Stanley Farm

This is Green Oak Architecture’s first commission for a Barn Conversion and was the result of a close collaboration between Architect, Carpenter, Client and Builder. We hope you will agree we have done the building justice. Roof is slate, timber boarding fresh sawn oak, and joinery Oak. For the side hung sash windows we adopted an elongated panel which we all agreed best suited the building.

Good detailing and the use of dry oak for the corner stops of the weatherboarding is essential for a really good finish. The decision to line the internal faces of the porch with timber boarding works well here and creates warmth and texture.

Oak frame screens were inserted into the wagon bays or ‘mid-streys, forming entrance porches. These were then direct glazed using a time proven system developed by specialist ‘frame glaziers’ and Oak framing companies over time, and which is trouble free and highly attractive solution to glazing fresh sawn oak frames where we know movement will occur. The cantilevered porch is an original feature.

Much of the timber in this frame has been re-used from another building, a common practice in historic timber framed barns. The main frame is oak, but much of the raftering utilises Pine scantlings with rough sawn pine sarking boards set over.

This staircase is modelled an earlier style of stair with ‘open strings’, profiled splats, and nicely moulded newel post caps all contributing to a really attractive piece of joinery. The view though the ‘two centred’ Tudor arch is of a ‘plan and muntin’ wall behind.

The quatrefoil form is a simple but decorative device used for the baluster and is not difficult to execute. The mezzanine forms a library and snug, a place of quiet retreat. Getting enough height under the tie beams when inserting an upper floor is often a difficulty with barn conversions. Solutions to this problem can be expensive and involve a number of options: digging down to reduce the ground floor level inside the building, accessing the upper floors via an independent dedicated staircase, or even lifting the entire oak frame, something we have done on at least three occasions. In this case reducing the ground floor level was deemed the best solution but just at the mezzanine end of the building.

View from the mezzanine. In our view the most successful barn conversions maintain as much of the open volume of the original building as possible, and this is a good case in point. Note the use of a pale over-lining to the sarking boarding. We usually suggest using a black membrane here but whatever the choice, it is important to remember not to allow the silver foil of the insulation sheets to be visible.

The building is used as a cookery school, hence the open plan kitchen. We made the decision to glaze as much of the north elevation on the garden side as possible. We would have liked the slot of glazing to go all the way into the gable, but alas the planners did not agree.

We did however, achieve this on the south end of the building over the mezzanine, vital the ensuring that space was well lit with natural light as much as possible. Again you will see the use of direct glazing where the double glazed units are retained against the outside of the frame with dry oak cappings.