Featured Image Credit: Channel 4
Topics: Home, TV, Grand Designs, Channel 4
Anish Vij
A simulation has shown what the inside of Grand Designs' 'saddest ever house' was supposed to look like.
It's been over 10 years since owner Edward Short began the property renovation of a clifftop house in Devon. And the lighthouse-style build at Down End, near Croyde, took many, many years to complete.
Here's what it was meant to look like:
Now, Grand Designs viewers were the ones who called it the 'saddest episode ever' when it aired in 2019.
Plans to rebuild the Chesil Cliff House were approved in 2010, but it didn't take long for the project to run out of money.
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If you take into account Brexit, the banking crisis, and the coronavirus pandemic, the project was hit with a number of challenges along the way.
But Channel 4 has since shared a simulation video of what it was supposed to have looked like, and the renders were beyond impressive.
The minimalist-styled lighthouse was full of neutral tones on the inside, with 9ft high windows, previewing one heck of a view of the coast.
Along with an open plan design, the home also had a massive swimming pool overlooking the ocean.
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In total, there were six bedrooms in the modernist pad, a big main kitchen and an even bigger living area.
At the very top, there was an observation room with a telescope to take in the jaw-dropping scenery.
Incredibly, the house was eventually completed in 2022 after over a decade of work. And last March, it was available for £5.25 million, a big cut from the asking price of £7.5 million.
"It was a nightmare from the moment the first spade hit the ground. We were up against it from day one, with the really vulnerable cliff in front of the house," Edward said at the Birmingham NEC in October 2024, according to House Beautiful.
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"But giving up was never an option. Giving up would’ve been total failure. Now, we’re just on the edge of a minor disaster rather than total failure."
Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud told the outlet in May 2024: "He's had a couple of celebrities and I think he’s had a comedian or two, because it is quite an expensive house, and so consequently for people who are interested they need to make loads of money, and that includes actors and performers and singers.
"It's a fabulous story. A story of hubris and over-reaching and destruction really, of things, of personal life, turned into a sort of story about redemption and growth, so it was an amazing thing.
"People called it the last ever Grand Designs, as if that was it, we were going to go out on a low."