Open House - Garden Cottage in Windlesham

Above: Garden Cottage could happily grace the lid of a chocolate box

Above: Cosy seating in the living room

Above: The master en suite is a really unique feature

One of the most affluent areas in the county, Windlesham provides the destination for ANDREW LOPEZ-CALVETE this month, as we go through the keyhole of Garden Cottage, an idyllic 1890’s property with a distinctly modern twist



The beautiful village of Windlesham and its environs have long attracted some of the deepest pockets in the property-buying world. A magnet for wealthy Middle Eastern diplomats, celebrities and business tycoons alike, they have all been drawn by the triumvirate of Wentworth, the M3 and the specials board at the Brickmaker’s Arms...
 One of the latest properties to come on the market, Garden Cottage, is a charming 1890’s rural building that would always have been happy to grace the lid of a chocolate box. Thanks to Shelley and Chris Herbert, however, its beauty is far from merely skin deep.

“We were living in a converted barn in Chobham, and I was pregnant with our son – I suppose subconsciously, that maternal nest building instinct had kicked in,” says Shelley. “I had admired Garden Cottage for some time, and then suddenly it came on to the market. I just had to convince Chris to come and view it, despite not looking to move at that time.”

Love at first sight...

Needless to say, it was love at first sight, and Shelley almost instantly decided this was where she wanted to raise her son.

“When viewing, I know you need to be cool and not show your hand, but I just blurted out that I wanted it,” she continues. “When we returned from the viewing, I convinced Chris not to mess around and go in with the asking price.

“It was all pretty straightforward from there, other than needing to find a buyer for our existing property, which we managed to do pretty quickly. We moved in a week after my son, Southan, was born in November 2000.”

A contemporary feel...

The period/contemporary mix is rapidly becoming a cliché of this column, but the couple’s concept for the property and its elegant execution is surely one of the most successful examples of that design ethos I have ever seen.

“We were trying to achieve a warm contemporary feel that was sympathetic to the period of the cottage,” explains Shelley. “We were fans of places like Babbington House, in Somerset, where they have successfully mixed modern and classic, and have created an environment that is so relaxing.”

Being a ground up restoration, there was only one logical place to start the work. “The first thing we did was rip up the carpets and put down oak floorboards – we wanted something that looked authentic rather than a perfectly formed wooden floor covering, so we sourced reclaimed floorboards in three different widths,” she says. “We battened out the ground floor to achieve one level throughout, and fixed the boards using traditional nails rather than allowing it to float. The result looks like it has been there for 100 years.”

One of the first things you notice from the rear projection of the property is the subtle way it has been extended. “We were planning on increasing the living space by adding an extension to accommodate a large master bedroom over the existing flat roofed kitchen,” says Shelley. “We were about to get some plans drawn up, when a neighbour (who is also a builder) mentioned to us that he thought a previous owner had once been granted permission for a similar plan but had not carried out the work. He said that it had been more than seven years ago, so the permission had probably lapsed. It turned out that this was the case, but we applied for the permission to be reinstated and when we looked at the plans that had been submitted, they were almost exactly what we had in our minds. We started the extension almost immediately.

Retaining the charm...

“I think the building work took about four months to complete and we came in on budget,” continues Shelley. “We also landscaped both front and back gardens; my father and brothers have landscaping businesses, so Chris and my dad spent every weekend for about eight weeks completely ripping out the gardens and starting again.”

The result is a period property that retains its charm, whilst managing to convince you that the ceilings are higher and that the décor belongs to one much younger. The jewel in the crown for me is the fabulous master bedroom, with its wonderful en suite, built high into the pitch of the roof, though the kitchen/diner puts up a fight for top honours with its extensive use of glass and huge skylights.

With the exception of carrying out the work whilst living on site, the couple wouldn’t change a thing from the end result of their ambitious project. So why is Garden Cottage currently on the books of Hamptons International? Like a lot of people that have taken on such an extensive redevelopment, they have discovered that the journey is just as important as the ultimate destination, and the Herberts find themselves itching for a new challenge.

“If I had it my way I would live here forever,” says Shelley. “It is the perfect house in the perfect location but we are young and probably have a few more moves in us yet, and it would also be nice to start a new project.”

Get the look

• Keep it contemporary, but carry a couple of consistent period touches such as the flooring or exposed wood structure throughout
• Use heritage colours
• Accent certain walls with colour to delineate different areas
• Unblock those chimneys and make working fireplaces features wherever possible
• Use reclaimed materials if you are going to extend