5 budget friendly farmhouse ideas inspired by Grand Designs’ Leominster house
Take a look inside the Grand Designs Leominster house
Take a look inside this spacious self-build Leominster house and take in the clever cost-saving design ideas featured.
The Grand Designs Leominster house featured on the 2018 series with Steph Wilson and her family. Steph had spent twenty years dreaming of her grandfather’s farmland after it was sold when she was sixteen.
Along with husband Alex, Steph reclaimed the land after re-mortgaging their house to buy back 27 acres of the farmland for £200k. Determined to give her children the blissful childhood she had, Steph was able to get planning permission for a cantilevered Leominster farmhouse. The location being in the old gravel pit where she had played as a child.
Image: Mark Bolton
‘Emotionally, I’m tied to the land and to the memories it holds for me, and I wanted to create an idyllic childhood for my children, too,’ Steph explains.
However, Steph and Alex’s dreams were almost shattered after being told their ambitious design would cost £500K to build – double what they could borrow. There was another spanner in the works when Alex was made redundant which led to Steph making a return to full time work. However, help came from Steph’s architect friend, Jessica Barker who stepped in to create a new design for their tight budget.
Here are just a few of the budget-friendly design ideas that have been incorporated in the Grand Designs Leominster farmhouse – which you could try yourself.
Black corrugated steel cladding
Image: Mark Bolton
The house nestles into the landscape and is clad in distinctive black corrugated steel. Alex has been stalwart in his support, although he took some persuading to warm to the corrugated black agricultural-style steel cladding. This is the exterior face of the insulated and plaster-boarded walls.
