North Norfolk Cottage
Set within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the improvements to North Norfolk Cottage have created a picturesque family home from a small holiday let cottage that had been extended with a garden room in the 1980s. Respecting the character and appearance of the local conservation area was fundamental to securing planning consent. The new timber-framed extension takes its design cues from the original cottage of galleted chalk walls with soft red brick dressings, lancet windows and red clay-pantiled roofs and and has reinvented the cottage. Once focused on the parking forecourt, the enlarged dwelling has been realigned to face the garden.
The design for the extension forms a forecourt, reminiscent of a farmyard with the new extension taking its design cues from Norfolk barns and outbuildings. The chalk stone walls and soft red brick detailing, the lancet windows and clay pantiles roofs, all traditional local materials and details that ground the cottage and extension into the streetscape of the Conservation Area so that the extension is not too prominent and does not overwhelm the original cottage. The timber frame extension replaces a standalone 1980s double garage.
The south facing garden elevation of the extension has a large, covered veranda that links the new large ‘barn’ like living room space to the garden and outside space, which allows for solar gain in the winter and solar shading in the summer.
The sitting room with its double height space, oak framed trusses and open fireplace forms the heart of the cottage. The new oak stair threads its way up behind the lime rendered and exposed brick chimney to the new first floor bedroom. The new kitchen by Philip Clay occupies the former garden room within the 1980s extension, which again opens out onto the south facing rear garden.
The project incorporates excellent craftmanship, and is crafted from traditional materials, the local chalk stone, Bulmer bricks, Sandtoft clay pantiles, oak timber roof trusses, timber windows and doors, oak floors and staircase and hand-built kitchen cabinetry.
