Surrey Homes | SH108 | January 2024 | Good Living Supplement inside

Above right: The timbers in the barn are remarkably well preserved and cleaned beautifully, left untreated by wax, varnish or paint
Above left & previous page bottom left: Attention to detail in the contemporary bathrooms Previous page, top: The main bedroom
and natural finishes, textures and
giant houseplants. A focal point
chair leads your eye to the view
beyond the huge picture window.
“It’s just from Made.com,” says
Emma, “but Steve Hanson in
Ulcombe is a fantastic upholsterer
– he re-upholstered the chair and
repositioned the buttons, so now it
looks like a bespoke object rather
than a mass produced one.”
Walking back across the divide we
pass an effective piece of design that
makes the best of the potentially
difficult strip between the barn and
extension. Stones unearthed from the
site and yuccas in pots sit on a bed of
pebbles, transforming what could have
been a bleak space into a view-framing
slice down through the gap, looking
out to one of several zoned seating
areas and the landscape beyond.
Glimpses of the countryside come
in at every window, but the view
through the window at the end of the
extension is the main draw. “In winter
it’s all black out there,” Emma says.
“It took a while to get used to it, but
it’s cosy once the log burner is lit.”
The colours and textures down this
end are earthy and natural, designed
to complement the soft tones of the
scenery around them. Opposite the
comfortable – and cleverly re-covered
– Ikea sofa, is a well curated feature
wall of shelving that Emma has used
to help zone the space and to fill what
could have been a large expanse of
blank wall. “The TV on the wall by
itself could look exposed and rather
odd, potentially even an eyesore,
so we created the shelving unit
around it to soften it, housing all the
gadgetry in the cupboards beneath.”
Each of the living spaces in here
exists in its own zone, but Emma
has worked hard to create an overall
theme, uniting the two buildings
into one spacious home. There’s an
uncluttered Danish mid-century
feel throughout, but the mood is
relaxed – Emma was determined to
create a sense of space and calm.
Together she and Terry have done
more than that. Marrying two entirely
different buildings into one – and
from such monumentally different
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