A barn-style family home with a hint of Scandinavia in Kent

We were looking for a building plot in a rural position, ideally with a couple of acres, and with beautiful views. One agent laughed at me on the phone when he heard our request and told me that I would never find it. This was like a red rag to a bull and made us even more determined! Ironically, it was a year later that the same agent advertised an open day for something that exactly fitted our requirements, and more! It was an equestrian property, with five and a half acres of land on a quiet country lane near the village of Benenden in Kent, with planning permission attached for a replacement dwelling. The icing on the cake was the stunning countryside view surrounding half of the land, and the beautiful ancient woodland on the other.

After two crowded open days, there were 18 serious buyers who wanted it. It went to sealed bids and having stretched ourselves to the limit, we were overjoyed when we received the phone call to say that it was ours. The planning permission came with a house design that we found very ordinary and uninspiring, so we set out on a year-long journey to try and change both the design and size with the Council, which was not to prove an easy task. After a shaky start with a local oak frame company and their recommended planning consultant, we decided to take a complete change of tack.

The permitted footprint was not really large enough for what we wanted, so we decided to design a two storey house but with the addition of a single storey L-shaped wing which was to borrow most of the space from the footprint of a no longer required large stable block on-site. At first the Council were very negative about this plan and said that policy might possibly allow us to convert the stable and add it on. Darren and I attended several meetings with the Council together to try and gently persuade them to allow the demolition of this to enable us to start again with a beautiful oak frame to match the rest of the house. Eventually the policy was overridden and permission was granted for this as the overall consensus from the planning committee and especially the Parish Council, was that they loved the design and we were greatly improving the site which is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a ‘Kent Special Landscape’ area.

In my job, I have enjoyed the scope to work with an array of tastes and interior styles over the years, with the majority of my commissions being for traditionally-styled period country homes in Kent and Sussex. However, building a new larger house for ourselves gave me the opportunity to really indulge my own particular love of Scandinavian-style homes. This probably stems from my Swedish family roots and is such a wonderfully calm, fresh and uplifting look which we felt showed off the beauty of the oak frame perfectly. We kept the downstairs of our new home completely open-plan, with the exception of the cloakroom and boot room. The L-shaped single storey extension houses our kitchen, a second sitting-room and dining room areas; all with large expanses of windows/French doors, taking in the glorious countryside views.

A step down into the main two storey part of the house leads to an open-plan hall and more formal drawing room area. A separate entrance porch space is a practical addition. Cream limestone flooring throughout with underfloor heating and a neutral colour pallet on the walls and also for the kitchen and bathrooms has given the house an incredibly light and bright interior: a relief after having lived in dark older properties previously!