It was a pleasure to spend a few days immersed in the Suffolk countryside in a hamlet going by the name of Hopton although documented as Opton in the Domesday Book. Nest, a small locally-based firm worked with HAT Projects on this site on the edge of Yoxford, a charming, historic  village sitting between Southwold and Aldeburgh and not all that far from Dunwich, Britains Atlantis on Suffolk’s Heritage Coast, the sunken village famous for its ‘crabbing’. 

We worked staging two houses set in a grouping of four designed with vast picture windows overlooking the expanse of Suffolk countryside behind the village of Yoxford. The idea was to supply the view in as we looked to the view outside. 

 

Bespoke bannisters and window seats are not the only simple, elegant forms you will find in these buildings which are designed in perfect synergy with Yoxford and its history. Rooves and flank walls are clad in tiles handmade from natural alluvial clay by the team at William Blyth in Barton Upon Humber, one of the UKs oldest tile manufacturers still operating today. The houses get their straight lines from the white painted weatherboarding  and internal guttering

The two kitchens were designed to have a slightly different feel but with fun areas that would be a talking point like the picture bookcase with its ‘found’ postcards in one and the central bar with favourite family heirlooms in the other.

 

     

      

  

Sitting rooms come off the kitchens with log burning stoves in a seamless way and we wanted to highlight a kind of C2o rustic feel with Jens Quistgaard ice buckets and a Swedish milking stool.

   

  

The Arne Jacobsen lamp worked well with a favourite Lino print while the Monstrera just looked like a casual observer. 

  

In the bedrooms colours and textures are kept simple so as not to detract from the view outside, simple daubs of paint on the landscape.

    

               

Having the option of a children’s bedroom or study always helps people visualise themselves here. As a four bedroom house we felt it most likely these would attract young families.

       

           

Stylists  Petra Curtis and Lucy Ryder Richardson of Modernshows.com with Frances Marden