Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that, alongside interiors, travel is one of my passions and something I love to blog about. My family joke that you can give me a destination anywhere in the world and, within 5 minutes, I will have found you somewhere suitably Scandi Rustic to stay there. I am not known as the Modern Rustic Judith Chalmers for nothing!
The bedroom at Fordhouse Norfolk, one of my favourite UK self catering places to stay
Over the last few years, I have stayed in some gorgeous self catering places from the Cotswolds to Copenhagen and I have longed dreamed of one day starting my own little holiday business where I could recreate all the best bits of the places I have stayed and add my own splash of Malmo & Moss.
Me and my best friend Celia even came up with a name - CB Bricks & Mortar - for a holiday business when we were both dreaming of quitting the law a decade ago . Admittedly it may have conjured up more of a building site than boutique accommodation vibe but hey what’s in a name! I did eventually leave the law but three kids and a career switch into sustainability saw my travel entrepreneur dreams go on the back burner.
Although obviously the back burner didn’t mean that I didn’t still have active Rightmove searches set up for all of my favourite coastal locations in the UK.
Carbis Bay Cornwall, one of my favourite beaches
We do like to be beside the seaside
And so it was that at the end of last Summer, after a another magical week down in Cornwall as a family, I clicked on a Rightmove link in my inbox for a section of an old converted stable block in one of my favourite river creek locations and fell head over house heels in love. It had an upside down layout with the top floor a stunning double height beamed space that screamed Scandi loft by the sea at me!
The picture that had me at hello
Did I mention the wysteria?
Fast forward 6 months, having done a lot of sums and gone full Dragons Den and persuaded my in-laws to come on board with my crazy dream, I could not be more excited to share with you that we completed last month and are now rolling our sleeves up in a race against time to get it ready to welcome guests from this Summer.
Meet the Family! My business partner and very stylish mother- in-law @hellishdesigns
I have so much to tell you about our plans for the place , but for now, I will just share a few photos to give you a feel for why I fell so in love with it and share the mood boards I have put together to give you a glimpse of what we are hoping to achieve! Would really love you to follow along on our journey to give it a Scandi glow up over at my new instagram account @malmo_ in _ cornwall .
It has absolutely great bones - there are the most gorgeous original windows throughout the house that flood the space with light and almost all the windows have really wide deep windowsills that we are going to add thick, soft linen cushions to in order to create cosy window seats. I already have my eye on some beautiful bits from some of my favourite Cornish businesses for the interiors including Alice in Scandiland and St Eval.
There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms: one generously sized shower room and one smaller ensuite bathroom with a freestanding bath. The good news is no major structural work is required it is mostly just a case of updating and refreshing . The biggest task will be the two bathrooms - thus I currently have about 5678 different tile permeations going round in my head but I will save that for another blog post!
This is the window in the smaller bedroom that you see as you come in the front door
The ensuite bathroom to the master bedroom
The soon to be transformed shower room
So what do you reckon? Would you like to come and stay if, fingers crossed we have it ready by the Summer? Next time I will share more about the location and some of the great things that are right on the doorstep or and remind me to show you the actual secret garden it has access to!
So many ideas running around my head and across my pinterest boards right now!
