Home’s where the YURT is!
FOR SALE: The charming Devon pad – complete with a £20k tent in the back garden
HE HAS designed properties for Richard Branson, Pete Townshend and Adam Ant, but perhaps his most daring project has been his own home in Devon. That’s where architect Count Dominic Bon de Sousa Pernes has done something as striking as his name: installing a £20,000 yurt in the garden.
The hand-crafted circular building, based on the traditional dwellings of nomads in central Asia, is hired out by Dom, as he likes to be known, for up to £90 a night. It’s in the quaint village of Bishopsteignton in Devon, on a south-facing slope overlooking farmland and the beautiful Teign estuary. On one side are the wilds of Dartmoor and on the other the market town of Newton Abbot and seaside resort of Teignmouth, and within walking distance are three beaches, a vineyard and a real ale brewery.
‘The parcel of land the yurt sits on was empty, so I wanted to make good use of it,’ says Dom. ‘ Even though it was a big project, putting it in place has worked out well.
‘I designed the yurt, introduced a Megaflo hot water system, a septic tank and an electricity supply, and surrounded it with feature lighting inside and out. The structure was made from one large ash tree from a local estate. I designed the king-size ash bed, made an ash raised floor and put a wood-burner, fridge and a private barbecue area outside.’
The yurt has an oak-gate entrance, flanked by decorative finial spears reclaimed from the set of the Oscarwinning Russell Crowe film Gladiator. ‘My brother-in-law worked as location manager on the movie and was allowed to take some of the props, so I added the 6ft-high spear finials from the film’s Roman Emper- or’s tents, and illuminated them for dramatic effect,’ says Dom. ‘It’s definitely a talking point with visitors.
‘I also incorporated windows and door portholes in the design, which is unique for this style of structure. The craftsmanship is a work of art in its own right.’
The yurt, which has a shower room and en suite toilet, has a diameter of 20ft and its latticework is woollined. It’s entirely shielded from Dom’s main house, Stone Lodge, thanks to an ancient protected tree.
Stone Lodge, which has five bedrooms, was originally the gatehouse to a larger, listed villa, Bishopsteignton House, situated nearby in the surrounding woodland. The lodge was built in 1840 and has its own private lane, as well as masonry columns adorning its iron-gated driveway.
Since buying the property three years ago, Dom has i nvested £160,000 in it. He has extended the lodge and upgraded its annexe, and added an impressive kitchen, pond, water features, rocky surrounds and a variety of outbuildings.
‘The minute we visited the original lodge, we fell in love with it, but I wanted to open it up, to utilise the space and give it a contemporary feel that complemented its history,’ says Dom, who moved there from Surrey with his wife Theresa and two daughters.
In the main house, each room is an explosion of theatre, with bespoke items of self-designed, hand-made furniture and historical artefacts, illustrating Dom’s passions. The property brims with an inimitable charm that illustrates its owners’ effervescent personality.
Indeed, he is a man of many talents: the saxophone-playing son of a titled Portuguese aristocrat had a No 7 hit, Making Up Again, in 1978 with his band, Goldie, and he was in a group with Bryan Ferry while the pair were at Newcastle University in the late 1960s.
It was also around this time that he was commissioned to create posters for the Lord Of The Rings characters Gollum, Gandalf and Shadowfax. More than 300,000 copies were sold.
THE welcome porch to the lodge is adorned with a plaster reproduction of a classical Roman bust, and the decked garden terrace is home to a tailor-made wooden hot tub.
Other features include a large, open-plan downstairs area, a logburning stove in the sitting room and a master suite that has a separate dressing room and en suite that includes a built- in Jacuzzi, shower and bidet. Outdoors there is a summer house, an orchard and a stream with three bridges over it.
‘ It’s taken three years of hard work but it’s been worth it,’ Dom says. ‘I’ve really put my heart and soul into this home.’
The property – i ncluding the yurt and the spears from Gladiator (the yurt’s bed is up for negotiation too) – is on the market with Teignmouth- based estate agents Dart and Partners for offers in excess of £650,000.
Dom, who was born in London, is returning there to concentrate on a music project.