Becca and The Barn

Barn kitchen with vaulted oak beams, oak island and Cotehele Porcelain Sand floor

Shaker kitchen run beneath oak beams with Cotehele Porcelain Sand floor tiles

Project Details:

Materials Used: Cotehele Porcelain Sand, Marlborough Porcelain Parquet Natural, Maroc Ceramic Bianco, Cuba Porcelain Como

Photography: Adam Carter

Follow the project: @beccaandthebarn

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Some buildings set the brief before anyone draws a plan. For Becca, a first time renovator who shares the project as @beccaandthebarn, that building was an 18th century barn bought on instinct. She went to see it “just out of nosiness” while searching for a small house to renovate and sell. She now has no intention of leaving.

The rear barn was taken down to its foundations and rebuilt in its original Cotswold stone, with the oak beams sandblasted and returned to their place. The front barn, once home to the neighbours’ horses, was converted from a sound shell. From the outset the brief was clear: a barn first, brought into modern life, with nothing competing with the original fabric.

That principle shaped every material choice. A restrained palette of natural wood, stone and soft neutrals runs through the house, with texture rather than colour doing the work. Refined finishes sit deliberately against rough timber and stone, a contrast Becca describes as giving the house “its personality”.

Becca with her two dogs at the oak island in her barn kitchen

Close-up of Cotehele Porcelain Sand floor tiles with linen armchair and wool rug

In the kitchen, Cotehele Porcelain in Sand gives the calm, tonal floor of natural stone beneath the oak island and vaulted beams, while standing up to two dogs and a busy household. “It needed to feel lovely underfoot but be genuinely hard-wearing.”

Barn kitchen with oak island, vaulted beams and Cotehele Porcelain Sand floor

Oak bar stools on Cotehele Porcelain Sand floor tiles

Oak island looking toward the Cotswold stone wall, with Cotehele Porcelain Sand floor

Cotehele Porcelain Sand floor tiles beside iron candle stands

Kitchen island with linen bar stools and glass pendants under oak beams

Dining corner with oak table and console on Cotehele Porcelain Sand floor

The cloakroom moves to a warmer register. Marlborough Porcelain Parquet, laid in herringbone and paired with Maroc Ceramic in Bianco on the walls, brings the character of terracotta to a small space without the maintenance. “They have such a beautiful simplicity.”

Barn cloakroom with exposed oak beam, Maroc Ceramic Bianco walls and Marlborough Porcelain Parquet herringbone floor

Close-up of Marlborough Porcelain Parquet Natural laid in herringbone

In the utility, pattern is used with restraint. Cuba Porcelain in Como, a matt, textured tile with a geometric pattern in soft greys, adds interest at splashback height while staying within the scheme. Becca chose it after sampling several designs.

Utility room with Cuba Porcelain Como splashback and a dog bed under the worktop

Cuba Porcelain Como patterned splashback behind a bronze utility tap

Ten months after work began, the barn Becca went to see out of curiosity has become the home she plans to keep. The beams, the stone and the history of the building still lead, with every surface chosen to sit quietly alongside them and to cope with everyday life. “I never wanted to lose the fact that it is an 18th century barn,” she says. “It needed to feel like a barn first and foremost, just brought into modern-day living.”