By 1906 when The Homestead was completed, CFA Voysey had a leading reputation in Britain and Europe as by far the most active and best-known domestic architect of the Arts and Crafts movement. Voysey's country houses were designed not only for family use but also for entertaining. The Homestead was no exception. It was designed to meet the requirements of its bachelor owner, with facilities to accommodate three or four weekend guests. The house wraps around its rear garden, half enclosing it and thus sheltering it from easterly winds and exposure to the street, but it is also left open to views of the sea to the south. Whilst the street elevations are composed formally, the private faces of the house, looking out over the garden, relax into an assembly of sweeping roofs and pronounced horizontal lines, stark white rough-cast render providing a sharp contrast to the flat pattern effects of smooth stone-dressed windows.