071_COAST_OCT16

coast DEVON SPECIAL 

building 

a future 

By re-modelling a neglected, historic malthouse in Kingsbridge 

on the South Devon coast, Misha Smith and Lucy Voice have 

succeeded in creating a light-filled, contemporary family home 

words Alex Reece Photographs Jason Ingram 

62 coast coastmagazine.co.uk coastmagazine.co.uk 63 coast


Walking down a backstreet in the 

estuary town of Kingsbridge in 

South Devon, you might pass an 

unassuming terraced cottage built of mellow 

local stone. What you won’t see from the 

pavement, however, is how this 200-year-old 

former malthouse has been completely 

re-imagined inside by its owners Misha Smith 

and Lucy Voice, to create a cutting-edge 

family home, complete with split levels, 

polished concrete floors, cantilevered steel 

stairs and glimpses of the town’s rooftops and 

seagulls through the skylights and floor-toceiling 

windows. 

‘I like the fact that behind the facade there’s 

something unexpected,’ says Misha, an 

architect who grew up in nearby Totnes, while 

chef Lucy is originally from Dartmouth. ‘Having 

grown up by the sea, I find living here very 

calming,’ she adds. ‘And our kids love it, too – 

we’re giving them the same kind of childhood 

that we had.’ 

When they first came across the property 

in 2013, the couple were working and renting 

in London. But after the arrival of their first 

child, Oscar, now five years old, Lucy in 

particular was keen to return to the South 

Devon coast to be nearer to family. ‘We wanted 

the children to have those close connections,’ 

she says. At the time, the unlisted building had 

lain empty for five years, and was damp and 

dark with no outside space. Having first been 

built as part of the town’s Phoenix Brewery, 

it had served various commercial purposes 

over its long history – as a store for bottles and 

building materials, for example – and latterly 

had housed various small business units. 

Despite its unloved state, the pair saw 

the potential to do something interesting 

architecturally: ‘Opportunities like this don’t 

come up often in the area,’ says Misha, who 

began sketching ideas of how to bring more 

light and air into the site. As Kingsbridge, 

which is close to beaches yet slightly off the 

beaten tourist track, was still comparatively 

affordable for the South Hams, it seemed too 

good a chance to miss. And so by October 

that year, the property was theirs. 

left, TOP The Malthouse is built from local stone left The Bordfolk egg cups are 

by Lucie Kaas OPPOSITE, FROM TOP LEFT Oscar, five, draws on the blackboard wall 

in the kitchen/diner; Misha fashioned the dining table and bench from some of the 

original floorboards; Misha and Lucy made the concrete worktops themselves 



‘Having grown up by the sea, 

I find living here very calming. 

And our kids love it, too. We’re 

giving them the same kind of 

childhood that we had’ 

ANCIENT & MODERN 

Having weighed up the costs, Misha took the 

decision to quit his job (at architectural practice 

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners) to manage 

the building project himself, and the family left 

London just after planning consent came 

through for his concept in early 2014. 

Fortunately, Misha already had some 

hands-on experience, having laboured on 

building projects and in a boatyard between 

school and university. ‘I got into architecture 

because of my interest in building and making,’ 

he explains. Nevertheless, it was a large 

undertaking, involving an average of five men 

working on site for 16 months. Together, they 

removed the asbestos cement roof, stripped 

out all the floors, replaced every window and 

door, and demolished part of the structure to 

create a first-floor garden room to the rear 

and, later, an entrance yard to the side. 

Wherever possible, original features were 

preserved – such as the characterful 

stonework, which local stonemason John 

Watson spent the best part of a year restoring. 

And when the original roof timbers proved too 

rotten and woodworm-ridden to be re-used, 

principal carpenter Jim Woodyer planed the 

original floor joists to create an alternative that 

was in keeping. Misha is particularly proud of 

the roof – an engineering challenge – where 

custom-made steel brackets and reclaimed 

beams elegantly combine the building’s 

heritage with modern industrial chic. 

It’s a theme that continues throughout: the 

black steel stairs, which Misha co-designed 

with his engineer friend Andrew Johnson 

left, clockwise from top The living room sofa came from Hay; Misha built 

the coffee table himself; the armchair was an eBay find, which the couple 

re-upholstered, and the yellow cushion is from Castle RIGHT, top Cacti line the 

shelf in the bathroom RIGHT, CENTRE Misha co-designed the stairs with his 

engineer friend Andrew Johnson at Arup Sydney, together with Andrew’s colleague 

Xavier Nuttall RIGHT Lucy started her collection of vintage bobbins while travelling 

in America where she picked up a few at car-boot sales 



at Arup Sydney and installed himself, look 

entirely in context within this former working 

building. Another clever new addition was the 

split-level floor plan: a second-floor mezzanine 

in the loft has stairs leading down either side 

to double-height spaces in the kitchen and 

master bedroom. The gable end in the kitchen/ 

diner is now fully glazed and retractable, 

leading out onto the newly created courtyard. 

Consequently, light floods the interior from all 

sides, including from above through light wells 

and skylights. ‘I’m pleased that we’ve managed 

to make it feel quite open and airy,’ says Misha, 

who cites repairing the extensive stonework as 

being one of the few unexpected costs. ‘The 

build itself actually went quite smoothly.’ 

‘I’m pleased we’ve 

managed to make 

it feel quite open 

and airy’ 

A SELF-MADE HOME 

While the project was ongoing, the couple 

were living with Misha’s mum in Dartington. 

‘And during that time we had another baby as 

well (Scarlett, now one),’ laughs Misha as he 

recalls this eventful time in their lives. Once the 

three-bed home was safe to live in, from late 

April 2015, the family took up residence. At this 

point, Misha also returned to work at RSHP 

in London, while continuing to complete the 

house in his spare time. 

Lucy, who has a good eye for materials and 

finishes, had considerable input into the fit-out. 

For example, she and Misha cast the stylish 

concrete worktops for the kitchen together. 

The self-made aspect of the fixtures and 

furnishings helped both to keep costs down 

and to add individuality – after building the 

kitchen units with the carpenter Jim, Misha 

re-purposed some of the original floorboards 

to create the dining table and bench. He also 

made all the beds for the house, pairing them 

with brightly coloured furniture legs sourced 

online by Lucy. 

Witty home accessories, such as vintage 

toys Lucy has picked up in charity shops and 

on eBay, along with graphic prints and pastel 

linens, generate an upbeat, familyleft, 

TOP The blue chair in the spare room is a Tolix, while the desk came from 

Habitat LEFT The two paintings in the spare room are by Dartmouth artist James 

Stewart (jamesstewartart.com). The lamp is Habitat right, clockwise from 

top The wooden toy vehicle belongs to Oscar and is by Sirch; the old record player 

belonged to Misha’s mum; the apple print above the bed in the master bedroom 

was designed by Enzo Mari in 1963 

coastmagazine.co.uk 

69 coast


friendly feel in the mezzanine and master 

bedroom. And the resident cactus – named 

Pietro, after a colleague of Misha’s – has 

become a leitmotif for the overall decorative 

scheme. The spiny plants appear on ceramics, 

bedlinen and lined along a shelf in the family 

bathroom. Meanwhile, on the gallery-white 

walls, paintings by local artist James Stewart 

are displayed to striking effect. 

THE LIVING IS EASY 

Along with the convivial flow of the living space, 

the town-centre location and easy access to 

the seaside have brought much to family life. 

‘I absolutely love it here,’ says Lucy. ‘It’s very 

friendly, everything’s really convenient, and 

we’re so close to the sea.’ In their downtime, 

she and Misha – who enjoys sailing and 

kitesurfing – take the children on coastal walks, 

go crabbing at Dittisham and have barbecues 

on the local beaches. ‘Being a chef, I really 

love living close to so many great producers,’ 

Lucy adds. ‘There’s a farmer’s market in town 

and lots of useful shops – Kingsbridge is a 

proper town rather than a holiday place.’ 

In the future, they hope to offer B&B 

accommodation in the as yet unrenovated 

ground floor, which has space for two 

bedrooms (alongside a workshop, laundry 

and garage), enabling Lucy to use her culinary 

skills in a home environment. ‘I have a little 

dream that we could have a back-street café 

downstairs, too, where I can cook,’ says Lucy. 

For now, Misha’s work commitments are 

taking the family abroad for a couple of years, 

during which time The Malthouse will be 

available to let (see details below). The creative 

couple look forward to realising their plans for 

the final phase of development on their return. 

‘Part of the reason for doing the project, and 

doing so much ourselves, is that both of us 

enjoy the process,’ says Misha. ‘I feel like 

we’ve learned a lot over the past two years 

and I’d love to do it again.’ 

MISHA & LUCY’S KINGSBRIDGE WEEKEND 

• Our favourite local beach is South 

Milton Sands (nationatrust.org.uk/southmilton-sands). 

It’s about 10 minutes by car 

and has a really nice café set back from the 

beach that does good food (01548 561144, 

beachhousedevon.com). 

• For eating out, we like to go to The 

Crabshell Inn in Kingsbridge, which is 

right on the river – you can watch people 

paddleboarding outside (01548 852345, 

crabshellinn.com). There’s a great bakery 

and café called The Almond Thief in Totnes, 

which is a 20-minute drive. They make 

sourdough bread, which is amazing, 

and sell lovely coffee (01803 411290, 

thealmondthief.com). 

• We do loads of coast walks, and 

you can get all the way from Bantham to 

Thurlestone and Hope Cove on the South 

West Coast Path (southwestcoastpath.org. 

uk). If you keep going you eventually get to 

Salcombe and it’s all stunning. 

• A cool thing to do with kids is to take 

the sea tractor at Bigbury-on-Sea to Burgh 

Island. There’s a lovely pub, The Pilchard 

Inn, on the other side (01548 810514, 

burghisland.com). The whole experience 

is special, and you can walk up to the top 

of Burgh Island and get an incredible view. 

• For a grown-up day out, have lunch 

at the Anchorstone Café in Dittisham (01803 

722365, anchorstonecafe.co.uk) then catch 

the ferry to Greenway, once home to Agatha 

Christie and now owned by the National 

Trust (nationaltrust.org.uk/greenway; turn to 

page 74 this issue for more on Greenway). 

To find out about The Malthouse, please go 

to malthou.se. 

top Lucy bought the teepee in Pietro’s Room where Oscar is playing from 

munalondon.com centre Misha found the Richard Ardagh letter-press artwork for 

Lucy in London’s Columbia Road left The cactus bedlinen is from Urban Outfitters 

right Misha, Lucy, Oscar, and Scarlett at South Milton Sands – a National Trust 

beach 10 minutes away from their home by car

071_COAST_OCT16

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