A Buckinghamshire barn conversion hits a high note

Photography: The Modern House

Soaring volumes and lofty beams nod to this converted barn’s past in the Buckinghamshire countryside.

Swyllmers Barn is located in The Lee, a picturesque conservation area in the Chilterns that is designated an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Known for its quintessential English village feel – think beautiful brick cottages with sloping terracotta-tiled roofs, a large village green and historic churches – The Lee is frequently used as a backdrop for television and is surrounded by beech woodlands, rolling hills, and natural meadows.

The 4,341 sq ft converted barn is for sale via The Modern House for £2m and is built with red brick and black weatherboarding, topped by a clay-tiled roof, which lends it a rustic and vernacular aesthetic, enhanced even further in the spring when climbing wisteria bursts into colour across its facade.

Photography: The Modern House

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At the front of the house is the living room – a double-height atrium with an abundance of glass that looks out across the gardens beyond. The outdoors comes inside, too, with jasmine climbing its way around the internal timber posts and double doors leading out to the garden, where there’s a seating area for drinking in the views.

There’s plenty of rustic character to be found across the interior, especially in the reception, where timber rafters and a woodburning stove (a cosy contrast to expanses of glass found elsewhere) and the open-plan kitchen and dining area outfitted with solid oak cabinetry and quartz worktops.

Five bedrooms, a games room and a study round out the Buckinghamshire property’s immediate offering, with an outbuilding converted into a garage and workshop and a home studio—a potential artist’s retreat, writer’s nook or a peaceful home office away from the hubbub of the house.