PLAIN COUNTRY

It was love at first sight for one couple viewing this mid-century property, even though they knew it would take considerable work to turn it into the striking, comfortable home it is now

It was a labour of love for one couple who renovated a mid-century property in the Wiltshire countryside

LIVING ROOM

Seating faces the original woodburner set into a feature brick wall, on which hangs artworks by Duncan Bullen bought at auction. The floor lamp is from Twentytwentyone, and the vintage Hans Wegner sofa and armchair came from Twentieth Century Antiques

Sandra Coppin wasn’t looking to buy a country home when she first decided to take a peek at Ansty Plum. She had come across the mid-century Wiltshire house on an estate agent’s website and saw that it had been designed by architect David Levitt, alongside the famous Brutalist architects Alison and Peter Smithson. Yet there’s nothing Brutalist about Ansty Plum, which ties itself to a remarkable rural setting with particular grace and sensitivity.

‘I got in touch with the agents and said I’d like to see the property, but failed to mention I wasn’t interested in buying it,’ says Sandra, who is also an architect with her own practice, Coppin Dockray. ‘I thought it would be a fun day out. So on a very cold Valentine’s Day we came to look around and have a pub lunch. But Nico and I fell in love with it immediately, and put in a bid that day.’

The house does have a clear and seductive charm. Ansty Plum was originally commissioned by Roger Rigby, who worked with the legendary structural engineering firm Arup. The early 1960s property sits under a dramatic mono-pitch roof that mirrors the natural gradient of the hillside on which it perches. The lower level contains an open-plan living space, with a long bank of windows looking out across the valley and towards the medieval church and manor house opposite. An exposed framework of Douglas fir complemented by rugged brick walls gives the house an organic simplicity. On the upper level, situated towards the rear of the building, there’s a mezzanine main bedroom, a bathroom and second bedroom, which is currently used by Sandra’s daughters, Eva and Anna.

‘The house has an innate modesty and it’s all the better for it,’ says Sandra. ‘There’s a limited palette of materials and they have a real character and honesty to them. Everything here has to work very hard to justify its existence.’

Once they had owned the house for 10 years, Sandra and Nico came to the realisation that it would need a considerable amount of work to turn it into a home that could be used through all the seasons. ‘It was almost uninhabitable for much of the year because it was so cold,’ says Sandra. The roof was leaking and the cold winters were cracking the brickwork, while the studio [a separate building in the garden] had crumbled to the point of being

DINING AREA

Thanks to a run of huge windows that frame a view of the valley, this sunny open-plan space has a real connection to the outside. Sandra designed the table using leftover zinc from the project, while Nico bought the vintage school chairs many years ago

KITCHEN

Bringing the building’s heritage into the update, Sandra incorporated the original stainless-steel worktop in the new kitchen. The unit fronts are recycled timber from old chemistry lab benches

‘There’s a limited palette of materials and they have a real character and honesty to them’

HALLWAY

A floor-to-ceiling window beside the entrance allows light to flow through into the hallway area, where there’s plenty of storage for coats and boots

BATHROOM

By using the same tiles on floor and walls and keeping to simple pieces with clean lines, Sandra has made the most of the space in this small room. The basin is from Bathroom Brands, the sanitaryware company where Nico works as a design director, and the taps are from Vola

MAIN BEDROOM

Left and opposite Sitting within a timber-framed mezzanine towards the rear of the building, this bedroom looks down onto the main living space below. The blanket on the bed is by Eleanor Pritchard and the pendant lights are salvage pieces by Alvar Aalto. Similar designs can be found at Artek. Coppin Dockray adapted the original bed and designed a complementary headboard backed by a desk and a modest home office