A fifteenth-century dovecote transformed into a comfortable family home

The first time interior designer Amanda Hornby saw Hodges Barn was when she was invited there to meet her then boyfriend Nick's family. 'I was quite petrified, of course,' she says. 'It was Christmas and the staircase was woven with holly and ivy -a tradition we keep up today. I can't remember if I stayed, or if we had a family meal, but I do remember the William Morris wallpaper and red Formica worktops in the kitchen.' Spoken like a true designer. Nick is now her husband, and Hodges Barn is their home. These days, the touches of scarlet in the kitchen come from a row of metal Tolix stools and some glass lights hanging above a huge central island, which is topped with cabbage-green Brazilian marble.

The house, in a rolling part of the Cotswolds, has been in Nick's family since 1945. Hodges Piece, as the original building was called, was a giant dovecote built in 1499. It housed pigeons to provide winter meat for a big house, which stood 500 yards away. When that house burnt down in 1556, the dovecote was abandoned and used only occasionally to house farm carts. An attempt to convert it into a house in 1938 had to be abandoned because of the Second World War until Nick's great-grandmother bought the property seven years later.

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The sturdy ancient walls and cruciform structure of the dovecote made it an ideal base to create a family home full of character and charm. 'In my mother-in-law's day, the house was always full of beautiful things, with lots of people staying,' says Amanda.

When she and Nick bought the house from the family seven years ago, they were deter­mined to keep that easy-going atmosphere, but a modern update was much needed. For two years, they lived in a rented house nearby, while dealing with the builders. The roof came off and many of the upstairs rooms were recon­figured. But the biggest change was the addition of an extra wing, concealed behind what looks like a garden wall when seen from the drive.

The couple and their three children mostly use an entrance in this new wing, the large and welcoming garden hall, with its boots and benches and sporting paraphernalia. Beside it on the left is Amanda's office, which looks over the stables on one side and across to the lovely water garden and woods beyond. Also off this garden hall is a flower room, with pantry-style cupboards built around a Belfast sink.

Below this area is a spacious basement, with a ping-pong table and a snooker room, its table re-covered in blue baize. Leading off the main space is a larder, laundry room, second kitche nand sauna. The mechanics of a house - providing enough storage, getting rid of awkward corners - are important to Amanda. 'Anyone can pick a paint colour, but getting the structure right is what makes a house,' she says.

Back at ground level, you turn right out of the garden hall into the kitchen, which was itself carved from a maze of larders and boiler rooms. Now, it's a majestic size, with a wall of pale grey painted cupboards designed by Amanda, a French limestone chimneypiece and a sturdy conker-bright oak dining table. There is also a long, com­fortable sofa at one end, where the children - Cecily, 17, Verity, 15, and 12-year-old Hal - can sometimes be found, stretched out reading a book. Many of the couple's more modern artworks, which came from their London house, are hanging in the kitchen.