A natural oak granny annexe in a long Canterbury garden by Timeless Garden Rooms
A 40sqm one-bedroom annexe for a grandmother moving in alongside her family, clad in natural oak weatherboarding and set down a long garden with room left beside it to reach the back gate.
This granny annexe in Canterbury is a classic Timeless Garden Rooms design. It was built for a grandmother moving in alongside her family, and from the first meeting to the final handover the aim was a building that suited her needs, with a decent-sized kitchen and shower room so she could keep as much of her independence as possible.
At 10.0m x 4.0m, the 40sqm plan holds an open-plan kitchen and living space, a bedroom and a large shower room. For the family, it’s a building that fits their garden and will be an asset for years to come.
At a glance
- Size: 10.0m x 4.0m, 40sqm. An open-plan kitchen and living space, a bedroom and a large shower room.
- Built for: a grandmother moving in alongside her family in Canterbury.
- Construction: built to current Building Regulations thermal standards, with a mist sprinkler system because the annexe is out of range for fire engine access.
- Finishes: natural oak weatherboarding, painted timber windows and doors and a composite slate roof outside; plastered walls in Farrow & Ball School House White and wide oak boards inside.
- Company: Timeless Garden Rooms, handling the whole project from design to handover.
Part of our one-bedroom annexe guide →
Oak left to weather
Many of the annexes Timeless Garden Rooms build are painted. Here the oak weatherboarding has been left in its natural state, which gives the building a slightly more contemporary feel while keeping the traditional form. You get the beauty of the wood, and over time it will weather to a silver grey. The painted timber windows and doors are a soft grey-green that will sit well against it as it changes.
The roof is a composite slate, chosen because it’s fire safe.
A gable end facing the house
The pitched roof gives the front elevation, which faces back up the garden to the house, its shape. French doors sit centrally in the gable, with a weather vane on the ridge above and decorative verge boards framing the roof line. A pair of vintage-style brass lanterns sits either side of the doors, so the annexe makes a nice view from the house, day and evening.
Placed down a long garden
This is a good example of how an annexe can be positioned in a long garden. Timeless Garden Rooms set the building to one side, leaving a path down its length so the family keep their access to the back gate and the lane behind the garden. Keeping that side open is also what allowed windows to be placed on the left-hand elevation.
Skylights do the rest. In a long, narrow garden like this, roof glazing brings in plenty of light without adding windows that would overlook the neighbours or look out onto a fence.
A vaulted living space
Inside, the ceiling is vaulted, with a skylight set between the white-painted roof ties. The main room is at the front of the building, opening straight onto the garden through the French doors. Wide oak boards run across the floor, and a contemporary green kitchen fills one wall, with a full-height larder unit at the end of the run.
It’s a great interior space. There’s room for sofas and a dining table as well as the kitchen, so the grandmother has a comfortable place to live, cook and have family round. The walls are plasterboarded, skimmed and painted in Farrow & Ball School House White.
Bedroom and shower room
The bedroom leads off the living space and sits towards the back of the building, again lit by skylights. The very spacious shower room is at the back, with a good arrangement of glazing: a high-level window in the gable end, plus an obscured window lower down. There’s plenty of room to move around, and an easy-access shower with charcoal brick-style tiling.
Fire safety beyond fire engine reach
The annexe sits further down the garden than a fire engine can reach, so a mist sprinkler system, supplied by a specialist company, was required. The control panel sits on the wall in the living space. The build also meets the latest thermal standards that Building Regulations require.
From first drawing to handing over the keys
Timeless Garden Rooms handled the whole project for their clients. That ran from the design, through the planning approval process and sign-off from building control, to handing over the keys to a move-in-ready, fully commissioned annexe.
Learn more about Timeless Garden Rooms
To talk to Timeless Garden Rooms about an annexe of your own, call 01843 821 851, email sales.timelessgardenrooms@gmail.com, or visit their annexe site at www.timelessgardenannexe.com.
