Wealden Times | WT258 | November 2023 | Christmas Gift Supplement inside

This page: Hidden away on the mezzanine, with cleverly thoughtout
triangular wooden ‘screens’, the bedroom/computer editing space
has beautiful countryside views through the skylights. Mel stores the
bits needed for his shoots in wicker baskets hung from a beam
them work. There are two sets of taps,
but I like that. I like the texture of the
copper piping – it came from a shop
in Lyme Regis. Originally the units
were going to be ply, but we used some
shelving from a brick furnace in the end.
We built the work surface for £150.”
The ingenious little fixes and
inventions are too many to mention,
but include a pulley system for opening
and shutting the dishwasher because it
wouldn’t quite fit its allocated space, a
Monet poster cooker splash-back, the
scaffold pole that supports a projector
screen – for clients to view pictures and
for movie nights – the ‘privacy wheat’
in the bathroom (an artful sandwiching
of grass between two pieces of glass),
the endless uses that Mel’s old bed
has been put to. Many of these have
sprung from Mel’s ‘inspiration folder’
– a folder on his phone where he keeps
track of all the things he sees on his
travels – but much comes organically.
The evolution of the stairs up to the
mezzanine is a case in point. “I was
going to have a spiral staircase,” he
explains, “then one that went straight
down, but building regs wouldn’t allow
it. The plan chest was originally meant
to go into the kitchen, but it was too
deep for where it was meant to be, so
George and I decided to incorporate it
into the staircase.” It fits so perfectly – as
if that was the original idea all along.
At the top of the stairs the joists
support the structure with a ‘V’ shape.
“The 45° angle looked ugly from
downstairs, so we’ve infilled with
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