Photography by Simon Upton
Charles Edwards bought Tile Barn in Northamptonshire, England, in 1986, and spent 18 months transforming the collection of tumbledown stone buildings into an elegantly evolved, unpretentious country home with his wife Julia Boston.
They began by making two buildings into one, building a passageway to link the cottage and barn – which once had a tiled roof, an unusual feature – before starting on the barn itself, which is now dominated by a huge sitting room. The image above shows the original cottage on the far left, adjoining a single storey entrance hall, which leads to a new two storey extension. At the centre of the image is the original hay barn, and the column barn is on the right. The barns were originally built around 1830. Locally quarried ironstone seamlessly links the facades.
With the structures linked, Charles began working on the 3,800-square foot interior. Giant hanging lanterns create focal points within the former hay barn which retains the original wooden joists of the A-frame roof.
French windows open the sitting room onto the garden with an expansive lawn and view of the duck pond.
Beautiful tapestries from Julia's antiques shop help soften the space.
Charles and Julia relax in the sitting room on an antique Knowle settee, inherited by Charles.
Charles finished the main hall and central passageway in natural lime plaster incised to look like stone blocks; together the areas serve as the formal entry and the formal dining area. The long connecting route of stone flooring is punctuated with art, bookcases, sunlight and furniture.
A working fire adds warmth to the large sitting room throughout the year and is complimented by plenty of table and floor lamps.
Antique linen and blue and white china provide a charm in the formal dining room. A set of mahogany doors that Charles had bought at auction add continuity and considerable substance to the property.
The kitchen was designed at the centre of the house as a place for everyone to gather. Julia bought a walnut cupboard with a wire-mesh front at an antiques fair in Beziers and designed the rest of the kitchen around it.
Charles unified the house by painting most of it in shades of pale stone from Papers and Paints. A mahogany chest dating from 1830 still bears its original chemist shop labels.
The master bedroom features a mahogany Victorian bedhead, above it hangs an original gouache cartoon for a tapestry chair back from Julia's shop.
A collection of architectural prints decorate the upstairs landing.
The guest room has a traditional Victorian brass four poster bed.
In summer, dining moves to the adjoining column barn, which was once the cow barn. When Charles began work on it, hundreds of rabbits and one fox called it home. Now a window set into the gabled end looks over the pond, and a hanging lantern and pair of Gothic wall lanterns provide illumination in the evenings.
