Wychwood

"You really have excelled yourselves." - that was the verdict of Wychwood's first guest, an old habitué and connoisseur of our cottages.  We were delighted and we hope you will be too.

Wychwood, opened Easter 2003, lies opposite Saratoga in the courtyard, between Goodwood and Newmarket; it is bathed with light from east and west, and has a terrace off the drawing room, which looks down along the strip of green lawn that lies between the wisteria and apple tunnel on the one side, and the Long Border on the other.  Owing to the fall of the land across the garden, you can sit alongside the top of the wisteria and apple arches, and pick an apple with an outstretched hand.  It's a lovely perspective.

When you walk in from the courtyard, you find yourself in a large, comfortable kitchen with a Cotswold fossil stone floor and grey-green Shaker units.  There's a Belfast sink, a pine dish-rack, and floor to ceiling cupboards, hiding super-efficient but visually unaesthetic machines.  It's a room where you can imagine dinner stretching out very happily until midnight, and equally well providing the setting for a noisy, lively family lunch.

Double doors open into a long, light, airy drawing room lit by windows on both sides and the French doors onto the terrace.  At the far end is a golden Cotswold stone fireplace, flanked by bookshelves: under one is a cupboard with games and under the other a stack of logs for long fire-lit evenings.   A moss green Lelievre velvet ottoman stands between the fireplace and the down-cushioned orange sofa; on the left is a buttoned mahogany Victorian chair in a grey-green Colefax and Fowler checked tweed, and on the right a beautiful Victorian spoon-back chair upholstered in slate grey chenille.  The walls are papered in a warm tobacco Farrow and Ball and the curtains are an olive and buff striped fabric from Ian Mankin.

A red lacquered antique mirror over the console table to the right of the sofa reflects the view of the terrace and adds to the inside/outside feel of the room.

Stairs lead up to the landing; the twin room to the left is painted a deep Farrow & Ball greenish-grey - (this room is so flooded with light we had to calm it down).  Blinds, valances and headboards are in a beige and off-white striped Colefax & Fowler cotton, dotted with big luscious bunches of pink and red roses.  There's a beautiful mellow antique walnut secretaire and  pink chair on a needlework rug in muted greys and pinks.  The ensuite bathroom has floors and walls tiled in faux Carrara marble and the basin is set into a slab of the real thing, with a wall-to-wall mirror over it.  There's a power shower over the bath and a radiator cum heated towel rail.

Striking off to the right of the landing you find yourself in the double bedroom, which is papered in a delicate Colefax & Fowler chinoiserie trellis pattern, green on ivory.  The double bed is a mahogany four-poster, with no hangings to clutter its beautiful spare lines.  A buttoned Victorian chair upholstered in purple and green-striped Osborne & Little plush and a little marble-topped dressing table complete the room.  Its en-suite shower room is tiled in a beige faux marble, which matches  the real marble of the washstand.

Wychwood has made a tremendous impression on all the guests who've done the tour of the cottages when they leave on Friday or Monday mornings.