Surrey Homes | SH111 | April 2024 | Garden Supplement inside

The story arc of an adventure tale involves a journey
into the unknown, meetings with strangers, potential
disasters, a point at which everything goes wrong and
then, just when the hero is about to give up, a miraculous
twist, event or awakening occurs and there’s happily ever
after. Epic building projects often have such trajectories,
but not usually before the building work even starts.
When Dominic and Eve bought two derelict barns to convert,
they embarked on what turned out to be an eight year quest
to get permission to transform them into a single home. This
involved several stages in changes of use from commercial
occupancy back to agricultural and then to residential – not to
mention the re-homing of an owl and some bats – and dealing
with the council’s description of one of the buildings (at the
time on the verge of imminent collapse) as a heritage asset
that must be preserved at all costs. Once all these hurdles had
been overcome, the project itself was relatively straightforward
– I say relatively, as it’s nigh on impossible not to have a few
hiccups along the way with such a project, but in the scheme
of things, from the time that permission was finally granted,
the build has only taken eighteen months to complete.
The couple’s architect has done a great job at marrying two very
different buildings together so that they look like one complete
dwelling. The view of the outside as you approach is fabulous
(very Grand Designs) and has a real wow factor, but on the inside,
combining the ultra modern of one part with a traditional feel and
look of a rustic vernacular building on the other, was a challenge.
They sought the help of Victoria Allen, an interior designer
specialising primarily in kitchens and bathrooms, but increasingly
in the design of general living spaces – especially now that so
many of us combine our living, dining and kitchen areas into
Previous pages & this page: The whole design
process started in the kitchen and flowed out from
there to unite the spacious open plan living area
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