Building or reshaping your own home is a dream for many people. We were delighted to help Mr & Mrs Harrison make theirs happen. They bought the building plot for Garden House, literally at the end of their existing back garden at Rutland Water. To get their project off to a great start, they engaged Thomas Wilson Architects of Oakham – local experts with a very impressive portfolio of quality bespoke houses.
The area around Garden House was renowned for its beautiful landscape, so their choice of materials was heavily influenced by their location. Natural stone was the perfect material to build a home in complete harmony with such a setting.
Quarried locally for centuries, our Lincolnshire Limestone comes with pedigree. Not only does it feature in iconic buildings – think of Windsor Castle, the Houses of Parliament, King’s College Cambridge and the award-winning Bishop Edward King Chapel at Ripon College – it’s also popular with builders who value its whole life value and green credentials.
The architects used Clipsham Limestone sympathetically to create a building both warm in appearance and robust in performance. Note how the stone blocks give a vision of permanence – difficult to achieve with any other material. Although uniform and consistent, the blocks are very much individual in their shade and appearance. As time passes, weathering and mellowing will only enhance the property’s appeal.
Nothing in the history of British building is more traditional than combining limestone and English oak – in this case, the materials were given a contemporary edge which still required the highest level of artisan craftsmanship from both carpenter and stonemason.
In total, Garden House features over 400 sq m of Clipsham Limestone, chosen for the walling, heads, cills and dressings. The stone doesn’t just appear in the house but flows into the garden, anchoring it to its surroundings.
With the external structure in place, the clients wished to enhance the interior of their beautiful home and commissioned a hand carved solid stone fireplace in a complimentary Ancaster Limestone.
Our expert team designed this specifically to be in proportion to the location, room size and the wood burner. One of the benefits of working with us is the level of personal input we can offer for self-build projects – we sat around the table with our clients to create a fireplace that incorporated all of their desired features and offered a truly unique focal point.
The finished house was not without its challenges along the way – often the case with this type of project! While the journey took around three years, our commitment to teamwork and collaboration guaranteed a successful outcome – and we are all very proud of our contribution to building not just a house but a legacy.
We were fortunate to work with an accomplished and innovative architect who created the design and led us through the maze of decisions, including the choice of materials and selection of suppliers.
We wanted the house to blend with the older local properties yet be different. The team achieved this with the choice of natural stone and solid oak and they created a sympathetic fusion of traditional and contemporary architecture. The development is completed with curved limestone walling extending around the front and rear of the garden, which contrasts with the lines of the house, creating a well-defined setting: a modern stone building with an accent on tradition - everything we wanted for our new home.
