The Old Sheep Farm holiday cottages are set at Camarnaint, a traditional hill farm on the edge of the Carneddau mountains. Camarnaint was built in the late 1800s, by a wealthy man as a wedding present for his daughter. It was a tenant farm for much of its long history, so was lived in by many families over the years. In fact, we used to laugh when we first moved in as it seemed that everyone we met claimed to have lived there at some point or another!
The holiday cottages were originally barns, which housed the sheep, cattle and horses. We are lucky enough to have a few old photos from the 1950's which show their agricultural past.
Shearing time:
Farm ponies:
The old cobbled farmyard:
They were converted to holiday cottages by the previous owners of the house, but after more than twenty years it was high time for an upgrade. When we bought Camarnaint four years ago, we launched into renovations. We were excited to put our own stamp on them!
We completely gutted both cottages - the bathrooms, kitchens, doors and floors were all removed.
We installed underfloor heating throughout the ground floors of each cottage, linked up to a new and very complicated boiler system - just look at all those pipes (but don't ask my husband about them unless you want to be bored silly!).
We then tiled using big rustic stone-effect flagstones from Westminster Stone. Its always a bit of a palaver getting large deliveries up to the Old Sheep Farm, so we had to enlist the help of a friendly local farmer!
Here you can see the newly-laid flagstones, as well as a new wood burning stove to keep our guests cosy in the winter. We installed Chilli Penguin stoves, who are a local Welsh company. We chose the XXX which have a little pizza oven at the top of each stove!
Now comes the fun bit...hours spent fiddling about with moodboards deciding on colour schemes, patterns, furniture...and finally getting to bring it all to life!
Wool Store Living Room moodboard:
Hayloft living room moodboard:
Very carefully hanging the William Morris wallpaper as the feature wall in the Hayloft. It's called "The Brook" and I love it:
And after an inordinate amount of painting, sanding, waxing, varnishing, and trips to B&Q, here is the finished product!
The Hayloft, sleeping 2:
The Woolstore, sleeping 4:
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