OUR BAR MATCHES THE ONES IN SOHO HOUSE

Lexie Stoddart, 46, an interior designer, lives in Somerset with her husband ed, 48, the director of furniture design company Square roots. they have three children, Lila, 14, Freddie, 12 and tarka, 11.

TEN years ago we were living in Vietnam for Ed’s work, and he was commissioned to make cocktail bars by the designer Rupert Bevan. Some were destined for the Soho Beach House members’ club in Miami — but we liked them so much we ended up keeping one.

It’s become a treasured possession and we had to bring it with us when we returned to the UK. Made from hand-cut antique mirrored glass, it is so stylish. If you bought one now you’d pay around £10,000.

It made our house in Vietnam a social hub. Nice alcohol was tricky to get hold of, so everyone would bring us bottles from Duty Free and we would make cocktails to sip on balmy evenings under the palm trees in our garden. It really was the expat lifestyle.

The bar is now in our sitting room, with a log fire and cosy furniture. We use it every week for entertaining friends or family. Even the grannies indulge. But this year, we’ve also added Seedlip, a non-alcoholic ‘gin’, to our collection, and more friends ask for it as they do Sober October, Dry January, or just ditch alcohol.

The bar is a good ice-breaker. People will clock the bottles and ask if they can mix a cocktail, often standing by the bar for the rest of the evening. The best thing is the bar has doors to hide mess. When the night is over, you close it down, leaving the room tidy. You only realise it’s full of sticky glasses the next week!