This is a house for all seasons

Homeowners Lisa and husband James, who own VGC Group, a landscaping and garden buildings company Family Max, 15, twins Toby and Fenix, 11, and Bonnie, 6 Location Treworlas, near St Mawes, Cornwall Property Three-bedroom renovated barn, built in 1890, This is a house for all seasons.

As a young couple living in Surrey, Lisa and James loved taking trips to Cornwall together and, over the years, the draw of the coast never faded. ‘Even back then, we knew we’d want to bring our children to St Mawes,’ she says. ‘There’s a real tranquillity to the Roseland Peninsula; it feels so different to the more rugged north Cornish coastline.’ Fast-forward 10 years, and ferrying their now four-strong family to and from holiday rentals was starting to take its toll – so Lisa had an idea. ‘I started thinking how brilliant it would be to have our own bolthole here; somewhere near lovely walks and eateries, with an outside space that we could all enjoy,’ she explains. ‘I got James on board when he realised that we wouldn’t have to load up the car every time we visited!’

Lisa couldn’t believe her luck when she found a 19th-century barn for sale in nearby Treworlas, which had been completely renovated from top to bottom. ‘We knew that we wanted a turn-key property rather than a big renovation project, so this was ideal,’ she recalls. Set back from a short walk to the beach, the barn takes in breathtaking views across the coastline and its light, open-plan ground floor seemed to be tailor-made for family living: ‘It has a very Antipodean feel, with a real inside-outside flow,’ Lisa says. ‘And the double doors spilling out onto the garden were the icing on the cake.’ 

After a few happy summers – and winters – spent there, the family hit a hurdle: the layout just wasn’t working for them anymore. ‘Originally, we had a twin bedroom upstairs for our eldest son, then on the ground floor, James and I had a bedroom and en suite, with our two younger sons sharing a bedroom and bathroom next door,’ Lisa explains. ‘When our daughter Bonnie came along, the configuration just didn’t make sense, as the kids were split up and we were in the middle of it all.’ The solution was to move Lisa and James’ bedroom and en suite upstairs, then all four children could share two bedrooms downstairs. With the plan settled, the couple also decided to carry out a series of design tweaks to give their beloved home from home a facelift. ‘We added a woodburner to the living area to make it more cosy, then extended the outdoor deck and added a fire pit and a beach hut for the kids, so we could really make this a house for all seasons,’

Lisa says. ‘Then we replaced the kitchen splashbacks and worktops, created a more social dining zone with bench seating, and refreshed the bathrooms, too. The new tiles in our en suite caused quite the stir – the 3D-effect of the design made the tiler completely googly-eyed after hours of working with them!’ Dizzy contractors aside, the renovations weren’t without their problems – due in particular to one disastrous setback. ‘We had an oil leak that entirely wrecked the ground floor,’ Lisa grimaces. ‘Drying it out and getting rid of the smell took months, and the state of the house was devastating at the time – a building site doesn’t even cover it.’ When the barn was at last fit for work to begin, modifications were completed in six months, which signalled the start of a brand new interior scheme.

Inspired by The St Mawes hotel and Scandinavian beach houses, Lisa set about creating considered, timeless spaces that reference the barn’s coastal setting but without a cliché in sight. ‘I drew on the stormy Cornish skies, granite tors and inky blue seas for the muted colour palette, then added accessories and textures to give it that laidback beachcomber look,’ she explains. ‘I love celebrating local artists and businesses, so a lot of the nautical finds were from nearby lobster pot maker Nigel Legge and the brilliantly named reclamation yard Shiver Me Timbers. These interesting pieces weren’t costly, but they set the scene for each room, and give that collectedover- time feel that I wanted to achieve.’ The next big project is to turn the large double garage into a cinema/games room and extra bedroom and en suite, which will make the barn even more versatile as their children grow up. ‘The plan is to connect the converted garage to the barn with a contemporary glass link, so it’s still part of the hubbub of family life and not out on a limb,’ Lisa explains. ‘That’s something further down the line, though – as we’re still basking in our barn’s new look.’ In fact, amid all of the updated features, it has been the restructured layout that has made the most difference to the family’s time here. ‘It’s incredible how changing one element can reinvent how you live in a space,’ Lisa reflects. ‘Moving our bedroom upstairs makes holidaying here feel so much more indulgent to when we were stuck downstairs among the kids!’

From the weekend getaways when Lisa and James first met, to trips with their little ones, to finally owning a slice of the coastline themselves, St Mawes has always been an anchoring presence in the timeline of Lisa’s family – and it seems it will continue to be so for decades to come. ‘Both James and I can’t imagine our lives without this place,’ she says. ‘We even talk about retiring here one day; it holds so many happy memories for us all, and I’m sure will still create many, many more.’

sources: GoodHomes UK, August 2018

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