Saratoga has always been everyone’s favourite honeymoon cottage, whether it be their first honeymoon, second or twenty-second – or even if they haven’t quite got round to tying the knot yet, in which case Saratoga’s unique ambience might just provide the necessary nudge, as this little gem is truly unique.
The front door opens into an open-plan drawing-room/dining-room/kitchen. In the drawing-room, colours are light, with thick creamy herring bone curtains, and soft pinks, blues and beiges. The sofa stands to the right of the antique carved oak mantelpiece, facing an elegant rosy buttoned Victorian chair. Between them a low coffee table, and French chair in blue stamped velvet. Over the fireplace is a gilt mirror and to the left there’s a built-in pine display cabinet whose shelves gleam with pink lustre china. There’s also a writing table.
The kitchen has shaker style wood units, painted French grey to set off the blue-and-white Delft wall tiles, and Carrara marble surfaces, a Belfast sink and fridge freezer. You can either eat in the kitchen or wander through the glazed door to feast outside on the flagged terrace, surrounded by cream and white roses, lilies, ceanothus, honeysuckle and euphorbia.
Up the steep white painted stairs – too steep, perhaps, for the very young or the elderly – is the galleried bedroom, with a blue-and-white painted faux bamboo four-poster bed. There are more faux bamboo effects on the blue-and-white bedside tables.
In the ensuite bathroom, is a handsome bateau bath and a marble-topped washstand with inset basin. As is always the case with our cottages, there’s a heated towel-rail and shaving point, and as always, the bathroom is lit with low voltage halogen lights, which give a particularly soft glow.
