A DECADE OF AMAZING SPACES

Imaginative builds and cutting-edge design take centre stage on this hugely popular Channel 4 design series, with caravan conversions frequently a firm favourite for those looking for their own static holiday home or mobile abode for those with itchy feet.

But this very special series has also been celebrating its 10th anniversary and has not only showcased more intrepid self-build heroes, but also followed one of George’s most personal builds ever with his good friend, British designer/engineer/entrepreneur and upcycling expert Max McMurdo, seeing the multi-talented duo also discovering a unique and clever way of choosing a picture-perfect colour scheme.

No stranger to ‘Amazing Spaces’, handy dandy Max starred in the very first episode of the show, documenting his incredible rescue, reclamation and restoration project of a rusty old shipping container, which he geniously turned into his happy houseboat home. Although George achieved his original caravan overhaul in series 1 with another of his ‘Amazing Spaces’ sidekicks – his good friend and master craftsman Will Hardy, who helped him renovate a genius getaway of a multifunctional static caravan which brought the outside in using foldout walls - Max also played a huge part in the first ever episode of the show, meaning the 10-year anniversary marked a poignant commemoration for him, too.

And as the series launched its 11th series, 10 years on, we saw George engage Max’s unrivalled renovation services to replace his perishing old caravan with a brand-new Arts and Crafts-inspired holiday home, handcrafted and built from scratch, culminating in one never-seen-before utterly amazing space!

At Home With Max Afloat

The six-month build of his houseboat, moored in Bedford marina, saw Max swap bricks’n’mortar for life on the water. Having sold his house, he ploughed the £50k profit into his inspirational floating abode, filling it with stylish fixtures’n’fittings made from upcycled materials. Having set his sights on uncharted waters to live mortgage free, the eco designer’s crafty skills, coupled with his incredible imagination, saw Max conceptualise and construct an enviable built-from-scratch houseboat bursting with nifty space-saving wonders and inspiring gadgets a-go-go, resulting in an astonishing eco treasure trove of an abode afloat.

“Sustainability isn’t just about upcycling, it’s also about reducing the items we need and consume,” he says. “I was determined to build a floating home that was affordable and sustainable and my entire home is entirely upcycled, from the actual container itself, to the scaffoldboard flooring, pallet-wood wall and copper pipework.”

Now boasting a bedroom, bathroom (with one tap which pivots to also serve the kitchen) and storage, the lounge comes with complete with a pop-up dining table made from a wash drum and unit made from an old suitcase, a gas canister-cleverly-turned stove/pizza oven, log burner and a much-coveted Eames chair, “Everything I need!” says uncompromising eco-master Max.

Everything’s controlled on a voice-activated app to ensure everything is switched off as much as possible. “I have an incredible infrared heated ceiling keeping me toasty while halving my heating bill, and the glass sliding doors harness the beautiful natural light which also creates heat.”

This simple solar gain concept is coupled with LED lighting throughout, while Max uses a hydroponic system outdoors.

“I love my natural surroundings, and a wall of bi-folding glass doors keeps me linked to nature. It’s my happy place!”

We’re all well aware that being eco-friendly is an important way of life and for many a mindset change. Upcycling is fun, educational and saves not only the planet but your pocket, too.

Max aims to go totally solar and live completely off-grid. “Technology is now advanced enough to make this possible and affordable,” he says.

FROM SPACESHIPS TO GEORGE CLARKE’S SIDEKICK!

A skilful mini Max started turning junk into treasure as a child, crafting washing up liquid bottles into spaceships. Growing up, his parents naturally led a non-wasteful lifestyle, so being frugal is in his DNA. “We grew our own veg, reused everything we could and tried to fix anything that broke. I guess my design style is to incorporate those core values with a stylish, contemporary twist.”

Having studied Product Design and Visualisation at uni, Max fulfilled his boyhood dream and became an automobile designer in Germany, kickstarting his career designing cars in Cologne, where he observed the country’s efficiency at reuse and recycling. This German inspiration intervened, seeing him so inspired by beautiful items of waste that he quit his job, purchased a VW camper van, and returned to the UK intent on creating a business utilising waste destined for landfill.

In 2002, Max started up his own company to design, engineer and manufacture bespoke creations from junk, transforming trash into treasure in the form of high-end furniture with the aim of proving that upcycled furniture, accessories and eco-friendly products from objects destined for landfill can be turned into contemporary, stylish and desirable objects.

ENTER THE DRAGONS’ DEN…

The recycling whizz set up his Reestore upcycling company, had several design awards under his upcycled belt and had featured in gallery exhibitions galore before he rose to smallscreen fame.

No stranger to our screens these days, Max’s first TV appearance saw him face the Dragons as he entered the BBC’s fiery ‘Dragons Den’, showcasing a few of his innovative products, including upcycled supermarket trolley chairs and a carrier bag recycling bin, in hand. Quickly snapped up by the BBC Two BAFTA-nominated show’s investors Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis following his perfect pitch, he coolly left ‘The Den’ £50k in backing better off. “I still keep in touch with their teams and families!”

Celebrating 10 Years Of Amazing Spaces

2023 marks a huge milestone for ‘Amazing Spaces’, with 10 years of the nation’s small-space trailblazers showcasing their skilful labours of love. From incredible treetop hideaways, to stunning stargazing observatories, proving anything is possible, even the most eccentric ideas come to fruition on ‘Amazing Spaces’.

OUT WITH OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

Our nation’s obsession with homes and mini homes-awayfrom-home means we all need to build green in the current precarious climate, and with that in mind, George commissioned Max to max out on the eco credentials with this build.

And George’s journey from old to new saw the arty pair cook up an ambitious caravan build, with a “bonkers barrel ceiling” idea… The capable pair sure had their work cut out!

MAX X BANKSY: ‘SHOW ME THE MONET’!

The Bedford-based furniture designer was subsequently beckoned by worldfamous Sotheby’s auction house to produce some of his shopping trolley chairs for a collaboration with Banksy for an exhibition and auction, with both pieces of art provoking viewers to consider the environmental impact of our throwaway, capitalist culture. These days, he’s a highly influential, go-to TV presenter for product design and repurposing, personifying the whole craft recycling ethos and presenting it in a way that inspires even the most eco-resistant crafter. “I love that upcycling is accessible to everyone in some form, and is a positive, fun solution to our environmental issues,” he tells me.

Constructing A Caravan From Scratch

But back to the drawing board and the brand-new series of ‘Amazing Spaces’ saw seasoned homes and architecture presenter, Max’s buddy George, unreservedly tearful as he recounted his fave family memories inside a much-loved family caravan he brought back to life 10 years ago.

The pioneering presenter renovated the original green 1979 "big tin can" caravan on a plot owned by the National Trust in the strikingly attractive Lake District for the very first series of the popular show.

Many a worn-out caravan has been modernised on the show, but George’s brand-new caravan would be built from scratch and one with a personal twist. Rather than simply hopping aboard the caravan conversion bandwagon, he’s been on a massive mission with Max to bring Arts and Crafts into his small-space holiday home. Above all, it was a ground-breaking build with family at its heart…

ARTS & CRAFTS APLENTY!

George took inspiration from one of his favourite design styles - the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th century. “It captured EVERYTHING to do with the home,” George explains. “It was such a romantic, beautiful period of architecture, which rejected the Victorian manufacturing for the spirit of medieval craftsmanship.”

Developed in the late 1800s in the UK, this magical momentous movement was influenced by the Lake District art critic John Ruskin and much-loved world-renowned designer William Morris.

Following a downturn in public taste in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and its mass-produced banal decorative arts, before going global, the English aesthetic Arts and Craft movement of the second half of the 19th century saw reformer, poet and designer William Morris found a firm of interior decorators and manufacturers dedicated to recapturing the spirit, quality and style of medieval craftsmanship in 1861.

Stepping Back In Time At Blackwell

The new series of ‘Amazing Spaces’ saw design duo George and Max visit Blackwell House, a rare architectural gem in the heart of the Lake District which offers a perfectly preserved snapshot of the movement and early 20th-century living…

Designed by noted architect Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott and completed in 1901, this stunning Grade I-listed building is one of the UK’s finest examples of Arts and Crafts architecture, all topped off with remarkable views towards the rousing Coniston Fells.

Exploring the house and discovering the Arts and Crafts story, George showed Max and viewers an abundance of original features, furniture and objects by leading Arts and Crafts designers and studios.

Boasting cosy fireplace inglenooks and inviting window seats enjoying second-to-none views of the surrounding Lake District scenery, Blackwell retains original decorative features, including a rare hessian wall-hanging in the dining room, leaf-shaped door handles, curious window catches, spectacular plasterwork, stained-glass windows and intricately carved wooden panelling.

Following a guided tour by George of all the ornate features he was keen to capture in his caravan, the presenter tried to persuade Max that many elements of arts and crafts of early 20th-century living could work well in a caravan.

“They were fantastic ideas but bringing them all together to create a caravan was kind of stressing me out!” Max divulges. “There was all the electricity and plumbing and manoeuvring it - ecology, structural design and sustainability to think about, too.”

WORKING WITH THE STARS… SARAH, KIRSTIE & GOK

This sensational upcyler has had several other small-screen sidekicks. Max’s amazing talents have seen him on many a TV show…

A debt-free Max also aptly co-presented C4’s show ‘How To Live Mortgage Free’, influencing canny homeowners alongside architect Damion Burrows and property expert Sarah Beeny. Other credits include co-presenting C4’s hit show ‘Shed of the Year’, while a crafty Kirstie Allsopp soon snapped up natural presenter Max, too, whisking him away to more sustainable TV stardom on C4’s ‘Fill Your House For Free’. Dubbing him ‘The Furniture Hacker’ due to his amazing ability to make “something out of nothing,” Kirstie eventually handed over the repurposing reins to Gok Wan, seeing Max continue on the show with the gifted fashion guru’s team of upcycling experts, including Jay Blades and Nessa Doran O’Reilly, encouraging Britain’s families to embrace saving the pennies, and the planet, through easy upcycling.

CONDENSING ARTS & CRAFTS INTO A CARAVAN

Despite Max’s concerns that the style wouldn’t work inside a caravan, after a tour of the breathtakingly beautiful Blackwell House, George convinced him that it could.

“We had to turn all the conventional ideas about a ‘cheap, boring, temporary’ caravan on their head,” George explains. “I knew we could transform it into something beautiful... Space-saving built-in furniture, fitting tightly into the corners, decorative detailing, fabrics and textures… And, excitingly, wonderful coloured stainedglass, leaded windows... all of the things that I love.”

From imagination to reality, the TV sidekicks sure had their work cut out with this crafty caravan creation!

OUT WITH THE OLD, TO MAKE WAY FOR THE NEW

The first step of the project involved clearing the 43-year-old moss-riddled caravan from the site to make way for the new one. And before the battered old build was taken away, George took a moment of reflection inside, sitting on his old hidden-bath-containing bench seat.

The build that began all ‘Amazing Spaces’ builds a decade ago in the Lake District was now a damp-ridden knackered caravan destined for the scrapyard, after being transformed into an “all-singing, all-dancing” one-of-akind holiday home for him and his kids. But 10 years of exposure to the brutal elements had taken their toll and, at over 40 years-old, George’s caravan was now well and truly ready to be recycled and used elsewhere.

“It was a really, really sad day when she was removed…” said a tearful George on camera. “Saying goodbye was way more painful than I imagined. I’ve had so many amazing times and have happy memories of me and the kids in that space. My kids kinda grew up in that caravan… and it created the best memories. But unfortunately, she had to go…”

Making Your Mark

Whether you’re designing a caravan, garden room or something else, Max and his pal George portrayed a novel way of visualising your build...

Marking out the max space of 11 metres (30 ft long, 9-foot wide) under caravan rules, we watched in awe as the creative duo worked out where the windows would go to make the most of the incredible views.

Plotting out the blueprint by spray painting the outlines of the caravan and its rooms directly onsite, designing it from the inside out on the ground it would stand on, saw Max running around marking things out with white paint and traffic cones.

Front door here, shower room there… once all spaces were drawn up, the design specialist sent up a drone to view it from above so they could check it out from the sky.

Both were now happy that this all-new handcrafted forever caravan would make the very most of the delightful Lake District views from the inside, while making minimal impact from the outside.

Reestore Hq

The layout sorted, it was time to get to the tangible work at Max’s Bedfordshire-based studio, Reestore Towers, where he and his talented team transform everyday waste items into beautiful home accessories and functional pieces of furniture.

Designing and manufacturing upscale handcrafted furnishings for the home, office and retail sectors, upcycled makes range from roll-top baths transformed into sofas and desks produced from aeroplane wings, to bigger bespoke builds from buses, not forgetting shipping containers, of course! Max and his top team can seamlessly and effortlessly transform any small space.

Building The Foundations

While George was really fixated on the details of William Morrisesque Arts and Crafts, Max says realistically, the most important bit was the foundation. With a wood base and foil insulation board down, Max then layered the rest of the non-flammable insulation, making it as sustainable as it is cosy.

“The third and final layer of insulation was made from thousands of recycled plastic bottles,” Max explains. “It’s awesome! The location of the caravan sees a lot of extreme weather conditions, and this type of insulation keeps the heat in during the winter when it’s cold outside but also keeps it cool in the summer.”

“It’s going to be one of the warmest caravans in the world,” smiled George.

With a solid, insulated floor on top of a metal chassis, “That was the easy bit!” says Max. “One of the most exciting and nerve-wracking parts of this build was that George wanted to integrate Arts and Crafts and lots of intricately detailed heavy stuff into what is, typically, a lightweight portable caravan. William Morris didn’t make caravans for a very good reason!”

Nailing The Structure

Having beavered away on the base, Max and his top team moved smoothly to make more magic happen…

After creating and erecting the first section of the metal framework on the sturdy base, both Max and George then got to work on adding the walls, using super-strong SIP panels (structurally insulated panels) which come pre-insulated, making them ultrasustainable and easy to install. The clever panels were also robust enough to withstand moving the completed caravan from Max’s workshop to onto its site.

Knocking it into shape, the biggest design challenge for the project was George’s innovative idea to create a dramatic barrel-vaulted ceiling inside the square-pitched roof – the most important part of the build.

At 3.6m high, the pitched roof in place allowed George to properly visualise his dream holiday home.

Having nailed it with the structure, would Max rise to the challenge of creating George’s unconventional idea of a cathedral-inspired barrel-vaulted ceiling?

“Conceptually, I thought it was utterly nuts!” reveals Max, to which George retorted on camera, “That’s why we should do it!”

“I really loved his vision, but the reality of turning that dream and idea into something tangible made out of wood was a big ask...” continues Max. “But I thought it would be worth a shot.”

Ahead Of The Curve

After making a prototype of a mockup of part of the barrel-vaulted ceiling, gratefully approved by its commissioner - “It’s beautiful!” George exclaimed excitedly on first sight of the model arch, making Max’s day (and year!) – the creative genius got to work big time… on all whopping 36 feet of it!

To shape the wood, Max immersed himself in the mammoth task of making a curved frame, into which he clamped thin lengths of wood, before gluing further layers on. “It’s called ‘lamination’,” George explains. “It was a painstaking process and the whole thing could have sprung apart as Max removed the clamps.”

And there were no fewer than 12 of the huge, time-consuming curves to create, with each taking around 24hrs to make.

“It was quite a stressful process… all because George loves a curve!” adds Max. “I didn’t tell George that I’d never done glue lam before. But it worked! I was really chuffed.”

DIVINE INSPIRATION –FROM CATHEDRAL TO CARAVAN

While Max was busy building the exterior shell, George went in search of some divine inspiration for the interior at one of the jewels of the northwest, Carlisle Cathedral.

Founded during the reign of King Henry 1st, the cathedral celebrates its 900th anniversary this year. The gigantic grand building built from beautiful red sandstone adorned with saints and gargoyles boasts an outstanding roof – pitched on the outside but arched on the inside. “Its heavenly barrel-vaulted ceiling was restored and repainted in 1856 by one of the forefathers of Arts and Crafts, architect Owen Jones,” George explains.

This awe-inspiring larger-than-life ceiling influenced his “very small, humble” caravan’s own. “There was some design method to my madness,” he explains. “I looked at that cathedral’s huge ceiling and thought, ‘How wonderful and magical and surprising would it be to have a simple caravan with a simple pitched roof structure on the outside, blending in brilliantly with the landscape, but you come inside and it’s a different world… with a BEAUTIFUL barrel-vaulted roof!’”

While George was singing its praises from the rooftop, Max creating a curved internal ceiling inside a solid pitched roof could be an engineering nightmare, seeing Max hit the roof!

“Elegantly built, it’s got to last the rest of my life…” insisted green-minded George.

To which Max braced himself for one of the most challenging builds of HIS life.

“So, is this your retirement caravan?” asked Max as they filmed. “Yeah, you’re building a George Clarke OAP caravan.”

Celebrity Holiday Homes In The Sun

This isn’t the first holiday home Max has made… he’s also made his green mark on hit show ‘Cash in the Spare Room’, helping people turn their disused spaces into money-making holiday lets and kitted out fellow TV presenter Julia Bradbury’s famous ‘£10,000 Holiday Home’ in Portugal, shown on ITV.

Who did she call to give her a hand? The upcycling genius who gives junk and cast-offs a completely new and fantastic lease of life by transforming them into exceptionally useful products, of course!

Sustainability was hugely important for eco-conscious Julia when renovating her Portuguese pad in the sun, so she called on maestro Max to give her rundown cottage a makeover. With designer/engineer Max’s innovative approach, Julia’s humble tumbledown cottage is now a chic, superbly functional holiday pied-àterre, and he ensured her revamp remained within the strict £10K budget.

Max upcyles ambulances, among other ambitious projects, for his other innovative company, OUTLANDISH

EXTERIOR & INTERIOR PANELLING

Back to Bedford and George’s brand-new caravan build, and the exterior sorted, wooden timber panelling was then installed on the inside to give the caravan an authentic Arts and Crafts look.

He and Max brainstormed unique techniques to build the “beautifully elegant and simple” space-saving built-in writing desk on George’s wishlist for the bedroom, ensuring it integrated completely into the custom-made caravan design.

It took no time at all for multi-award-winning Max to pull a blinder of a plan. The engineering expert extraordinaire came up with a genius engineering masterplan for a fullyintegrated, space-efficient desk, doubling up as a George’s required writing area under the window, resulting in a strong desk-style structure ingeniously hidden within the panelling. “The panelling itself forms the supports. It hinges out and the panelling becomes fold-out legs to support the desk. This was a case of the panelling initially posing a problem, but it actually became the solution!”

GETTING INTO THE GROOVE…

As for the built-in benches, “Getting the tiny details right is SO important,” said George on screen, to which Max retorted, “It’s ‘trial and error’, George, not science!”

Eventually decrypted, “I genuinely really, really love it,” said George, “Because that’s what it’s about – testing out wood details of the armrest edging until we cracked it.”

Slating The Kitchen

To keep his caravan kitchen as Cumbrian as possible, George cooked up the cool idea of cutting a slice of slate from the landscape where his caravan is located.

Visiting his mate’s slate mine, the last working one in England, whose slate has served Buckingham Palace and St. Paul’s Cathedral, buried deep underground in the majestic hills of Honister, he cut out his bespoke kitchen worktop from a large chunk of ‘clog’, a five-tonne slab located in the 11 miles of subterranean tunnels, famous for their green slate caused by magnesium chloride.

Bringing Nature In

On his quest to create a one-of-a-kind Arts-and-Craftsinspired caravan in the Lake District, George and Max included many of the movement’s major design elements, from wonderful wood panelling, to stained-glass windows, plus George’s personally patterned textile design to cover his coveted barrel-vaulted ceiling, creating a cosy feel to the caravan. George’s build was also influenced by his visit to reportedly the UK’s most authentic example of a Arts-andCrafts home, located in London’s Hammersmith, which was owned by Arts and Crafts’ greatest designer, William Morris’ good friend, typographer and antiquary Sir Emery Walker. Bursting at the seams with nature-influenced Morris prints, too, George was beyond inspired, taking away fabrics, wallpaper and pattern inspo aplenty.

Motif-wise for his hand-drawn Morris-inspired fabrics, George co-designed the perfect personal textile, figuratively and abstractly showcasing his love of tree canopies and butterflies in an indoor field of green.

“The secret to making it genuinely Arts and Crafts is all down to the details and bringing the fabric to life,” he says.

THE POWER OF PAINT: MAKING THE MOST OF MOTHER NATURE’S COLOURS

Inspired by its location, the caravan’s colour scheme was created by a very clever cutting-edge approach to nailing the exact colours that blend right in with your natural surroundings, with the inventors, Cameron Prentice, a photographer, and his multi-disciplinary designer/visual artist partner, Alex Longson, assisting George and Max to pinpoint the perfect colour palette for the caravan.

The crafty arty duo’s innovative ideas saw them enlist the services of Cameron & Alex’s hi-tech company, which identifies the ideal colour scheme, dreamed up by the pioneering pair.

“It’s like adding science to art!” says Max.

COMMAND+I CONISTON COLOURS

The creative colour pair together run Command+i Magazine, a unique title which explores our natural world through colour combos, drawing inspo from evocative portraits of locations and curating unique palettes that can be used by designers, from graphic and interior, to products and fashion, to inform their work.

Alongside showcasing the depth of the natural colourscape, command+i also adds a rich geological context to each location. Generating customised colour palettes, the ‘Travel Guide to Colour’ at commandplusi.com personalises colour schemes to stunning swatches pinpointing specific small pixels of colours and shades in the pictures of the natural environment, resulting in colours that are completely unique to a particular landscape, inspired by its exact natural colours and hues.

The beautiful bespoke ‘Golden Summer Greens of Coniston’ palette was carefully curated by Cameron & Alex with George Clarke’s Lake District caravan in mind, seeing George and Max capturing the colours of the area’s landscape on camera before enlisting the pioneering services of Cameron & Alex, so George could perfectly blend his new caravan in with the immediate surrounding Lake District landscape.

The Willy Wagon

The final episode saw the finishing touches applied with all hands on deck, including installing infrared panels to the unique curved ceiling and solar panels on the roof to keep the caravan cosy’n’toasty all-year-round, and lining the barrel-vaulted ceiling with bespoke arts-and-crafts-inspired fabric influenced by George’s love of nature.

Hammering out a name for the innovative new build that tells the caravan’s story, “Blood, Sweat and Tears...?” was an exhausted Max’s initial suggestion. “I’ve got it,” he then announced. “It’s influenced by William Morris, so let’s call it The Willy Wagon!’ This inspired name went by the wayside, although George had already come up with William Morrisinfluenced ideas, the design duo ultimately deciding it should be named after Morris’ Oxfordshire manor house home and the joys of living at one with nature. The state-of-the-art caravan was aptly christened ‘Kelmscott’.

“Willy or won’t he finish the wagon in time to meet the deadline for the haulage company to come and put it on the lorry and take it six hours north to the Lakes?” laughed George. But a man of his word, George’s long-time master of design partner Max duly finished the work on the dot, meaning the aesthetic dream had finally come to reality, and Kelmscott (AKA The Willy Wagon) was transported from Max’s Bedfordshire workshop to its final resting place dead on time.

Follow Max on Insta: @maxreestore

Outlandish: www.outlandishprojects.co.uk

Find out more at: www.maxmcmurdo.co.uk

A CUTTING-EDGE CARAVAN - THE BIG REVEAL

Now in situ, it was time for the big reveal and grand tour of George and Max’s completed masterpiece of an AWESOME amazing space, and the series’ finale revealed every last incredible detail…

On surveying the outside, “It’s absolutely AMAZING!” George exclaimed, before taking in the exquisite exterior. Built-in benches inspired by those George admired at Blackwell House beautifully crafted by Max with his cutting-edge tools… joinery perfection, teeming with tiny touches, and a simple but elegant style, giving it the edge.

Opposite the entrance in the middle, a compact eco-powered shower room, complete with a sink and toilet, lies adjacent to the small kitchenette, boasting unearthed Honistor slate tiles from the mine just a few miles up the road, where George also acquired the wonderful worktop he scrupulously cut out from the local Cumbrian landscape where the caravan is located. “It was really important for me to use wonderful natural materials from my surroundings here and it’s absolutely stunning.”

Incorporating other Lake District textural products, such as brass (another Arts and Crafts material), George had also commissioned and helped design beautiful bespoke stained-glass window apertures celebrating the Arts and Crafts movement, showcasing four small classic, timeless and original geometric panels of seasonal change through stunning spring, summer, autumn and winter designs.

Elegant curves echoed throughout the inside, inspired by THAT barrel-vaulted ceiling, “It’s unbelievable, BEYOND amazing! Way better than I ever imagined. I’m lost for words...” a choked-up George declared. “Gorgeous touches... the ceiling’s PERFECT fabric design, the curved bench, the special individual panel the team created as a surprise for me to celebrate William Morris and Kelmscott,

A HEAVENLY ARTS & CRAFTS HAVEN

On their mission to build a brand-new caravan like you’ve never seen before and George’s unique forever home, these two didn’t just create it, they “smashed it”!

“That archway running all the way through the entire caravan, it doesn’t get much better than that, it’s beautiful”, said George. “Amazingly, the build that took me from the dizzy heights of a soaring cathedral, to the bowels of the earth pushed my and Max’s creativity and design skills to levels they’d never been to before as we strove to fit the very best of Arts and Crafts into my revolutionary, sustainable caravan, was eventually accomplished after eight months, tough design decisions and many endless days and sleepless nights...”

And George can’t thank Max enough for all his hard work in helping to bring his ambitious vision to life and making the seemingly “impossible, possible”. But we’ve done it. And it’s beautiful. It’s all been worth it. This build proves that with vision, passion and a huge amount of imagination, you CAN create your very own AMAZING SPACE!”

“A unique Arts and Crafts caravan in Cumbria. What a way to celebrate our 10th anniversary!” Max tells me.

Although the final seal of approval had to came from George’s kids - Georgie, Emeiio and Iona. “They think the new one is SO much better and cooler than the old one,” he says of his growing children’s verdicts. “And ten years on from finishing that first caravan, we can now look forward to many years of unforgettable holidays together in Kelmscott, making memories that will last us a lifetime.” with my initials engraved at the bottom... It’s illuminated by one of the absolutely stunning coloured-glass windows reflecting the changing of the seasons, which are just breathtaking... I hope William Morris would give it all a little nod of approval.”

Although the kids, of course, might prefer to call it after Max’s moniker, ‘The WIlly Wagon!

The living area at the front facing the lake enjoys a beautiful bio-ethanol fire and built-in seating, which can be cleverly converted into full-size adult single beds at night - day beds for chilling and proper beds for the kids at night.

“One of the most important features for me was the unique arched window I’d been dreaming about. It’s beautiful. And what a view... Really, this caravan is ALL about that view, down to the lake and out to the mountains... I couldn’t imagine a more wonderful place to spend my days... It’s perfect.”

“The bedroom is OUTSTANDING!” he cried, as he took in his own perfectly panelled tranquil sleeping area with a Queen-sized bed. “Looking up at the arched fabric-lined ceiling, you feel like you’re sleeping under an oak tree canopy...”

What’s more, Max’s brilliant folding writing desk facing the soothing stream seen through the window at the back is SO cleverly and creatively hidden that George failed to spot it! Offering the presenter an impressive home office overlooking the woods, “What a stunning place to sit and work,” said George on its muchanticipated reveal by Max. “Just WOW!”

Watch ‘Amazing Spaces’ on All 4, Channel 4’s catch-up TV service: www.channel4.com/programmes/ george-clarkes-amazing-spaces

Read Angela’s interview with Julia Bradbury about Max’s amazing work on her Portuguese home in Channel 4’s ‘A Place in the Sun’ on the website here

Look out for Max’s new series, ‘Tool Club’, and his innovative TV show with Angela and pioneering TV Director Alfie McArthur,’The Real Street Diaries’.

© Angela Sara West 2023 Insta: @angela_sara_west