A barn-style home in the back garden of an Essex family property

“As our planning and design stage progressed, Susanne was steadily falling out of love with our original plot,” says Steve. “So, we took some friends to see what they thought. We met our friends at an Oakwrights open day. They were the hosts, and this proved to be a ‘standout moment’. They said: ‘why build here with no views, when you have the most amazing views from your current home!”

Feeling at home already with their new self-build vision, Steve and Susanne sold the plot of land and set about investigating the potential of gaining planning permission at their period home set in the Essex countryside.

“We took a softly softly approach to planning, as although it was a garden plot, we had to respect that we were building in open countryside,” says Pete. “We made a pre-application which came back positive and therefore were able to make a full planning application in the knowledge we had the support of the Council. The Council liked the design and we even had neighbours write in supporting the project which was great.”

“The orientation of the house was important both for ourselves and our new neighbours, in our old home,” explains Steve. The back of their newly built home faces towards their former house, giving the privacy they required. “We didn’t want to be direct neighbours with the houses ‘in line’ with each other and square to the road,” continues Steve. “We’re actually side on to the road.”

To Steve, Susanne and our delight, planning permission was approved in September 2020.

“We spent quite a bit of time with Rupert Osborn (our Business Development Manager in East Anglia), who is a former client of Oakwrights and built his own oak frame home before starting to work for the company,” explains Steve. “We spent time looking at the details of the oak frame and design options. Rupert and his wife were very accommodating.”.

“One of our key design decisions was to build a two storey home rather than the storey and a half of their period home, so the upstairs rooms are full–height at the walls,” says Susanne. “However, we still chose open, vaulted ceilings on the first floor and therefore no attic storage but open, light and airy spaces and plenty of opportunities for beautiful lights.”

“Designing the new house gave us the opportunity to have amazing views from our hilltop position which we had kept hidden behind our garden hedge for so long,” says Steve.

The walls of glazing continue into the south wing and gable end, where Steve and Susanne’s kitchen and garden room are located. The walls of face glazing change to bi-fold doors on the south facing side which open out onto a terrace covered by a catslide roof forming a veranda. This creates shade and shelter for an indoor-outdoor living space.

The bespoke kitchen was designed and hand-built by Steve and Susanne’s eldest son Mark. Their Shaker–style cupboards provide plenty of storage and a large quartz-topped island and breakfast bar create a sociable place to sit, relax and enjoy the outstanding views.

“To avoid having a cooker hood over the induction hob, the hob features a recirculation system that keeps the air in the kitchen fresh and clean and keeps the warm air in the house, which is ideal for low and nearly zero-energy buildings,” explains Steve. “The down draft sucks all the smells from the cooking down through filters, and the air is then pumped out through the kick board.

Upstairs, the southern wing of Steve and Susanne’s home contains their bedroom, dressing room and en-suite. A large face glazed gable floods this space with light, and the vaulted ceiling adds glamour and is finished with a beautiful chandelier. The bedroom has a beautiful en-suite wet room which also enjoys a vaulted ceiling with the shower appearing to cascade from the sky thanks to double Velux rooflights – it wouldn’t look out of place in the Maldives.

The second bedroom is a multi-purpose space and is often used as an upstairs sitting room that benefits from expansive views.

Steve and Susanne planned their lighting to make the most of their oak frame. Running LED strips along the top of the beams draw your eyes up towards the oak and large chandeliers feature hanging in all the vaulted ceilings.