Inside a modern rustic 19th century barn and B&B in Suffolk
When Bruce Badrock retired from the Royal Navy a few years ago, it sparked a desire in him to do something totally different. So, along with his partner David Woodbine, an accountant working for a charity, they decided to up sticks and open a B&B in rural Suffolk. 'It was a very loose thought process,' David says. 'We thought, "We like Suffolk, it’s not too far from London", and that is as far as we got!'
As they embarked on months of house searching, they began to refine their ideas. They almost bought 'an old, rambling place' but when the sale fell through, it made them stop and think. If they were going to make this big life change, why not pull out all the stops and create something new and exciting? The couple had lived in a Regency property in town but had always loved modern architecture, so they thought about creating something more cutting edge in the country.
Bruce and David adjusted their search to look for a building suitable for development. And it was then that they stumbled across a 19th-century brick-built barn and farmworkers’ cottage near Aldeburgh on the coast. 'It had been unsympathetically converted in the 1960s and was hidden by a wall of conifers,' David says. 'But it was in a good spot, with five acres of land – hence the name Five Acre Barn – and we could see the potential. So we sold our house in Peckham and bought it.'
They wanted a dynamic architect who would share their vision, so they decided on Greg Blee of Blee Halligan, whose work they had seen on Channel 4’s The House That £100k Built. Greg came up with a bold design – a zigzag-roofed, cedar-shingled, sculptural building that would join onto the existing red brick barn and replace the 1970s workers’ annexe. It would go on to win a National RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) award.
The couple had already worked out that they would need five guest bedrooms for the project to pay for itself, so that determined the shape and size of the building. They had to increase the footprint slightly but weren’t allowed to go up any higher than six metres. Four of the bedrooms would be on a mezzanine, with the fifth at the end, occupying the building’s full height. All the rooms would have high ceilings and big skylights, so they felt airy. 'And, of course, each of the rooms needed to follow the line of the roof, so they'd be an interesting shape,' David explains.
They employed a local builder but were very hands-on themselves, living in a part of the barn while the build was in progress to keep costs down. They mucked in with the physical work, such as the laborious task of attaching the cedar shingles to the side of the building, and they got stuck into the plumbing, insulation, polishing (the concrete floors), tiling, painting and varnishing. 'We had done up our old house over seven years, so we weren’t strangers to building work, but it did take much longer than we had originally hoped,' David says.
'The main structure took about 16 months to build and then we completed decorating a couple of rooms over the next few months.' The real spur to finish was a neighbour’s 80th birthday party, which they had offered to host: 'We could tell he was worried about the lack of progress, so we made a huge effort to finish it before the big day, fitting the toilets and literally making the beds just before guests arrived!'
Although the building is one long space, Greg Blee suggested they introduce 'a sense of drama' in the hallway area that links the old and new parts. So that became a rich, dark blue with quarry tiles on the floor. It makes a strong contrast with the new building, with its bright white walls, soaring ceilings and concrete floors, all polished by Bruce. Douglas fir plywood has been used in the kitchen area in the old barn. A lighter birch ply lines the gallery/corridor and the bedroom ‘pods’ in the mezzanine rooms, creating a modern aesthetic and accentuating the wall height and roofline.
Decorating the interiors was also a labour of love for the pair. David made a lot of the soft furnishings, though he used an upholsterer to cover the mid-century sofa and chair in the living room. He and Bruce had been collecting furniture for years, not knowing if it would work in the space but happily most of it did, and the end result is a modern, eclectic look that pulls all the old and new threads together. They also now display work by local artists as an informal gallery.
'We’re so pleased with how it has turned out and especially love cooking in the full-height barn,' David says. 'We are now considering building a self-catering, mid-century-style cabin in the garden in the next couple of years. Many of our guests have given us wonderful feedback – even in the early days when we had hardly any furniture or pictures on the walls. And many have returned – so we must have got something right!'
Look around a little more....
Kitchen
Living area
Exterior
For details about staying at Five Acre Barn, visit fiveacrebarn.co.uk.
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