The conversion of a car garage and an adjoining former stable set within a walled courtyard next to a country house. In addition to a master bedroom and a guest bedroom, there was a requirement for four children’s bedrooms for occasional use during holidays. The former garages were converted to the living-dining space and the former stable to the bedroom wing. All accommodation had to be contained under the existing roof profile which did not provide sufficient height to accommodate a corridor at first-floor level. The staircase to the children’s floor divides into two at a half-landing, each flight providing access to two bedrooms. Interconnecting doors link all the children’s rooms together. A ‘box’ in the living space contains the kitchen with a study/gallery above. The flue in the existing chimney was of small diameter so the oversized living room fireplace was clad in black metal with a vertical sliding panel to alter the size of the fireplace opening to control the draw. Cushions are stored in a cupboard next to the outside fireplace and can be placed on the concrete cubes to provide seating in the courtyard. The new house which is surrounded by a rural landscape of fields and horses is concealed behind old brick and flint walls.

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