BARN DANCE

With its carefully balanced mix of historic character and modern, industrial elements, this fine farm building is now the perfect entertaining space

- RACHEL LEEDHAM

Exterior

Huge glazed openings offer views straight through the threshing barn to the cowshed beyond. The smaller structure to the right, once a cart shed, is now used as a potting shed

Living area

This uplifting scheme combines all-white furniture with eye-catching green and white textiles. Otto corner sofa, Sofa.com. Bespoke coffee table, Samantha Todhunter Design

AT HOME WITH

Owners Susannah Forsythe works with charities and her husband Ivan is a businessman.

House A 17th-century barn with two bedrooms. They bought the barn in 2017 and finished it in 2019.

Situated on the edge of a Dorset village, this former threshing barn is one of three handsome agricultural buildings bought by Susannah and Ivan Forsythe, owners of the neighbouring farmhouse, to create accommodation and entertaining space for their family and friends. When Susannah and Ivan acquired the Grade II-listed structure, one of its façades was hidden behind a makeshift corrugated iron shed that had been erected between the barns to house livestock. 'It wasn't until we took it away that we realized the threshing barn stood on quite a slope, so our first job was to shore it up to prevent it from collapsing, Susannah recalls.