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The Househunter mixing old and new

modern-extension-to-old-farmhouse
Off to Gloucestershire this week to visit this house which marries a 19th century former gasworks to a modern light-filled extension that has been clad in CorTen steel. It was done up for the novelist Jeanette Winterson who bought it in 2009 when it was falling down and wasn’t for sale and the planning permission for the upstairs bedroom meant the ceilings were 5ft high and couldn’t be raised.

If you want to read her brilliant account of buying the house you should go here not least because if it’s a choice between reading me on Friday morning or her, you should probably choose her. Alternatively, you can bookmark her for later and come with me for a nosey now.

navy-sofas-and-persian-rugs

The house was eventually extended by Chris Dyson Architects  who were brought in after the Cotswold Planning Department suggested the listed Gasworks could be restored as it was –  with a big roomy downstairs with high ceilings and remain a single storey –  but with a second structure for sleeping and cooking and everything else. This second building, it was agreed, could be something very cool and funky.

Et voilà, as they say. The steel extension links to the building’s industrial past and the agricultural buildings in the area while providing four bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms, as well as a circular study and reception room in the tower.

open-plan-sitting-room

Now, not that I’m fickle or anything but you know how I desperately wanted the last house I wrote about? Well forget that. Now I want this. It’s only (ahem) £1,750,000 via The Modern House

It’s in Upper Slaughter, which is one of those quintessentially chocolate box Cotswold villages, which is why I like this extension even more. Hurray for forward thinking planning departments eh? When we moved in here we wanted to just fill in the side return and extend full width across the back and were told no. No, under any circumstances. The planning officer even visited and said: “I can see why you want to go full width and it would be architecturally better but it’s not gonna happen so you might as well know that.”

green-windows-and-doors

And then you see this incredible thing in an English country village where, to be frank, you wouldn’t necessarily be expecting them to welcome this kind of structure, and you find that only do they welcome it, they suggested it.

walk-through-wardrobe-and-bathroom

It’s lovely isn’t it? What a great idea to paint the windows and doors green. I’m just about persuading some of my clients to go for black or dark grey as it frames the view outside so well, but green looks amazing as well. Watch out the next person who comes to me for advice, you may be going green…

And I love the antique table in the kitchen with that strong cobalt blue. So that’s sorted then, we’re all moving to the Cotswolds. Anyone want to chip in for the asking price?

blue-wooden-kitchen

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

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