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THIS WEEK: Fabulous homes designed by their owners – including this chic Sinatra-style mansion
THERE is a corner of Hampshire that is forever California. And that’s because the owner of Twin Palms – on the edge of the New Forest in Beaulieu – designed his house in homage to post-war properties in the desert town of Palm Springs, famous stamping ground of stars including Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. In fact, the unique property even shares its name with Sinatra’s famous pad.
The owner of the UK version, Brian Fearn, is one of a number of people who have found success designing their own homes. ‘I’ve designed houses for over 40 years,’ he says. ‘I’m not an architect – I was put into the wrong career by my schoolmaster and worked as an accountant for 15 years. But I never stopped loving architecture and learning with each project.’
With permission to demolish the pre- existing house, he built the new one – with three bedrooms and three sitting rooms – ‘in the spirit of William Krisel’, the Palm Springs architect whose five-degree pitch roof was his trademark. ‘It’s a very pleasing pitch. It creates a good space inside that’s not a flat ceiling but nor is it a barn.’
Like many of the Krisel houses, Fearn’s Twin Palms is cedar-clad. ‘It fits with the New Forest but it still looks very Californian,’ he says. It sits in an acre and has a private jetty.
Fearn started building Twin Palms in 2012, using the best people from his previous projects: ‘ The best carpenter, the best electrician, the best plumber, the five best roofers and a perfectionist to lay the marble floor – it’s like a mirror’.
Fearn and his partner Anthony McAulay undertook much of the work t hemselves, with Fearn mixing the cement and putting in the windows.
Their work paid off. Twin Palms was shortlisted for the Daily Mail Blue Ribband Award for EcoHouse of the Year in 2013.
As Fearn’s next project looms, Twin Palms is for sale with Spencers New Forest estate agents for £1.795 million.