THE LONG HOUSE

The planned renovation of a timber-clad bungalow ended up needing a more extreme approach

Tracy Head happily admits to having been the driving force behind her family’s move to the country. ‘We were living in a lovely Edwardian house near Reading that we had restored ourselves, but I really wanted to be somewhere more rural,’ she says. ‘When I first saw this house, I just fell in love with the location and practically forced my family into it. ‘None of them wanted to move, but now they all absolutely love it here,’ she adds. ‘In my heart of hearts, I’ve always wanted a barn conversion,’ continues Tracy, who runs her own interiors business and has designed interiors for several homes. ‘My dream property is a single-level longhouse – a former dairy or something similar. When I first spotted this place on Rightmove I thought it was a barn,’ she says. It turned out to be a bungalow instead but that didn’t deter Tracy as she was able to see its possibilities. ‘That initial excitement didn’t wear off and I was completely seduced,’ she adds.

The bungalow they bought was built on a wooden frame and clad in timber. Despite getting a survey and quotes for renovation before the sale, when they moved in, it soon became apparent that a more radical approach was called for. ‘Things seemed to stop working on a daily basis and the worst thing was the cold as there was no insulation,’ says Tracy. ‘While we were costing up the renovations, the architect pointed out it would probably be cheaper to rebuild.’

For a year, the family lived in the bungalow while they sought planning permission for a new home, and moved into a little annexe while the rest of the house was demolished. Tracy admits this was a nerve-wracking time as, despite their experience renovating houses, neither she nor Steve had ever imagined self-building. However, having lived on site, they found inspiration in that original bungalow.

‘It just had a real charm about it,’ says Tracy. ‘We were living with a leaking roof and it was freezing but we were completely happy – it had that special something you don’t often find in a building and we were keen to hold on to some of that.’

Plans for the new house sat on the original footprint as the couple had seen how the light worked and had come to love the way the house and garden linked together as an extended living space. ‘I had an image in mind that I had seen in a magazine,’ says Tracy,

‘and the architect was good enough to design a shell that fitted that brief – and let me do everything else.’

Steve was equally involved. They didn’t have the budget to employ a building company, so commissioned each trade as it was needed – the ground works, bricklayer etc – and, between them, the couple bought every material needed from bricks to roof tiles, with Steve searching out the best deals. Their one extra expense was a project manager, who scheduled the works, recommended the oak frame company and looked after technical issues. ‘Without him, we would have wasted a lot of time lining up the trades but he was amazing and so well-respected. He made things run smoothly and was definitely worth every penny, says Tracy.

With plans approved and building work scheduled, demolition day came – but not without its stresses. ‘When the bungalow was gone,

‘I use a LIMITED PALETTE to create a calm and RESTFUL HOME. I’ve decorated using just three paint COLOURS’

we looked around and thought: “Okay, so now we have this tiny, two-bedroom annexe for our money…” But, of course, there was no going back,’ says Tracy. In fact, the annexe became a key part of the build. The couple renovated it first, trying out materials and building relationships with suppliers that they could then roll out for the bigger project; it is now part of the main house, containing the utility room and two of the five bedrooms.

The new house is long and narrow in form, masonry-built with an oak-frame roof. Inside, Tracy has used her design skills and renovating experience to create an efficient layout that works for the whole family, while the decorating scheme has a modern rustic feel, with exposed brick walls bringing texture and an industrial look.

Tracy has devised an elegant colour palette that works with the light throughout, sticking to a pared-back range of just three paint shades: Farrow & Ball’s Down Pipe used for the exterior, the bathrooms and sitting room; Strong White for the remaining walls and Hardwick White – which switches between green and grey with the changing light – used for the joinery.

Thanks to her great eye for modern rustic furniture and accessories, Tracy’s interiors business focuses on selling stunning statement pieces, including tables and oversized mirrors. And as a second string to her bow, she lets out her home as a location house for photography shoots. However, she still finds time to seek out unique pieces at antiques fairs that have that ‘bit of soul’. Her top recommendation is Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park. ‘I don’t mind getting up at four to be there when it opens,’ she says, ‘although one day we turned up and there were no cars – we’d got the wrong week, which is very annoying when you’re in the mood for a good shop!’