When working on old buildings a straight line is a rarity. Historic structures wobble, are out of plumb and are curved by the hands that made them.

The trick, when undertaking conservation work is to not fight this. Going with the fact the building is out of square keeps your intervention to a minimum and makes for a more authentic result. We took this approach for this Grade II listed Devonshire Linhay we worked on a few years ago and these pencil drawings we produced as part of the design process show how wonky some parts of the building were. All part of the charm.

The journey from drawing board to completion is often fraught one. So it is always very satisfying when that journey is a successful one.

We've been looking back through our portfolio at this country house we designed in Berkshire. Comparing the watercolour undertaken at the stage we received planning consent, to the completed photos, show that whilst there were some tweaks along the way, the result was pretty close to that envisaged.

It is never easy to deliver projects to this standard, but it is really rewarding when everything comes together and the end result lives up to expectation.

One of the difficult things when designing new homes is preventing it looking brand new when completed. High quality materials can make a building feel more grounded and have an instant character than less carefully selected materials might lack.

This country house in Wiltshire uses reclaimed bricks, natural slate and timber windows. The effect of all these, along with the carefully modelled design, is a building which looks like it has developed over time and instantly has a feeling of belonging.

The use of crinkle crankle walls, characterised by their undulating or sinusoidal shape, dates back thousands of years, but the term “crinkle crankle” itself was first used in 1598. These walls are known for their distinctive appearance and also offer structural advantages over straight walls of the same thickness.

Most crinkle crankle walls are made of brick, but we were asked a few years ago to undertake a feasibility study on the restoration of this cob crinkle crankle wall, part of a series of cob and brick crinkle crankles surrounding a walled garden in Wiltshire.

Every design we produce is tailored to the site it is to be built on. Whilst we often use recognisable forms, the unique layout and detail will be specifically designed to make the most of the opportunities the location gives.

This beautiful country home in the South Downs National Park is designed to take full advantage of its elevated position. The kitchen has been designed with large plate glass windows which allow full enjoyment of the rolling views to the South.

We really appreciate Classical architecture and count ourselves lucky to often work in this style in both our new build and conservation work.

The effortless elegance of this entrance porch could never be mistaken for being of any other style. The cyma recta moulding of the porch canopy is perfectly balanced by the corbel brackets which combine ovolo, cyma recta and cavetto profiles. An understanding of these different components and their language is key to producing architecture worthy of the Classical label.

“One of the most impressive examples of the difficult art of traditional new build that has been built in the UK in recent years”.

Not our words, but the kind description of Jason Orme in his article about this award-winning home we built in Wiltshire. The brief was for a modestly scaled house but with high ceilings for the client’s furnishings. The client was delighted with the result and it remains a firm favourite in the office.

Time can be unkind to buildings, they are modified and changed as time and requirements dictate over the years. Listing a building stops further harm happening, but does not undo the wrongs of the past. Sometimes an opportunity to can arise however to do so.

The pair of buildings, one 17th century and one 19th century had been modified on the ground floor to provide a single unified frontage for a car dealership. When this closed, our clients looked to convert the building back to shops and we were tasked with designing a more appropriate pair of shopfronts, more suited to the individual buildings.

When we design homes we are always striving for beauty and elegance whilst maximising value area. Including accommodation floorspace within the roof structure can provide useful additional area, but can make the roof look quite bulky. To avoid the roof looking bulky, we often introduce dormers, rooflights and sprocketed eaves.

Introducing a sprocketed eaves can help to disguise the mass of the roof and provide a deep eaves to cast a pleasing shadow on the façade of the building. This award winning home in Wiltshire includes three storeys of accommodation but the gentle change of roof pitch (the sprocket) as it runs up helps visually lighten the mass this extra floor would normally create.

A ratio of 1:1.6180339887 doesn’t sound very glamorous, but this ratio, better known at the Golden Ratio, or the Divine Proportion underpins Classical architecture.

We take this principle very seriously and it underpins our work in the New Classical genre. This new house we designed in Hampshire has elevations carefully designed to Gold Ratio proportions. The result is a truly aesthetically pleasing family home which is a much admired part of our portfolio.

We are lucky to see some very unusual buildings in the course of our conservation work.

You wouldn’t normally expect to find an industrial chimney in the back garden of a mid-1800s country house, but our research discovered an interesting story as to why. The settlement where the house is, was a built for the workers of a lumber mill which was originally steam powered. After three catastrophic fires as a result of embers catching sawdust alight, the chimney was moved further from the engines and into the garden of the mill owner’s house where it remains to this day, now under our watchful eye.

Sometimes working with historic buildings is a puzzle, rarely though is the building itself literally a jigsaw puzzle.

An orangery had stood at this property in the West Country since the Victorian times, however a failed restoration in the 1960s saw the domed timber and glass structure collapse during heavy rain in the mid 1990s. We undertook a feasibility study for a potential purchaser to reinstate the collapsed building using the salvaged timbers.

Just because a home looks traditional, doesn’t mean it can’t be environmentally friendly. The need to consider the impact of buildings on the environment becomes ever more pressing with each passing day

We’re committed to reducing the impact of schemes using a variety of approaches. Like this country house in Wiltshire where a vaulted gallery space on the first floor has the double function of filtering light onto the items within, but also providing passive stack ventilation.

There are different approaches that can be taken when extending a listed building. Alterations can be designed to contrast the historic building or to complement the existing fabric. Careful judgement is required to develop the right strategy for the building and the client.

For this Grade II* listed property in Hampshire, the right solution was to compliment, whilst remaining subservient to the original Queen Anne house.

People often assume windows must be white, but that isn’t the case. There are many historical precedents for windows being coloured, throughout the history of architecture.

This Georgian style property we designed in the Test Valley has its windows, door case and porch painted in a pastel colour. This keeps the joinery feeling light and bright but without the starkness that brilliant white can sometimes bring.

A lot of the pleasure of traditional architecture is the aesthetic pleasure that symmetry and balance of the elevations can bring to the eye. Where buildings are joined to others as part of the same composition, differing ownerships and approaches to maintenance can lead to this balance being upset.

The careful restoration of our Grade II* listed Georgian town house project brought harmony and symmetry back to the building by treating the elevation as a whole piece rather than two separate halves. Elegance is restored.

Seeing the potential in sites can sometimes be difficult, an underwhelming house in the wrong place on the plot can cloud someone’s judgement. We relish the challenge of looking beyond the existing to create a dream property whilst is perfect for the site.

A good example of that is this project in Berkshire we designed which replaced an understated bungalow with a Classical country house. The resulting house is much more suited to the parkland like gardens and sylvan setting of the property.

The drawing room of this Grade II listed Georgian house we have been working on the restoration of in Wiltshire is a very comfortable room. But the glow from the open grate makes it feel even cosier. The relaxed ambiance this creates is something we strive for in our work, a home that puts you at ease in comfortable and reassuring surroundings.

Elegance doesn’t have to mean grandeur.

We strongly believe that buildings can be elegant without having to be ostentatious. A home which looks relaxed will help the family living in it, feel relaxed. An example of how we employ this idea is this metal lattice porch on the front of a new build Regency style home we designed in Wiltshire. The entrance to this classic three bay form is clear and in keeping, without being overtly grand, making the whole building look more comfortable on the village lane on which it sits.

We really enjoy working on barn conversions.

Giving an historic building, now defunct, a new lease of life is a very fulfilling project. The key is not to lose the character. Here is a before and after image of a Grade II Listed barn we converted in Hampshire. The intention was to retain as much of the historic fabric and character of the barn as possible whilst converting the barn into usable residential space. Constructed by the talented team at Moulding The Builder, we think we were successful in retaining the essence of the original building whilst at the same time reinstating lost features such as the double height threshing door openings.