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Make sure your curtains and cornices match… - 5 January 2007

…otherwise you may not be allowed to live on the new lifestyle community in North Carolina.

A leading US property developer, KB Home, has teamed up with lifestyle guru Martha Stewart (right) to create the first of several planned communities designed and built as a partnership, and if your choice of colours for the interior doesn’t fit in with the strict guidelines of the development, it won’t be permitted.

In addition, ‘advisers’ from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) will make sure you keep your lawns in a respectable state, no outside clothes-hanging devices are used, garage doors are kept closed when not in use, and that any fence installed around your property is ‘appropriately ornamental’.

All of this may sound a little regimented to your average overseas property buyer. For the most part, people are looking to get away from rules and regulations in their daily lives by moving overseas, but for those who have already bought on the Twin Lakes community, the fact that choices have largely been taken away from them is a distinct advantage.

Interviewed in a recent issue of The Sunday Telegraph, buyers Liane and Patty Coicione said “We’re delighted because we have no vision ourselves and Martha has thought of everything for us.”

For those of you who are not sure who Martha Stewart is, imagine an amalgam of Nigella Lawson, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Richard & Judy. And then some. MSLO is a huge media, marketing and retail force in the US, and anything with the Martha Stewart name attached to it is virtually guaranteed to be a storming success, snatched from the shelves by an army of Martha clones. This is not to say that Martha over-exploits her fame – she takes a healthy interest in all of the products she promotes, and the three styles of homes on the communities are all modelled on her own properties across America.

Stewart hit the worldwide headlines two years ago, when she went into prison to begin a five-month term for lying about the sale of shares in an investigation into insider trading. Since her release in March 2005, MSLO has recovered its popularity and share value.

There is no doubt the loyal American public still trust her with their homes, and their hard-earned Dollars. Sales at Twin Lakes are going well; another Martha Stewart Community has already been established in Georgia, while the next one in Woodstock, Georgia is scheduled to open in spring 2007. Plans for further communities have been announced for Texas and California, and locations such as Florida and Las Vegas have been mentioned for future projects.

This concept opens the way for similar projects across Europe. Are you ready for the Jordan and Peter Andre villas in Cyprus (right on the front), the Colin and Justin golf development in Portugal (with camping) and Lorraine Kelly’s Marbella Highland apartments?

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