Julie would have approved
9th June 2015

It’s probably the UK’s – if not the world’s – most famous holiday cottage, featuring on TV, in national newspapers and magazines and said to be inspired by follies, shrines and fairy tales and described as a ceramic-clad gingerbread temple.

A House for Essex, designed by Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry may look radical in every way but its sliding sash and casement windows and French doorsets are all traditional timber, made to order by Mumford & Wood from its Conservation range.

“These windows and doors are truly glorious but I confess we were surprised when the contractor, Rose Builders, showed us the drawings,” said Mumford & Wood Managing Director Frank Buckley, “Not that design of a bespoke nature is anything new to us; it was more the unexpected colours of purple red and yellow which was colour matched to Little Green Trumpet.  This project makes a grand and striking statement and an unusual alternative to today’s trend of white, off-white and heritage colours such as pale grey and duck egg blue and natural stain finishes.  This property is rather like a fairy story, a true work of fiction.”
The made-to-order timber Conservation products feature Victorian-style sash windows, with spring balance operation, with fixed curved semi-circular fanlights to emphasise height and scale. All products have been finished in purple red, RAL 3004, with a single doorset in yellow.  Triangular casements were also designed and manufactured by Mumford & Wood. 

Conservation windows and doors are made from engineered timber to the standards of the British Woodworking Federation’s Wood Window Alliance and are A+ BRE rated, Secured by Design accredited, and Energy Saving Trust listed.

Perry was commissioned to design the house, located in Wrabness close to the Essex coast, by Living Architecture, which aims to enhance people’s appreciation of architecture by creating exceptionally designed holiday lettings throughout the UK. The artist says the house was inspired by a fictitious Essex woman he calls Julie, whose second husband commissioner it in her memory after she was knocked down and killed by a curry delivery driver in Colchester.
A House for Essex will be available to rent on a short-term holiday basis and can sleep up to four people in two bedrooms.  Slots are allocated by public ballot which opened in May ’15.

www.mumfordwood.com