Before and After: Falling Down Farm to Beautiful Barn Conversion

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Porth Cottage, Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects
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Found in Cornwall, in the coastal town of Mawgan Porth, this home started its life as a run down farm building that someone saw the potential in. In fact, they saw so much potential they bought the building with a view to transforming it into the ultimate family holiday home and nothing would stop them. Not even the fact that the space was exceptionally cramped and had very low ceilings.

Bradley van Der Straeten Architects were the team behind this build and clearly took to the ethos of the project straight away as they created something absolutely amazing. Speaking about the project, they noted that, ’Our design has re-invented the interior to create a spacious living space that celebrates the form and materials of the original building. The extensive renovation works to the existing timber rafters and stone walls are offset by the insertion of two new elements that house the two bedrooms, a bathroom and an en suite. Resembling beach huts, the two elements are clad in timber and efficiently conceal an abundance of storage.’

We can tell already that you're keen to take a look, so let's hop to it!

Before: Where's the potential?

Are we being blind or is the potential pretty hard to spot? Ok, it's a charming enough farm building but it's nothing we haven't seen before and we don't think it really invokes feelings of joy. Perhaps that's why beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The ceiling does, as previously acknowledged, feel low and if nothing else, we are curious as to how this was transformed.

After: A loving hand

Well, now we see why you'd want to own and renovate a building like this. We should have started with this exterior shot! What a beautiful little traditional cottage, complete with stunning stone work.

You say farm building and instantly we picture concrete grain silos, not this wonderful little farmhand home. However, we don't think we'd be able to stay away all year and only visit for a holiday as this looks like tiny home heaven to us.

After: How did that happen?

Now this is a transformation. From a small and pokey building with barely enough room to stand up in, this is a totally mind-blowing change and we love it. Everything has been perfectly executed, thought out and considered to the Nth degree.

The modern furniture is a perfect choice for this heritage building. The pale floor complements the existing original wall and the roof trusses and can we take a second to fall in love with the pistachio room divide, please? This is something else.

After: Secret spaces that stay open

How do you cordon off an area without doing so in such a hard way that will upset the vibe of the home? Gentle, graceful sliding doors, that's how. What an absolute treat to have such a pretty and simple bedroom at one end of the property.

The colour scheme in this holiday home is exceptional and to have kept as much of the original wall as they have makes such a huge difference to the feel of the place. Can you imagine just drifting off to sleep here? Us too!

After: Perfect use of space

Everywhere you turn in this amazing holiday home you see new nuances of genius that not only make the best use of the space possible but also seek to inject extra calm and languid feelings, which is everything you want from a holiday.

We are still coming to terms with how perfect that pistachio green colour looks. What a great way to separate private areas within the building.

After: A little bit of tradition

Heritage homes are so wonderful in that they often have a story to tell and design nuances that can inspire even a modern design firm. Sadly, however,  these traditional touches are lost in a mire of stark modernism but we love that the exact opposite is the case here.

A quiet, relaxed and traditional style is making this holiday home a proper getaway from the fast-moving and work orientated world. Even if only for a week, you could truly forget your troubles here and thank goodness the building is quite small or you'd have to bring all of your friends, too! 

For more lovely holiday home inspiration, take a look at this Ideabook: The Cornish Beachfront Beauty.

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