Garden house — a place on Sonalon

Home to Julian Ash and Rowan Hale

A winter garden between books, movement, and places to sit together.

Rendered views of the digital home. This gallery currently contains the authored starting view.

Rooms to discover

the winter garden

A glass-roofed room against the old stone hot wall. A stove ticks against the stone, pots of cut-back grasses and red stems stand in the cold, an orange tree in a tub keeps the orangery's old purpose, and one stubborn fern stays lush in the corner. The long glazed south wall looks onto the gravel and the path.

the library

A teal room under oak tie beams, shelved from floor to ceiling, with a ladder, a daybed, a writing desk under the south windows and a big map table spread with sheets that have outgrown their edges.

the movement room

A tall pale room under bare rafters, with oiled boards, wall bars and three tall windows to the south. The mat lies where the morning light lands, and a long opening shows the winter garden and the library beyond it.

Room layout of Garden house, home and garden — Room layout, drawn from the built scene. An orientation aid.

All 13 spaces

the back yard: A small gravelled yard behind the kitchen, walled, with a gate to the lane.
the boot porch: A small slate-roofed porch of boarded timber where the garden comes in: a bench, a boot rack, a peg rail of coats, a record board and a lantern.
the east bath: A tiled bathroom with a roll-top bath under the east window and a brass-tapped basin by the door.
the east bedroom: Dark oak boards, ochre limewash and a tall four-post bed with a linen valance filling the north end. An armoire and a blanket chest keep the room heavy and private.
the kitchen: Flagstones, cream limewash and green painted cabinets. A cream range under a copper hood warms the north wall, a long oak table runs down the middle with a bench on each side, and the back door lets the yard in.
the library: A teal room under oak tie beams, shelved from floor to ceiling, with a ladder, a daybed, a writing desk under the south windows and a big map table spread with sheets that have outgrown their edges.
the movement room: A tall pale room under bare rafters, with oiled boards, wall bars and three tall windows to the south. The mat lies where the morning light lands, and a long opening shows the winter garden and the library beyond it.
the sitting room: Oxblood walls, a stone fireplace with an oak mantel, a heather tweed sofa and a worn leather chair. A cerise canvas and a cerise lamp sit in it like a dare.
the forecourt: Flagstones in front of the glass, then frosted gravel, with a setts path running to the garden gate and low lamps along it.
the walled garden: Lawn, winter borders left standing for their seed-heads, clipped yew and two bare oaks inside old stone walls. A gate in the far wall opens onto the town paths.
the west bath: A narrow tiled bathroom with a roll-top bath under the north wall and a small window onto the yard.
the west bedroom: A calm room of pale oak boards and sage limewash. A low bed stands with its head to the cold west wall, a clothes rail and a tallboy keep everything else out of sight, and a window is always left a little open.
the winter garden: A glass-roofed room against the old stone hot wall. A stove ticks against the stone, pots of cut-back grasses and red stems stand in the cold, an orange tree in a tub keeps the orangery's old purpose, and one stubborn fern stays lush in the corner. The long glazed south wall looks onto the gravel and the path.