The Jasmine Cottage

The Jasmine Cottage: A sensitive renewal of a Wye Valley cottage — where tradition meets contemporary clarity.

Set within the serene landscape of the lower Wye Valley National Landscape, The Jasmine Cottage is reimagined as a home that celebrates light, connection, and the rhythms of rural life. The design restores and enhances the existing building while introducing new spaces that feel both generous and grounded. Through careful attention to materiality, proportion, and detail, the refurbishment allows the cottage to breathe anew — honouring its heritage while shaping a home for modern living.

The project brings clarity and openness to the heart of the home, relocating the kitchen and dining area to create a light-filled, open-plan space that connects seamlessly to a new external terrace. Above, a master bedroom suite provides privacy and comfort, with views out over the surrounding landscape. A horizontal canopy wraps the new corner of the kitchen, offering both practical solar shading and a visual gesture that unites old and new. Alongside structural upgrades, the existing fabric undergoes careful repair and refinement: windows, roofing, fascias, and gutters are all replaced or restored to complement the renewed elevations and ensure long-term durability.

Project Detail

The extension is conceived to balance the cottage’s historic character with a contemporary, understated language. A mix of vertical timber cladding and render is carefully sited to contrast and harmonise with the original stonework, providing visual rhythm and a sense of layered texture across the elevations. The horizontal canopy articulates the new kitchen corner, creating a dialogue between interior and exterior while providing a practical shading device. Proportions, material transitions, and rooflines have been resolved to maintain a rural, contextually sensitive scale, ensuring the extension sits naturally within its setting. Through thoughtful refurbishment and careful design, The Jasmine Cottage emerges as a home where light, landscape, and lived experience coexist harmoniously, celebrating both the heritage of its stone walls and the clarity of contemporary intervention.