Surrey Homes | SH76 | May 2021 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

This page: A double-height,
oak-framed atrium is lined with
fabulous books and objects
room spans across the back of the house and is vaulted
into the apexes. Every piece of the frame is exposed. Paul
Cresswell at Sackville Oak Frames made the frames at
his workshop in Kent. They took around nine weeks to
make, but just three days to install on site, and it must
have been thrilling to see it coming together so seamlessly.
Tim points to a single dark peg in a beam, “This is so that
you know it is one of Paul’s frames, it’s his signature.”
The frames next to the bathroom and dressing
room are glazed, necessitating a creative invention
within the fixings from Paul to ensure that the glass
panels don’t shatter as the oak flexes and settles. A hint
of the wonderfully verdant colour in the bathroom
gleams through the oak frame high above the bed.
“I love the oak frame,” Tim says, as we gaze around the
huge vaulted room. “Every piece of it – and the double
gable. I didn’t want any of it covered over, so it’s all exposed.
And,” he adds, “I feel vindicated that it looks just right.”
The bedroom is decorated simply, the walls are Farrow
& Ball’s Schoolhouse White and the wonderful floor
length curtains couldn’t really be anything other than
William Morris, that great celebrator of artisans and
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