Westerfield Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP6

Arrival is via a shared lane leading to a private, gated drive with parking for several cars and a double garage. Here, the connection to the site is more explicit still, with the footprint and internal layout continuing to draw on the proportions of the barn that stood here before.

Step through the front door and a run of narrow slot windows, together with glazing set into the roof above, drops light down the walls of the entrance hall in long, changing shafts across plaster and micro-cement flooring. This same care with light and proportion carries through every room that follows, matched by the same attention to sustainable specification found across the rest of the house.

Beyond, the entrance hall opens into a broad, open-plan living area arranged loosely around cooking, dining and lounging, its west-facing wall almost entirely glazed. A single fixed pane rising six metres tall anchors the room to the garden outside, while bi-fold doors fold back to link the space directly with a run of terraces beyond, well suited to breakfast outdoors or a slow start to the day. Reclaimed French oak, laid herringbone-style, runs continuously beneath the kitchen, dining and seating zones, tying them together, and a line of Vitsœ 606 shelving fitted along one wall provides ready storage and display beside the kitchen’s own generous cabinetry, a freestanding dining table set centrally and a walk-in pantry positioned to one side.

To the south, a further sitting room offers a more private retreat, opening directly onto the terrace and providing extra space for gathering. Vitsœ 606 shelving lines the walls here too, creating a considered setting for books and personal pieces, while a wood-burning stove turns the room into a warm retreat on colder days.

A bedroom with its own en-suite shower room sits on the ground floor too, facing the entrance yard, a natural fit for anyone wanting a home office or single-storey living. A cloakroom and separate WC complete this level, handy for coming in from muddy walks without tracking through the rest of the house.

Upstairs is reached via a bespoke stair built from walnut and steel, arriving at a landing every bit as considered as the rooms below. Five bedrooms open off this landing, two of them with en suites, alongside a family bathroom and a useful utility room tucked away on this level.

The main bedroom runs the depth of the house, double-aspect and filled with natural light, with a Juliet balcony overlooking grasses and wildflower meadow below. A walk-in dressing room next door houses another run of Vitsœ 606 shelving, fitted to make the most of the space, and an en-suite shower room completes the suite.

The remaining four bedrooms are all doubles, generously sized and flexible enough to adapt as family needs change over time. Two separate ladders lead up to a play space / store room in the attic.

An acre of grounds wraps around the house, giving it a genuinely rural feel. The garden has had a recent redesign by the award winning studio Cargill Sykes creating flourishing new beds and areas of fruit trees and wild planting. The redesign has helped shape the garden, drawing in birds and other wildlife throughout the year. Several spots around the garden invite you to sit and take stock, whether that means a bench tucked among the planting or somewhere more open to watch the sky. On the western boundary there is an outbuilding with an electricity supply that could easily be converted into a further work space or an art studio.

Behind the garage, a dedicated plant room houses the workings behind the home’s efficiency, keeping the practical side of the build out of sight. A Nudura insulated concrete formwork system gives the structure notably tight airtightness, a ground-source heat pump supplies heating and hot water, and double glazing runs throughout, together keeping running costs and energy demand low.

Location

Westerfield sits two miles north of Ipswich, a small village built loosely around a green where the medieval church of St Mary Magdalene stands, its stained glass among the finest in this part of Suffolk.

Westerfield’s own station sits on the branch line into Ipswich, making short trips into town convenient. Ipswich Mainline station is just over a 10-minute drive away, with direct trains to London Liverpool Street and Cambridge, making the location well suited to commuters heading to either cities.

Ipswich brings the practical side of daily life within easy reach too, from independent shops and restaurants around the waterfront to a good spread of schools, while the wider Suffolk countryside beyond the village gives plenty of reason to stay closer to home at the weekend.