A four-bed home with a 'jaw-dropping' feature in the living room has come up for sale near Clare in Suffolk for £850,000.
When guests first walk into the reception room of The Old Village Hall in Stansfield, they nearly always do a double-take.
Perched atop one of the bookshelves is a Diana monkey and a nectarine – but it’s not what you might think.
They are, in fact, part of a painting of a book-filled alcove and a mere trick of the eye, but they certainly add to the character of the space, says owner Mary Evans.
“It’s quite a jaw-dropper,” she says. “It is very funny when people come in for the first time. They just glance at the bookcase and think ‘there’s a monkey?’ You can think, because of the angle, that there is. It’s the sort of thing that makes you smile about this house.”
The mural was painted by the home’s former owner, Graham Rust, a celebrated artist who specialises in Trompe-l’oeil, the artistic movement which centres around carefully creating optical illusions by painting three-dimensional objects on two-dimensional surfaces.
Graham and his partner bought the property in the 1970s. At the time it was still a village hall, so they decided to convert it, doing lots of “really detailed work to make the most of the building,” Mary says – including hand-painting wooden skirting boards to look like marble.
Later on, they sold it to a friend, who then rented it out to Mary and her husband Richard. The couple, who both grew up in Suffolk and met as journalists working on this newspaper, rented the home for two years before eventually buying it. “We fell in love with it the day after we moved in,” says Mary.
By the time they did buy it, they knew the changes they wanted to make, including putting a woodburner into the main room to make it more efficient. In its heyday, it was used as the main school room, so has a double-height ceiling and is ideal for entertaining or relaxing by the fire. It’s also where you will find the original school step, which is now used as part of the hearth.
As part of further renovations, the couple also took out radiators, moved a bathroom upstairs, expanded the kitchen and replaced an old conservatory with a “glorious” new sun room which Mary says was “a joy in lockdown,” offering a place for them to relax and enjoy the garden’s abundant bird life.
The sun room was designed by architects in nearby Clare and is quite modern, constructed out of red brick and zinc with a slate roof and doors that slide right back to lead into the garden – but despite its modern design, it still echoes the shape of the rest of the house.
The couple has also installed an ESSE wood burning range in the kitchen, which Mary admits “probably sounds a bit unusual,” but was inspired by a power cut back when they first moved in.
The new ESSE range works in a similar way to an Aga but doesn’t use oil or electricity – instead it uses wood, of which Mary says there is a good supply locally. That means it can be more easily maintained and fewer electrical parts mean much less can go wrong.
The design of the house means it works well in all weathers – there’s a corridor with a door into the garden that you can open up to allow air in during the summer, and Mary says it’s very cosy in the winter.
The main reception space, which dominates the centre of the property and is home to the monkey with the nectarine, is very adaptable too. “You can move furniture around and open it up for a big party – we’ve had a bridge drive here and all sorts – but when we were first here, Richard was working away from home a lot and I never felt that I was rattling around.”
Two bedrooms, including the master with an en suite shower, are located on the ground floor, off a hall at the back, and there are two others and a family bathroom on the floor above.
Outside, a garden wraps around the house and is divided into different areas, with a little secret garden towards the front and more formal gardens elsewhere. “Then right at the top, there’s the lily pond and then the fields – we’ve got sheep behind us most of the time now,” says Mary. “It’s very pretty.”
To the south of the terrace, there is also a multi-purpose outbuilding fitted with plumbing and separate central heating, which Mary and Richard currently use as a study.
Stansfield is well-located for some of the best areas of Suffolk, Mary suggests. “We’ve got Clare, we’ve got Bury St Edmunds, and you’ve really got to go a long way to beat them,” she says. And it’s only now – because the couple has retired and want to return to their old stomping ground – that they’ve decided to sell up.
“We want to go back to the Woodbridge area, which is where we lived when we were first married. It’s where my husband was born and raised. It’s where my parents lived towards the end of their lives. We wouldn’t be going unless it was to really take on a new challenge of returning back
to our roots.”
For more information, contact Savills.
PROPERTY FACTS
Lower Street, Stansfield
Guide price: £850,000
Savills, 01473 234800
www.savills.com
Would you like to stay up to date with the latest property news in your area? Sign up to the East Anglian Daily Times newsletter for our pick of the best local property stories.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here