We set out to provide…an inspiring, luxury stay place where you can see great places, eat great food, find cool stuff and chill out…
When we first decided that we wanted to offer a Stay Place on our little farm in the Blackdown Hills, we sat down and had a good old think about what we liked and disliked about staying away from home – and the vagaries of staying a field. With two boys in the family, we do spend time camping and staying in fields – but as we also run two businesses between us, hubby & I escape every now and again to a luxury hotel here and there – our current favourite being www.babingtonhouse.co.uk
So, for us glamorous camping (Glamping) was definitely the way to go – and we decided that we would try and create a Babington-style place in a field – with high end accommodation and interiors. A place where you can get away from it all and also be inspired by the things you see and use whilst here.
Next we needed to decide exactly what sort of Glamping we wanted to offer – yurts, bell tents, huts, log cabins??? A long list of options was considered, but in the end we decided to go for something that would suit the style of our 500 year old farm, which was not weather dependent and would allow us to put together a self-contained Luxury Stay Place. So a Shepherd’s Hut was the solution for us.
When we started looking at huts, we found quite a few manufacturers and looked at a number of them. All of them had different things to offer and we were really impressed by different elements of each of the businesses we looked at, but we were particularly looking for a high end bespoke solution, so in the end we went with www.blackdownshepherdhuts.co.uk. They are based not far from us and really liked the concept of what we were trying to do. Since we placed the order with them we have been really impressed with their innovation and customer service – so much so that we are working with them on other projects now!
So we had our aim – create an Inspiring Luxury Stay Place, and we had the space to do it in – what was next??
Styling the Interior…
Somewhere along the line, we all do some, if not all, of the above when we’re on holiday. These became our watchwords and informed a lot of our decisions along the way – even when thinking about things like – Which plug sockets to put in the hut?? (At the moment they’re copper and made in the UK) – and the bed (it’s got to fold away into the wall so you don’t have to assemble it every day). Thanks to the www.blackdownshepherdhuts.co.uk team we’ve achieved more of our wish list than we ever thought possible!
So…cool stuff – we started talking to UK designers about pieces for the hut and have carefully selected what we want to put in there – as well as designing things like the cushions ourselves. We’ve also sourced some quirky vintage pieces to add to the character that the Hut has become. We’ll be changing the hut style as we go – as well as encouraging designers to come and stay there for inspiration, so hopefully we’ll hit the cool stuff target soon.
Great food…we’re real foodies, so we’ve listed our recommendations for great places in the area and we will be adding more. We’re lucky enough to be near some really great butchers and farm shops – and in addition we can supply meat from the farm, as well as picnics – a real gourmet break if you so wish!
What we want for you…
Chill out…
We want you to have a great time when you come to stay with us – and we’ve geared everything around making that happen – so from relaxing music to snuggly beds, hearing the owls hoot at night and watching the animals during the day, we think we might have chill out covered.
However, if you would like to get a bit more active and do a course, some sightseeing or just a bit of walking around the lanes – we can arrange most things to suit, so please don’t be afraid to ask.
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