THE BIG BUILD

We call it the “forever home”.

My family actually used to own this house! My granny “won” it at a cocktail party in the 1950’s. She still paid for it, but she the won the right to buy it.

One day my husband and I were walking past, we noticed it was empty so contacted the new owners (the same family that bought it from us) we couldn’t quite believe our luck when they said they were looking to sell. After waiting so patiently for us to get into a position of buying it back - in February 2018 - it was ours. And lucky for me, I married a man that had built a few houses before.

Having lived in period properties for most of my life, I knew it was going to be really strange for me to build something “new”.

I started to put together the design of our home using magazines and Pinterest. A Hamptons Beach House style isn’t really “in fashion” these days, but it does have very traditional elements to it and kept re-appearing in our searches. We worked with a fabulous architect - I showed him everything I loved and together we created the design. We of course went around in circles again and again, but ended up back at the first idea he presented to us - he was that good. (Sorry Steve!)

We are hoping to salvage as many of the red bricks as possible from the old bungalow. I think its nice when a house has a connection to its past life! By using these (and any other reclaimed materials for that matter) we hope to give our home its own unique character. Even though we are building something new, my brief has always been to create a home that feels like it has evolved over time.

For the interiors I would like to have an eclectic mix of old and new - this inspiration actually comes from the talented Judy Hutson, the vision behind The Pig interiors. So in order to have such an eclectic interior the house itself needs to be fairly simple. Simple, but not modern, and most importantly Traditional - this was a word I used a lot during the design process of our house. Think Georgian sash windows, reclaimed delabole slate and traditional jack & jill stonework.

Style of home and location

Georgian Hamptons Beach Barn (located beside the sea in Cornwall).

Timeline of build

We purchased the plot in Feb 2018. Building started in October of 2018. And we hope to be in by the following Christmas.

(See Full Timeline Blog)

If you’re anything like me, you will enjoy experiencing the highs and the lows of a real-life renovation project, with all its dirt, diggers and decision makings. And hopefully you can help me a little along the way too.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or simply want to share your thoughts and opinions. I hope you enjoy the updates and please wish us good luck!