North Yorkshire foodie Annie Stirk has turned a derelict country barn into a modern, open-plan,  award-winning home. She tells MAXINE GORDON about her recipe for a successful conversion.

ANNIE Stirk has made a career out of food, but she wondered if she had bitten off more than she could chew when she bought a ramshackle barn to convert into a dream home.

"It was a very bad winter when we did it," says Annie, the former TV cook who now runs a food PR business. "There was mud everywhere, tarpaulin over the building and the beams for the roof outside in the rain. We did wonder whether we'd made the right decision. We had a really nice family home and we asked ourselves: 'what are we taking on'?"

The answer was a 15th century barn in a serious state of disrepair. The stone shell of the building remained, but the roof was rotten and the wall on the western side had been eroded by a plague of masonry bees. The barn was listed, so work had to be completed to strict guidelines.

"And we had bats," says Annie. Bats are protected, so work was delayed for four months as specialists monitored the creatures and bespoke bat boxes were built on a neighbouring out building for them to live.

The barn, at Brandsby, near Stillington, posed its own specific design challenges too, namely how to covert a cavernous stone shed into a homely space for Annie and her husband, Ken.

The couple worked with Phil and Fiona Mead of Northmead Developments to overcome each hurdle. An oak and glass staircase was built at each end, climbing up to a mezzanine reading room on one side and a bedroom and shower room on the other. Beneath the reading room, the floor was lowered to give enough head height to the compact kitchen, designed by North Yorkshire firm Peter Thompson.

The decor throughout is tasteful and modern. The walls are a Farrow & Ball grey-white and warmth is added by the solid oak floors and staircase as well as two oversized sofas in purple from Barker And Stonehouse. The kitchen is streamlined and unfussy with off-white units and a black granite worktop. A giant canvas print of a painting of sardines adds an individual, finishing touch.

An extension was built to house a dining area and entrance hall. Above the dining table, a lantern-like window was erected to allow light to flood into the space – and afford a spot of star-gazing at the dinner table.

In the corner stands a tripod lamp, like one that you might see on a film or TV set. It's a nod to Annie's previous career as a TV cook, which saw her work alongside Brian Turner, Gary Rhodes, James Martin, Sophie Grigson, Ken Hom and Delia Smith on shows such as This Morning with Richard and Judy and Gloria Hunniford's Open House.

Annie was originally a home economics teacher and worked at Easingwold School while raising her family, Sarah and Ed. She found herself back in the whirlwind of TV in 2011 when her PR company, Absolutely Food, worked with Channel 5 on its Real Food Family Cook Off show, with a remit to pick the contestants and check all recipes used.

Now it's her kids' turn to take a bow in the media spotlight: Ed is radio presenter on Heart FM in Birmingham and Sarah is the golf anchor for Sky TV.

Ed, his partner and three children, will join Annie and Ken at their new home for Christmas. They will stay in the adjacent holiday cottage, which had to be built on site as part of the planning agreement for the barn conversion, alongside an office for Ken.

Christmas dinner is a traditional affair: roast turkey and all the trimmings and Champagne to toast the day, says Annie. Her secret ingredients for pulling it all off? "It's become quite a ritual but we like to get everything prepared the night before and do all the veggies and cut those little crosses into the sprouts."

Despite the many challenges faced during the conversion – including sourcing the right stone to rebuild the bee-ruined wall – Annie has no regrets. Indeed, the build has won the title Small Renovation of the Year and Kitchen of the Year in a national award.

"We'd been wanting to downsize and had looked for two years to find something a bit quirky and different," says Annie. "It has not been without its problems and everything costs more than you think, but we love it and we wish we'd done it sooner."