of a similar date and on the same coast of Cornwall, with a similar square footage. 'We took on the lease at Trematon 12 years ago, after our son was born,' says the owner. 'I have five children from my first two marriages, all grown-up and independent, but at that stage we needed space for them. Now we have two children at home and we wanted to buy instead of lease. As soon as we saw this house, we felt it was exactly right.'

Before moving in, they asked the interior designer, architectural historian and natural paint expert Edward Bulmer for his help. 'Edward has a marvellous eye,' says the owner. 'We worked with him at Trematon. He has a great feel for colour and he is fantastic at arranging furniture and pictures.' For his part, Edward says that these are delightful clients, and are unusually united on aesthetic decisions. Despite their very different backgrounds, they share a taste for the modest grandeur of English country-house style, for antique rugs, traditional chintz and books. While he has long been making considered acquisitions, funded by a successful family business - the alabaster urns in the hall were one of his first serious purchases - she, as the daughter of an antique dealer, has added several pieces of her own.

They both love the garden and grounds. 'We did a huge amount of work on the gardens at Trematon,' she says, 'including putting in the swimming pool and reconstructing the Moghul pavilion from architectural salvage shipped over from Rajasthan.' Here they have been just as busy, taming the woodland below the house, dredging the ponds, reviving a small waterfall, making safe the ruin of an old mill and planting hundreds of magnolias, azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias. 'We inherited a marvellous gardener, John Bacon, who has been here for 20 years,' says the husband. Between them, George Wightwick, John Bacon, Edward Bulmer and the owners have succeeded in creating a home that is beautiful, but also practical, and so comfortable that you may not want to leave.