Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash have shared the first look at their new home after moving out of their £1.3 million property, known as Pickle Cottage. Stacey, 36, posted a photo of the family on their new doorstep on Instagram on Friday night, captioning it: 'Home is wherever I'm with you… Pickle Project, Here We Go.'
The couple said they had decided to leave their beloved home in Essex after falling in love with a new property surrounded by acres of land. In Instagram stories posted the same night, Stacey told her followers that the family's chickens, ducks and bee hive had all successfully made the journey to the new house.
The Loose Women presenter said she now plans to build a huge vegetable garden and take in more rescue animals at the new property.
The New Property
It was revealed back in June that the couple had fallen in love with an eight-bedroom Victorian mansion. The house comes with a pool, sprawling gardens and enough bedrooms for all of their children.
Stacey and Joe are parents to Rex, seven, Rose, four, and Belle, three. Stacey is also mother to sons Zachary, 18, and Leighton, 14, while Joe is father to son Harry, 19, from a previous relationship. Joe said the new house will be a huge renovation project for Stacey, whom he called the queen of DIY.
Why the Move Was Kept Secret
'We are leaving and moving out of Pickle Cottage imminently, which I never thought I'd say,' Stacey explained in an emotional video on Instagram.
Revealing why the couple kept the move under wraps, Stacey said: 'Leaving Pickle Cottage was a massive decision for us, we had a lot of people we needed to speak to, we needed to get the kids around to the idea and speak to all our friends and neighbours in the area. We have just waited until someone amazing came along and fell in love with the cottage.'
An Emotional Farewell
Stacey went on to describe how special Pickle Cottage had become to the family. 'Pickle Cottage is our dream house, as soon as we moved here we fell in love with it and I still love it so, so much,' she said. 'It's a really special place to us. I gave birth to both of the girls there, we got married there, it's just so special to us.'
She said the family had long wanted more space to rescue animals and grow vegetables. 'For a little while we have always wanted to rescue more animals, grow more vegetables so we have always been thinking if there was ever a chance to get a bit more land then we would consider it,' she said. 'We saw somewhere and I was like, we could have a massive vegetable patch and we could offer our land to animals who need it and stuff like that. We could bring the horses back there, the ponies, and we went to see it and we fell in love.'
'It wasn't an easy decision, we built our lives together at Pickle Cottage but now we have found somewhere where we can see our family growing and really flourishing and this is the place,' she added.
A New Chapter
'So it's time to say goodbye to Pickle Cottage which feels so weird and basically move across to our new chapter,' Stacey said. 'It's a project, we're moving somewhere really really different and it does need a lot of love and I'm excited to do that all again.'
Pickle Cottage is the Essex home where Stacey and Joe's reality series is filmed. The couple moved into the property in 2021. Stacey and Joe first met on I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2010 and held their wedding on the grounds of Pickle Cottage in 2022.
Stacey on Home Design
Stacey has previously spoken about her love of interior decorating. Asked by House Beautiful magazine which design trend she would not get on board with, she said there was no such thing.
'It bugs me that people have an opinion on someone's house, like if there's not enough colour or if it's too garish,' she said. 'Why have you got an opinion on someone else's house? I don't appreciate it. Let people be free with their own homes and do whatever the hell they want. It might not be your style and it might not be your taste, but it's not your house.'
'I feel passionately about people judging other people's spaces,' she added. 'You live in that space. It has to support you in so many ways, whether that's emotionally or through comfort. Who are we to tell anyone that their space isn't what it should be?'
