Grand designs: How to build the home of your dreams

For the most discerning property owners, home is not only where the heart is – it’s where the private hammam, classic car museum and art collection are.

In the past couple of years, many thousands of people have moved house in search of more space, while the owners of Britain’s most luxurious residences are increasingly overhauling them to cater to their lifestyles and pastimes.

“There has always been an appetite from high-net-worth individuals for customising where they live, but the pandemic really brought into focus the importance of being able to do what you love from the comfort of your own home,” says James Carter-Brown, Head of Knight Frank’s Residential Building Consultancy team. “As a result, more people are making investments in lifestyle projects and prioritising their enjoyment.”

For some, this means installing top-of-the-range fitness facilities. Others are creating the means to practise hobbies with a tennis pavilion, a wild-swimming pond or fly-fishing lake. Elsewhere, high-net-worths are choosing to build a cavernous wine cellar or the ultimate grown-up den, and some of these passion projects are gargantuan in scale.

For Carter-Brown, one particular project springs to mind: “We created a bespoke museum for a fine art and private car collection for one client.”

This museum was vast – measuring 60,000 sq ft – featuring design elements like burnt timber and polished concrete. “As well as the open-plan floor space for the artwork and cars, there was also a swimming pool, a sauna, a cinema, a tennis court and a helicopter hangar,” Carter-Brown adds.

To turn dream schemes like these into reality, the Residential Building Consultancy team manages clients’ builds from the initial idea through the planning phase, construction and interior fit-out until they hand over the keys – removing all the pain from what are often highly complex, multi-faceted schemes. As Carter-Brown says: “It’s not unusual to spend several months to a year designing something truly special.”

Throughout the process, the team introduces clients to architects and contractors, drawing on a network of proven specialists. As well as having relationships with art experts and interior designers, Knight Frank’s team advise clients on what goes on beneath the surface too; from assessing air and water quality to suggesting automation systems, sustainable materials, carbon-absorbing paint and low-carbon technologies like heat pumps.

As with any high-end building project, sourcing the right materials is paramount – down to the optimal stone needed for a cantilevered staircase. “Stone is quite a difficult thing to get right as you’re often buying blocks that are currently in the ground. However, we have sourced the purest, cleanest stone for clients, with no movement or shelling,” Carter-Brown says. “As a team, we know how to make things happen and use the most highly trusted and skilled contractors. Materials, the market and supply chains are hard to navigate but we are the conduit – it starts and finishes with us.”

Homeowners’ four-legged friends are part of the process too. “I regularly help clients to create boutique facilities for their pets, such as showers designed exclusively for dogs,” he continues. “Dedicated grooming facilities are very popular, particularly in recent years, and we often incorporate a kitchen preparation area for pet food.” Kitchens themselves are hot property: most large houses will have more than one, while outdoor kitchens are becoming more widespread. The best boast pizza ovens, smokers and barbecues, often with separate areas to prepare vegetarian or vegan food.

As well as handling new builds, the Residential Building Consultancy team specialise in sympathetically converting period buildings. Recent projects include a sensitive overhaul of a Gothic Revival house in the Cotswolds countryside that included a theatre built by the previous incumbents. “It was the most romantic building you could imagine, but it required a full renovation,” Carter-Brown explains. “The theatre became a huge, welcoming family space for the new owner.”

Indeed, when it comes to clients’ ambitions for their prime and super-prime homes, the sky’s the limit: “We have been asked to build car racetracks on private sites and have built a bathroom with a glass floor so you can sit in a roll-top bath and look down onto the owner’s favourite car parked below. Whatever your passion, we can help to bring that into your home in style – whether that be golf, tennis, art, a vineyard or a helicopter hangar.”