Wimbledon Country Home

Smart Audio Visual | Smart Lighting | Smart Windows and Blinds | Smart Security

The forever home. Our client understood the benefit of having a competent specialist team around them. From early concept discussions, through to design, implementation and long-term aftercare, the approach was the same. Design for now, and facilitate for the future.

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The Brief

Our brief was to provide home automation solutions in the main residence consisting of an enterprise data network and WiFi coverage throughout the property, smart lighting and smart electronic blinds. We were also commissioned to design the media room and install a drop-down TV in the gym. Within the main house and pool house, we were to install a range of high-quality audio speakers with one common theme – they could be heard, but not seen.

The Project

Cornflake specialises in the custom installation of smart home technologies in historic homes, where we are always sympathetic to the architectural fabric of the building and where the visual identity of the property is not compromised by contemporary technologies.

The original Georgian property consisted of an imposing house with a separate coach house and a very large garden. The refurbishment included restoration of the main residence and building work to join the coach house as an annexe. In addition, an elegant pool house with a gym and media room was built in the garden. Working with the other stakeholders, our challenge was to deliver smart audio and visual solutions throughout that were to be completely concealed from view. This included small aperture pool audio, discrete outdoor audio, and many areas in the home featuring invisible speakers and audio products.

Within the house itself, there were many existing and retained features that meant we had to be highly selective and iterative with the design to resolve any coordination issues. We created a centralised services location serving the main house and as a distribution point for all other wings of the property. We also developed a personalised Cornflake app that was custom-designed for this property, where all automated aspects can be controlled and adjusted within the home using fixed or roaming iPads, or remotely via a smartphone or tablet. Within the GUI, we incorporated all capabilities including specialist sub-systems for smart security: fire alarm, intruder alarm, CCTV and BMS (building management system).

Smart Electronic Blinds

We provided specialised motorised shading solutions in various parts of the property, including the pool, where we installed a custom-designed tensioned blind to manage natural light into the pool area.

Smart Lighting

We provided whole home lighting controls with traditional Meljac switch plates, chosen to retain the aesthetic heritage of the property. All controlled using the Cornflake graphic user interface.

Media Room

Built within the pool house, the media room was designed for relaxed entertaining, watching movies and listening to music, all from centralised smart audio and video streaming sources. James Loudspeaker width matched soundbars and subwoofers were specified for a discrete and highly considered finish for improved TV sound.

In the gym area, a Future Automation TV Hinge was installed to allow the gym equipment to face out to the garden through glazing, without a TV being seen at all other times. In the pool room itself, Sonance Satellite and subwoofer speakers were discretely designed into the architecture to enable high quality audio, with minimal visual impact.

Finer Details

We curate every project using smart home technologies from leading global industry partners.

Intuitive home automation system with bespoke user interface

Centralised AV distribution with user-based system with dedicated AV sources

Discrete lighting controls and motorised shading throughout

Enterprise-grade data networking and WiFi coverage throughout and through the grounds

Integration of Fire, Security and HVAC systems for off-site controls and monitoring

Empathetic product selection for unobtrusive architectural and interior design

Testimonial

“Cornflake have worked with me on many projects, both for my Company’s clients and for my own personal residences. I continue to work with them because they are always willing to ‘go one step beyond’, solve problems efficiently and quickly when they occur and are a very positive influence on our team work ethos. Commercially, they always prove they are value for money and their commitment to a longterm relationship with the end client sets them apart.”