Selfbuilder Diaries

Navigating their way through planning hurdles and DIY adventures, Fiona & John’s eco self-build journey is a testament to their patience and bravery, including getting their hands dirty to stay within budget constraints ‘Never again!’ That was what we said... View Article

Directing a Cornish fairy tale

Anglophile and ex-Disney executive Kathleen Gearhart-Filmer moved to Cornwall to turn a concrete house into a magical coastal retreat TEXT Alexandra Pratt IMAGES Leighton James Several years ago, while on holiday with her baby daughter in Carbis Bay, west Cornwall, Kathleen... View Article

Refreshed regency elegance

Francois Belot and Andrea Buscone found a shared joy in their sensitive renovation and extension of an elegant Regency townhouse in south London TEXT ALEXANDRA PRATT IMAGES INNA KOSTUKOVSKY It was December 2019 when London-based couple Francois Belot and Andrea... View Article

Roaring into retirement

Embarking on the journey of self-building their retirement home along the south-west’s Jurassic Coast turned into a decade-long adventure for two septuagenarians. The result surpassed everything they could have hoped for TEXT EWEN MACDONALD IMAGES PHIL COFFEY Former city dweller... View Article

Practically
perfect

Young newlyweds Euan and Fiona Coleman thought they had found their forever home, but once children arrived they reassessed their wish list of practicalities, which led them to embark on a renovation in Hertfordshire TEXT LAURA SHADWELL IMAGES JWB ARCHITECTS... View Article

Bookended
sustainably

A home sitting at the end of a famous Edinburgh terrace has undergone a contemporary sustainable transformation, seamlessly blending with the locality while exuding its own distinct allure TEXT NIK HUNTER IMAGES WILL SCOTT PHOTOGRAPHY This self-build project sits on... View Article

Changing the game with Origami

For Hugh and Karen, the obvious response to improving a 1980s house near Stirling was to extend, however in the end a full ground floor reconfiguration with a ‘folded’ appearance was a game changer, creating ‘the Origami House’ TEXT NIK... View Article

Form follows
family

Simon and Jo Morris made over their home in Hitchin with their architect, transforming it from an open-plan layout to a set of distinct, harmonious spaces that worked better for their growing family TEXT TOM BODDY IMAGES JWB ARCHITECTS In... View Article

Seeing the light

Sally and David Jensen love their Edwardian home, so they found extra space for their growing family with a clever rear extension TEXT ALEXANDRA PRATT IMAGES LUKE WELLER/MITCHELL & CORTI Sally and David bought their Edwardian mid-terrace home in 2018.... View Article

Rural charm & heritage in harmony

LISTEN HERE Discover the remarkable journey of Chris and Sarah Dale as they breathe new life into a centuries-old barn, turning it into a light-filled haven TEXT EWEN MACDONALD IMAGES MATTHEW SMITH ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY When Chris and Sarah Dale purchased... View Article

A leap of faith

Renovation novices Claire and Marco were sure they didn’t want a ‘project’ house, but they ended up taking a leap of faith to complete a transformation that realised the true potential of their site TEXT JESS UNWIN IMAGES PHILIP WADGE... View Article

A clean break in Cornwall

When professional artists Pippa Young and David Mankin saw a sub-standard bungalow for sale on the Cornish coast, they decided to leave a lifetime of period properties behind and build a minimalist masterpiece TEXT ALEXANDRA PRATT IMAGES ANTHONY GREENWOOD/DAVEY CONSTRUCTION... View Article

A Sunningdale success story

Despite facing a host of unexpected cost issues from subcontractors, Julie and Michael Clifford successfully melded contrasting styles to achieve their dream modernist home in a highly desirable part of the south east TEXT TOM BODDY IMAGES JULIE CLIFFORD Situated... View Article

Retreating to
the city

LISTEN HERE For many self-builders, the big goal is moving from the city to the country, but a couple from the Scottish Highlands had the opposite aim in building their ‘secret garden’ home in Aberdeen TEXT NIK HUNTER IMAGES JIM... View Article

All change

Sally and Tom Marlow didn’t have to look far from their house in south London in their search for more space. The catch was that their new home needed a full renovation as well as multiple extensions TEXT ALEXANDRA PRATT... View Article

Farm from the madding crowd

What does it take to turn a 200-year-old remote Scottish farmhouse with an evocative name – Easter Shian – into a family home and business? Answer: the resilience and imagination of Dave and Debbie Halls-Evans  TEXT NIK HUNTER IMAGES ROBERT... View Article

EnerPHit for purpose

Bob and his wife have completed a phased retrofit of tight building into an highly efficient and carefully designed home which meets the needs of the future, both theirs and environmentally speaking TEXT TOM BODDY IMAGES AGNESE SANVITO It took... View Article

A thoroughly modern eco mix

An Aberdeenshire couple chose an array of innovative building methods – including ICF construction – to create an eco-friendly modernist gem that still manages to blend in with its surroundings TEXT JESS UNWIN IMAGES RAW FORMAT PHOTOGRAPHY, NIALL GIBBON &... View Article

Selfbuilder Diaries

Self-building architect Philip Newbold looks back a decade to the battle he successfully fought to build the first ‘passive house’ in County Durham with an A-rated EPC, and how it has served him and his wife since The journey of... View Article

In pursuit of peace

By having their own ‘forever’ house built on the grounds of the long-standing family home in the village of Dinnington, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Alison and Jonathan Berry have found peace, in all senses of the word TEXT JAYNE DOWLE... View Article