Wealden Times | WT216 | February 2020 | Interiors supplement inside

This page and previous: The walls and towering ceilings are made from
sustainable cross-laminated timber, the look softened with Osmo oil
M
aking my way along the impressive
tree-lined drive to this house, I feel like
Kevin McCloud when he goes back
to revisit the owners of a project after they’ve
lived there for a while.
For this is the rainbow unicorn Narnia
of house aspirations – the architectdesigned
self-build. Buying a plot of land
and commissioning a design exactly to your
specs. The whole Grand Designs fantasy.
I am deeply impressed even before I make it
through the front door by the spectacular setting,
on a hillside to the rural north of Hastings,
looking out over a panoramic expanse of Wealden
countryside. Nothing to jar the retina in sight.
It was a miracle to find such a plot, so it
wasn’t a surprise to hear that it took Steve
Ackhurst, a producer, now screenwriter, and
Bronwen Malcolm, an artist, 18 months of
hard searching. Then based in Clapham, they
first started looking in West Sussex to be near
family and gradually worked their way east.
As so often with forever-home stories, they put a
lot of time and energy into another site, before
73 wealdentimes.co.uk