Shipton

Shipton Cottage has a seaside feel to it, pale and cool and full of light. Walk into the big open-plan drawing-room/dining-room and kitchen, you can see straight through the French doors and windows opposite, to the terrace and apple orchard beyond. The atmosphere is very much of the present, with natural floors in stone and wood, a high pitched ceiling with ancient beams, and a cool simplicity of decoration. The focal point of the room is a white ceramic Scandinavian wood-burning stove, Gustavian in inspiration, around which are grouped a large cream sofa (cushioned in down), a deep armchair and a 19th century blue stamped velvet French provincial sofa, also down-cushioned. The creamy Cotswold fossil stone floor and walls are painted a subtle off-white, with the woodwork of the Shaker-style kitchen one shade deeper. It has a big island in the middle, and integrated equipment.

A white-carpeted corridor leads off the kitchen to the two twin-bedded rooms, the first papered in a blue-and-white stripe, with blue-and-pink Borderlines paisley headboards and blind. Its en-suite shower room has a charcoal slate floor, and beige marbleised tiles around the shower enclosure.  The bedroom at the end of the corridor has a beamed, high pitched ceiling and twin four-posters in black metal. The curtains are off-white, bound in three different blues to match the window seat cushion, and lined in an indigo-and-white John Stefanides printed cotton. The en-suite shower room has a pale tiled floor and white marble tiles.

At the other end of the drawing-room, a door leads into the master bedroom, which has a high pitched roof and walls of palest grey. The floor is pale and polished, and the antique French black metal four-poster is a large cream-painted French armoire. The curtains are off-white, and lined in a pink-and-white toile de jouy. Beside the cupboard is a 19th century French fauteuil, upholstered in a rose-and-cream Colefax and Fowler leopard print. Its en-suite bathroom has a power shower over the bath, a marble basin with cupboard underneath, and lavatory and bidet screened off.

Doors lead out from both master bedroom and drawing-room to the terrace and the orchard. Shipton is near the games room and its garden is safely enclosed, with trellis or yew hedges all round: the gate is secured by a big bolt at the top, out of reach of children.