CLEVER RECONFIGURATION AND CONTEMPORARY DESIGN TRANSFORM AN OLD AGRICULTURAL BUILDING INTO A STYLISH FAMILY HOME
FEATURE ALI LOVETT
Kitchen-diner
‘Contrasting pale-wood furniture and polished-concrete flooring with black cabinetry and an aged-brass splashback creates a balanced yet modern look.’
BUY THE KEY PIECES
Mater Ray pendant lights (in kitchen), £138 each, Glassdomain. Try Anyday Kyla bar stools, £99 each, John Lewis & Partners
HOME NOTES
Katherine Clark, an interior designer (maison-etoile.co.uk), lives here with her husband Dan and their two children, aged eight and six.
A six-bedroom converted Dutch barn near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
THE LAYOUT
The entrance hall at one end of the barn leads past the two-bedroom guest apartment on the left, while the children’s area and play room are on the right. You walk past a cloakroom and boot room to get to the kitchen-diner, which has a separate pantry and utility room. The living area/snug is beyond the kitchen. The area by the double doors leads to a studio, bedroom and bathroom. Upstairs is the main bedroom with en suite, two childrens’ bedrooms and family bathroom.
After living in London for 20 years, interior designer Katherine Clark and her family relocated to Suffolk, taking on a huge barn conversion project to create a contemporary rural home. We find out more…
WHAT DREW YOU TO SUFFOLK?
‘My grandparents and mother had grown up in the county, and about 14 years ago my parents moved back to Bury St Edmunds. We used to come and visit from London for weekends and slowly discovered the area, finding good restaurants and places we’d like to go to - important things to us before we had the confidence to make the move. At that time, properties were still really good value for money, especially with us coming from London. That’s when we found the barn for sale and decided to go for it.’
WHAT WAS THE PROPERTY LIKE?
‘It’s a Dutch barn, which was originally used for storing grain and has been part of the village for a long time – apparently it was used to house the local fire engine at one point. The previous owners had started converting the barn, so the foundations were there. A rough concrete floor had been poured and dividing walls had been put up – it was basically an empty shell. It took us a year of negotiations and perseverance to buy it because the land around it was a sticking point, but the sale finally went through in 2020. During that time we rented locally and found Yard Architects (y
