Cotswold Country House

Cotswold stone country house with a glazed extension, seen across a lawn with daffodils — An 18th-century cottage is reorganised around a new family kitchen, central staircase and stronger connection to its garden.
The country house from the garden.
Image courtesy of Rixon Architects

An 18th-century cottage is reorganised around a new family kitchen, central staircase and stronger connection to its garden.
The country house from the garden.
Image courtesy of Rixon Architects

Existing building: Sisters Cottage, an 18th-century house
Brief: Upscale the cottage for contemporary family life
Kitchen: Relocated to the rear as a kitchen and dining family hub
Circulation: New central staircase within a front extension
Daylight: Skylights, windows and floor-to-ceiling corner doors

The story

The story behind the work.

Successive historic extensions had left Sisters Cottage with a dysfunctional sequence of rooms. The project upscales the building for contemporary family life by moving the kitchen to the rear and creating a modern kitchen and dining space as the home's everyday hub.

A new front extension carries a central staircase, replacing an inaccessible corridor of interconnecting upstairs rooms. Skylights, new windows and floor-to-ceiling corner doors bring daylight through the plan and link the traditional house more directly to the garden.