Louis Pouyanne took on a mammoth task to revive a 14th century barn into a naturally-bright family home in the country

WORDS VICTORIA JENKINS

PHOTOS HEATHER GUNN

As Louis Pouyanne reached up to fix a joist in his ancient barn, the gantry he was standing on suddenly lurched. “The next thing I knew, I was hurtling towards the stone floor – which was 14-feet below me,” he says.

“Somehow, thankfully, I picked myself up off the ground with hardly a scratch.” There is no doubt that this was a hair-raising moment, but it wasn’t the only precarious incident that Louis faced as he worked on his historic home in Adderbury, Oxfordshire.

When Louis and his wife Ingrid first viewed their future home, it was little more than an empty tithe barn; it is grade II listed and dates back to 1422. It is linked by an old grain store, from the 1800s, to an assortment of farm buildings of the same age. These had all been converted into living space in the 1970s, when an extension was also added. There was much work to be done to transform it into a comfortable home for modern life – nevertheless, the couple and their two children, Sofia and Anthony, bought and moved into the complex in 2013. The barn came with planning permission to build an extension within it, and in order to save money, Louis decided he would be as hands on as possible.

The grade II listed barn dates back to 1422, and the Pouyannes have converted it to provide stylish accommodation. This was done by erecting a free-standing steel structure within the barn walls