Arts & Crafts style showhome.

Byline: By Marsya Lennox Property Correspondent

Show home design has become a boom industry, fuelled in the last decade by the public fascination for domestic "makeovers".

It has also stretched the house-builder, now as preoccupied with promoting "lifestyle" as the quality of construction and craftsmanship.

Cynical commentators point out that the frills take a buyer's eye off the bricks and mortar. Smitten viewers, however, sigh over colour schemes - and undersized furniture they'll never own, persuaded by the perfected vision.

We may have forgotten, however, that there have always been new homes. And where there is speculative development, there are marketing men close by, pointing out the pavement appeal and the quality on offer.

Oaktree House at 115, Lordswood Road, Harborne is a notable example of an early 20th century show house, built around 1910 by local builders and decorators, Seers and Son.

Selling agents Knight Frank and their clients, the current owners, have turned up some fascinating facts on Oaktree House and its creators. Seers & Son were based on Broad Street in Birmingham, operating there until 1954.

The company built the house as a show property to promote their business and the craftsmanship they could offer their customers.

The son of the founder, Joseph Seers lived at the property until the mid 20th century. The site was part of land originally owned by Harborne Parish Lands, leased by Joseph Seers as a building plot in 1903, Oaktree House completed eight years later.

The surviving original features show just some of what the paying public was being offered in a family home before the First World War.

The Arts & Crafts style still dominated and is obvious in the decorative plasterwork detailing. In both main reception rooms and the principal bedroom are wonderful areas of relieve depicting woodland schemes with foliage and animals.

There is more efforts taken in the wall panelling of the reception hall, individual stained glass scenes and original, beaten copper fingerplaces to the original doors, reminiscent of the Rennie Mackintosh style.

The fireplaces in Oaktree House are also particularly charming, translating well into the bright, refurbished interiors that have probably never looked so good in nearly a century.

They have distinctive small tiled inserts and hardwood frames, the drawing room example particularly attractive with its carved oak surround. In the days of dark green paint, dim lighting and small kitchens or sculleries, these were the typical "grannies' homes" that sent 1960s buyers racing for modern boxes and melamine.

Oaktree House, however, comes again into its own as a totally refurbished and modernised property with an improved floorplan to suit modern purchasers.

The space on offer is not clear from its modest main faç'ade. "From the front you have little idea of what you get inside. It is a lot deeper than you think," said James Bowkett of Knight Frank.

A 25ft run of kitchen and breakfast room space has been created to one side of the house, complete with separate laundry room.

There is even more scope on offer with the attached garage and workshop to the other side, dating to improvements of 1921 when a timber "motor house" was added to store an early vehicle - real status between the wars.

The garage alone is 33ft long and with the rear workshop space could be further converted as a studio, home office or gymnasium.

The ground floor provides a traditional reception hall with cloakroom and staircase off, front sitting room with large bay, rear drawing room and further dining room off the extended kitchen.

The first floor shows the original extent of the 1910 floorplan with one bedroom at each corner, central stairs and landing and house bathroom off.

The attractive steep pitch of the roof line has allowed for further useful expansion of the original house and another, fifth bedroom and bathroom.

This latter space draws on period cottage style as a modern showpiece, fully panelled in tongue and groove in pastel colours with a freestanding tub on claw feet and exposed timber floor boarding.

There are private gardens to the rear with good sized paved seating terrace, exterior lighting and a wide central lawn with shaped boarders and mature trees.

A timber summerhouse in traditional style adds a further authentic focal point.

The guide price is pounds 665,000.

Details from Knight Frank in Birmingham, telephone 0121 200 2220.

[email protected]

CAPTION(S):

Oaktree House at 115, Lordswood Road, Harborne in Birmingham, a five bedroom house dating from 1910 when it was a show house for a respected local building firm' Original door detail includes this beaten copper finger plate in Arts & Crafts style' A 25ft run of kitchen and breakfast room space has been created to one side of the house

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Title Annotation:	Features
Publication:	The Birmingham Post (England)
Date:	May 26, 2006
Words:	788
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