A FOREVER FARMHOUSE
Pretty floral fabrics and pastel shades create a welcoming interior in this Kentish cottage
Caroline Cowan does not usually entertain flights of fancy, but she did have a moment when the dream of living an idyllic farm lifestyle became a reality. It happened in 2008, when she and her husband, Robert, an IT consultant and talented multi-tasker, set out to find a property in Kent. Beautiful surroundings were among their priorities, and Caroline had come on her own to view this farm. “Suddenly, into my head came an image of animals, lots of cooking and children running around indoors and out… A bit like the Larkins in The Darling Buds of May,” she declares, laughing as she admits to it. Looking around the place, she realised why the picture had formed, as this farm offered the ideal ingredients.
She called Robert to come and visit quickly and, when they had viewed the farm together, he agreed that it was the perfect place. Buildings clustered round the farmhouse included a listed 17th-century oak-framed barn, stables, two further barns, an old dairy and five ponds set in 22 acres. Caroline and Robert have three daughters, Amelia, Lily and Maisie, who were young enough to enjoy the surroundings. So when their offer for the farm was accepted, it was time to bring the dream to life.
It was not an idle dream, either. The Cowans knew what they were taking on, as they were upsizing from a five-acre smallholding, and came to the farm with 20 Suffolk sheep and four Gloucester Old Spot pigs. The three-bedroom, 18th-century farmhouse was on the small side for the family of five and an initial upset came when their application to build a larger kitchen and fourth bedroom was turned down. At some time in the previous owners’ three generations of occupancy, a narrow extension had been added along the back of the house with a door in the centre, so the Cowans had to do the best they could with this.
One end of the extension had been fitted with a disabled bathroom, while there was a kitchen at the other end. The living area was partitioned into three little rooms, and these were easily opened up to give a good-sized sitting and dining room with a large brick-lined fireplace acting as a significant presence. But upstairs was a tight fit with small bedrooms, and any visitors had to be accommodated in a caravan. “Decoratively, it was very
1960s, complete with an avocado bathroom,” Caroline says, “but it wasn’t grotty. And the listed barn had been kept in good repair, too.”
The catalogue of building and restoration work Robert has undertaken could have set him up with an alternative career. During the first six months, he removed the downstairs bathroom to convert the space into a small breakfast room, and then began on the kitchen, first taking down a false ceiling, which instantly changed the room from cramped to lofty. That was merely phase one. He then laid brick floor tiles right along the back extension and fitted out the kitchen with unit carcasses they had been given, adding new doors made by a local joiner. Glazed cupboards rescued from old dressers were fixed to the walls, and the shelves for Caroline’s cookery books were found at Ardingly Antiques Fair, a favourite hunting ground. “I haven’t got the big family kitchen I wanted,” Caroline concedes, “but this functions very well. I often cook for a lot of people, so it has to be a well-organised space.”
One issue they had to resolve was how the interior should be furnished and decorated. It is something Caroline admits she feels so strongly about, she finds it impossible to compromise. “For me, these farmhouse rooms demand soft pastel colours, pretty floral fabrics and vintage furniture,” she says. “But that is very much my style and not Rob’s. We talked about it a lot and agreed that if he could accept my way of decorating the house, he would have a free hand in the design of the old dairy that we were planning to convert into additional three-bedroom accommodation.”
All the furniture in the house is vintage, and only a practised eye could pick out the few pieces that are not. “I love big chests of drawers, dressers, old chairs and tables,” Caroline says, “and although our decorating style is different, Rob and I go to antiques markets together. As well as Ardingly, we visit The Three French Hens brocante events, which are held near here
“These rooms demand soft shades and painted furniture”
several times a year. Rising Star in Tenterden is another antiques shop where we’ve found some pieces we love.”
In 2012, with work on the buildings well in hand, and the land stocked with more pigs as well as geese and chickens, the Cowans joined forces with members of the family to buy the 15th-century Woolpack Hotel in Tenterden. Robert now manages it and has converted the large barn at the back into, as Caroline describes it, “a canteen for foodies, with dishes prepared from local ingredients. There are lots of big salads in summer, and hotpots and tagines in winter. And, of course, sausages from the farm.”
After ten years on the farm, early memories of fitting everyone into the house are fading. “Our daughter Lily now lives in the converted dairy with her husband and young daughter,” Caroline says. “And, after converting that, Rob designed the Fishing Shack on the edge of the largest of the farm’s ponds. It’s where the children’s friends, and visitors who like to fish, ask to stay. Rob did everything, from the design concept to acquiring materials. Then he built it, helped by my brother Michael and Rob’s nephew, Ben.”
There was one more building to require Robert’s talents as designer-builder and that was the brick barn, a one-bedroom studio. Their youngest daughter, Maisie, now lives there and works in the pub. As their eldest daughter, Amelia, works in London, it means Caroline and Robert have the farmhouse to themselves. It is, Caroline confirms, the perfect size for two.
The Woolpack Hotel (01580 388501; thewoolly.com).
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“The Fishing Shack is where the children’s friends like to stay”