BACKYARD Barn

Jessica Loughlin of Loughlin Furniture gives us a tour of her family’s adorable backyard barn – the perfect modern sleepout.

Architecture and Photography Fabric Architecture

1. Who designed your little backyard barn and what was the design brief?
Fabric Architecture. The brief was a ‘parents retreat/ kids chill-out-zone/ alternative to second living area’, Fabric gave us a mock up of a few designs but the A-Frame pitch barn-style roof got us - from there we decided to add a little mezzanine.

2. Those barn doors are epic - did you custom make these for the barn, and what else did you design/make for the space? We did (Loughlin Furniture) - the doors are made from Tasmanian Oak. We also made the slatted awning, American Oak bulk head feature and American Oak staircase.

3. How do you use the space? Through winter we used it as somewhere to hang out and watch movies at night with the kids - like a modern ‘sleep out’.

4. How big is it in terms of total square meterage? The floor plan is 3.9m x 6.3m. We included full length storage along the whole back wall so we lost some space but the extra storage is amazing for our family! The mezzanine is only 3.9m x 3.5m but with the Velux skylights it certainly feels bigger.

‘Harrington’ lounge and armchair, ‘Barrenjoey’ kids stool and ‘Stumpy’ stool from Loughlin Furniture

5. We love the loft space - what did you use it for? A playroom – our 6 year old thought it was the ultimate cubby! However the space fits a double bed perfectly so could be used as a guest room for holiday periods (but minus the bathroom).

6. What colour did you paint the exterior? We used Dulux Natural White. It was a massive deliberation though – it was going to be either ‘Natural White’ or ‘Monument’. In the end we wanted to match it in with the main house colour (Natural White) but this style would have looked absolutely beautiful as a dark colour also.