Design Brief

Building designer Darryl Lock, was approached by client Charles Hanna to breath new life into the Willow Tree Inn. The brief was to revive the heritage building for commercial use, extending the facility to provide a commercial restaurant and kitchen to serve a wedding / function room, which would open out into the rear garden.

The exterior and interior of the buildings required complete upgrades, however preserving and restoring the heritage features of the existing building was paramount.

Removal of unsympathetic additions and extensions that had been added and let run down over the years was needed so that new accommodation within the complex and in the garden could be developed.

Design Solution

The overriding intent when altering the existing building and proposed extensions was to give individual spaces their own identity while maintaining a similar character throughout.

New overnight accommodation was created within the existing buildings along with the addition of four cabins sited in the garden areas.


New bathrooms and toilets were also added to integrate into the overall schema.


Material Considerations

Pressed metal ceilings in the old Inn were either repaired or replaced with a similar product, and the external weatherboard walls were replaced with weatherboards with exactly the same profile as the original building. 

A large fireplace and chimney were constructed in The Grain Store function room and, once again, a traditional design was maintained using feature red bricks recycled from the original hotel. 

All the timber floors were replaced with 100-year old recycled Ironbark floorboards due to termite damage to the original bearers and joists. This is also true of less prominent features such as the plaster wall vents, which were replaced with identical products reproduced by the original manufacturers based in Tamworth.

Consultants & Contractors

Building Designer - Darryl Lock Studio

Photographer - Sally Alden Photography

 

This article was written with the assistance of Building Designers Australia.