The Barn House

A modern black barn makes the perfect open plan family home for one Leithfield family.

In the rural village of Leithfield, a modern black barn with round windows is at once unassuming but easy to spot. And for Lynnette Creagh, it’s a home that has brought her full circle – back to the area she grew up in, with her parents next door and the farm style house she longed for.

words: Pattie Pegler images: Dorothy McLennan

Like so many Cantabrians, Lynnette and her husband, had to move from Christchurch after the earthquakes. Leithfield seemed like a natural choice – they just needed a house and when Lynnette spotted a renovation done by High Country Homes, she was impressed enough to get in touch with them. “I phoned them and asked are you one of those boutique builders that I can't afford,” she recalls with a laugh. They said they weren’t and Simon Banks, licensed architectural designer and builder, came over and had a look at the building site.

“The site was located on the river side of a stop bank with a creek nearby and needed flood proof foundations,” says, Simon. “There was a herd of goats, a pet stag and a swathe of children running around. What you need is a barn in that situation …and things went from there.”

But this wasn’t just a case of building. With a young family and a small business, Lynnette and her husband were working on a limited budget. Here the simple shape of the barn really helped to keep costs down and Simon was also aware of keeping the house affordable to run and maintain – it has off-grid capacity, there’s no spouting which cuts down on maintenance and a log burner with solar water makes for extremely low energy usage.

The combination of style and budget is no small feat and the house won first place in the Canterbury 2015 House of the Year Award in the $400 – 500k category. And Lynnette has nothing but praise for Simon’s expertise in design and building. Today, this award-winning, 4-bedroom barn is a real home to Lynnette, her husband, three children and a dog called Pedro. They have lived here for eight years and spend most of their time in the vast open plan kitchen, dining and living area. Light pours in through the round windows and natural textures abound – oak floors and pine clad ceilings, leather furnishings and vast visible steel beams. This is rustic meets modern.

But overall, it’s a big space that could easily feel just…well, big. It doesn’t.

One key consideration says Lynnette is the size of furniture. “Because the room is so big, little furniture just looks silly.” So the pieces here are large and solid – like the bespoke oak kitchen island, the darkly painted pine dresser and even the Boston fern which is of rainforest-like proportions.

Spaces are further defined by furniture placement and rugs, clearly carving up the barn room into distinct areas. By the kitchen counter there are bar stools and by the window two comfortable, mismatched armchairs, looking out over the view (one of Lynnette’s favourite spots to sit with a coffee). In the middle of the room the dining area is staked out with a large rustic table and a wrought iron chandelier style light above and at the far end the lounge area with soft, leather couches and beanbags.

So what is Lynnette’s approach to interior décor? She brushes the idea away modestly. “I will give anything a go,” she laughs. It’s a bit of an understatement. She made the curtains, reupholstered the ottoman, made the bean bags, happily paints and revamps furniture to fit the room – like the teal sideboard and the pine dresser now painted black and she started her colour theme from one of the Sid Dickens’ tiles on display. And she reveals that she also made the willow baskets after attending a weaving course. It’s easy for the rustic and eclectic to become the simply messy. But here Lynnette’s eye for interiors has really paid off and, when pressed, she admits she does have some form here.

“I do have a background in soft furnishings,” she says. “I love sewing and I am a crafts person. I guess it’s in my blood.” When it comes to finding home wares, it’s not about lavish spending – rugs are from Briscoes, there are Trade Me purchases dotted around and pieces inherited from family members, like the footstool that belonged to her grandparents. Lynnette also likes the quirky. “I see things I like and then think about where I could put it,” she says, pointing to the large Fresh Eggs sign in the kitchen.

Over one hundred years ago Lynnette’s grandfather was born in the village. When Lynnette was growing up this land was a horse paddock. It’s perhaps no surprise that when Simon drew up plans for this barn home – the family instantly loved them.

“We looked at the plans and just said ‘That feels like our home’,” says Lynnette.