A Home With Soul
A regenerative retrofit that harmonizes beauty, wellbeing, and heritage.
From the first conversation, the spark was undeniable. “I was so excited to find you,” the client shared. “People who thought like I did with a dual focus on aesthetics and regenerative design.”
The family wanted more than a functional home, they envisioned a space connected to nature, grounded in beauty, and future-facing.
Invited into a whole-house eco-retrofit, we worked closely with the client to enhance the home’s performance and wellbeing.
Every spatial decision, from increasing light to creating purposeful connections to nature, was made with care.
We prioritized sustainability and accessibility, ensuring that the client’s medical needs were met at each stage of the design.
Our role included interior design, and the making and installation of a handcrafted kitchen, utility and boot room, dining table, and bathroom vanity. The project emphasized the use of reclaimed and preloved materials, not just for their lower environmental impact, but for the stories they carry. A key moment came when the client discovered a barn full of 200-year-old oak, which became the home’s heartbeat. Processed in our workshop and celebrated in the kitchen and dining table, this oak’s beauty shaped the design language of the entire space, where each knot and groove told its own story.
Crafting the kitchen wasn’t just about joinery it was about trust. “I loved coming to the workshop, seeing things in phases, getting updates and pictures. You lived and breathed this kitchen with us.”
Now, the home feels radically different, lighter, warmer, more connected. “I never thought this would be our forever home, but now… it might be. The light, the views, the materials. There’s a deep sense of pride.” The design balances functionality, beauty, and health, contributing to a healthier indoor environment. With improved ventilation, reduced thermal bridging, and low-toxicity materials, the home supports the family’s wellbeing in every detail.
Sustainability, Reimagined
Performance upgrades were shaped by Passivhaus principles: triple glazing, airtight detailing, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, an air source heat pump. Even the concrete floor pulls its weight—holding warmth, softening energy demands. The result? A breathable, quietly efficient home. Powered by clean energy from the grid, helping to grow solar investment across the UK.
Materials were chosen for their integrity, durable, repairable, kind to the planet.
Nothing wasted: CNC offcuts warmed the workshop in winter. Every decision rooted in regeneration.
Built for Life: Circular by Design
The project truly came alive the day the client picked up a church pew and found a whole barn of 200-year-old oak. That oak became the heartbeat of the home. Milled in our workshop, its story now sings through the kitchen and dining table, every knot and groove honoured.
“I loved coming to the workshop,” they told us. “Seeing things unfold. Getting pictures. You lived and breathed this kitchen with us.”
Bespoke pieces like the kitchen, dining table, and vanity were built using glueless, modular methods: made to last, made to adapt. Wherever possible, materials were reclaimed antique taps, salvaged washbasins, vintage lighting. Each piece carries history. Each piece tells a story.
A Place of Belonging
Redstones is layered with meaning. A rocking chair passed down through generations. An optician’s sign from the client’s grandfather. A vintage Coleman’s starch plaque, an ode to the family name. Even a newspaper from 1939, found tucked inside a wall, was kept, its yellowed pages now part of the home’s quiet story.
This wasn’t just about making a house beautiful it was about making it meaningful.
The home honours not only the land it sits on, but the lives lived within it. The church pew, once tucked away, became a seed for something greater revealing a whole barn of 200-year-old oak that would go on to shape the soul of the space. Every beam, every board told its own tale. And with each layer uncovered, new possibilities opened.
Legacy pieces weren’t just added they were woven in. Each material, each object, each detail chosen with care for the planet, for memory, for the future.
Now, the home feels radically different. Brighter. Warmer. Woven with meaning.
“I never thought this would be our forever home,” the client told us. “But now… it might be.”
“This project brought my two core values to life: kindness and appreciation of beauty. It makes me smile every morning.”
Photography: Jonathan Bond
Architect: Clare Nash