UNEXPECTED COUNTRY The reinvention of an unloved 19th-century barn near the Suffolk coast
An unloved 19th-century barn near the Suffolk coast has become a stunning, award-winning contemporary home, and a new business for a couple from south London
When Bruce Badrock retired from the Royal Navy a few years ago, it sparked in him a desire to leave London, where he had been living for many years, and do something different. Along with his partner David Woodbine, an accountant in the charity sector, he decided to look at starting a B&B in Suffolk. ‘It was a very loose process,’ says David. ‘We thought, we like Suffolk, it’s not too far from London, and that is as far as we got!’
Then, taking it further, they visited the area and almost bought an old, rambling place, but the sale fell through. It made them think, ‘If we’re going to do this, why not build something different? We like modern buildings in a city, so why not stay in one in the country?’ This was partly inspired by Living
Architecture, a holiday home rental company, as one of its properties, Dune House, is nearby.
Bruce and David began to look for something suitable for development and stumbled across a 19th-century barn and farm worker’s cottage near the Suffolk coastal villages of Thorpeness and Aldeburgh. ‘It had been unsympathetically converted in the 1960s and was hidden by a wall of giant conifers. But it was in a lovely spot, with five acres of land and we could see it had huge potential. So we sold our house in Peckham, took the plunge, and bought it,’ says David.
While they were still living in London, they got together with architect Greg Blee of Blee Halligan, whose work they’d seen on BBC’s The
House That £100K Built. It struck a chord and they hired him to work with them. Greg came up with a bold design – a zigzag-roofed,
‘We came up with three ideas that summed up the project: cost effectiveness, simplicity in the build and architectural excitement’
cedar-shingled, sculptural, geometric design that joins onto the existing red-brick barn.
Bruce and David had already worked out that they would need five guest bedrooms for the project to pay for itself, so that determined the shape and size of the building. They had to increase the footprint slightly to make this happen, but were not allowed to go up any higher than six metres. Four of the bedrooms are on a mezzanine with the fifth at the end, at full height. ‘All of the rooms have high ceilings and generous skylights so they feel very airy and, of course, they follow the line of the roof, so they’re an interesting shape,’ explains David.
The striking design went on to win a National RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) award. They employed a local builder, but were very hands on, living on-site in a part of the barn while the build was in progress, to keep costs down as much as anything else. As well as attaching the cedar shingles to the side of the building, they also helped with the insulation, grinding the concrete floors, plumbing, tiling, painting and varnishing. ‘We’d done up our house in Peckham over seven years, so we weren’t strangers to building work, and although it went well, it did take longer than we had originally hoped,’ says David. ‘Finally the catalyst was hosting our neighbour’s 80th birthday party. We could tell he was worried about the lack of progress, so we made a real effort to finish it before the big day, fitting the toilets and literally making the beds before guests arrived!’ he laughs.
Although the building is one long space, Greg suggested they extend the ‘sense of theatre’ that comes from walking into the hall, which is painted dark blue with quarry tiles on the floor, into the new section. They’ve done this with bright white
walls and soaring ceilings alongside concrete floors ground and polished by Bruce. Douglas
Fir plywood was used in the kitchen area, with a lighter birch ply lining the gallery and the bedroom ‘pods’ in the mezzanine rooms, chosen for both for its modern aesthetic but also because it was inexpensive. The pair had been collecting furniture for years, not knowing if it would work in the space, but by happy accident, the end result is a modern eclectic look that feels just right in this stunning building. They also display work by local artists as an informal gallery, which can be purchased, and a lot of the soft furnishings have been made by David, though he sensibly brought in the professionals to cover the mid-century sofa and chair in the living room.
With the building all but finished, David has now turned his attention to the garden. ‘Just in front of the barn is the “white garden”, my homage to Sissinghurst, and beyond that there’s more of a traditional cottagey feel. At the back, I went for a prairie planting approach with ornamental grasses and wildflowers. As each room has its own deck, I used grasses to create a little privacy around them. My next job is to put in additional paths so guests can walk around more easily, and enlarge the gravel garden to include seating and firepits,’ he explains.
‘We’re so pleased with how the project has turned out and especially love cooking in the full-height barn. We’re really lucky to get lots of feedback from our guests – pretty much all of them seem to have loved it – even in the early days when we had hardly any furniture or pictures on the walls,’ smiles David. HB For more information and how to book, visit fiveacrebarn.co.uk