“I’ve always retreated to making as a form of therapy,” explains Amanda Bannister. A media lawyer by day, Amanda has a strong (extracurricular) interest in the visual arts and craft in particular. “I love making and I love looking at other people’s craft and engaging with other makers, so when the cottage next door came up for sale, and the concept of a holiday home emerged, I decided to use it as a vehicle to celebrate British craft.”
The Craftsman’s Cottage is a holiday home in the hamlet of Semley in rural Wiltshire; Amanda started taking bookings in July this year. “I think people are getting slightly bored of bland ‘repro’ stuff in hotels—they want something that feels more handmade and more personal. We have incredible makers and amazing skills in this county,” she says. “The idea was to bring it all under one roof, to create something immersive and experiential—a place that would give guests the opportunity to live with a Russell Pinch sofa for a few days, and perhaps, ultimately, buy one.”
Guests receive a 10 percent discount on anything they buy from the cottage; Amanda receives a 10 percent commission. “I really wanted to work for the makers because I want them to be selling,” she explains.
“My aesthetic has always been picking pieces that I like, irrespective of whether people might put them together,” explains Amanda. It was important to include examples of contemporary design as well as British antiques and heritage brands (Ercol, Liberty, Heals), so there is a Russell Pinch table, sofa and chairs. Another Country, “which is fast becoming a really solid British brand,” Amanda says, is also represented. “Nothing jars, but at the same time I wanted to create a breadth and depth of experience.”
True to William Morris’s dictum, “have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful,” Amanda combines utility with beauty throughout. “I want everything in the cottage to be used. Nothing should just sit there and look beautiful. It’s not a museum. I want people to pick up a Knighton Mill jug, fill it with water and put it on the table.”
The whole craft concept, extends to the guests’ welcome hamper. “It’s stuffed full of single-estate mint tea, homemade lemon curd, my own banana and lemon loaf cakes, homemade granola and chocolates from Hampshire,” explains Amanda. There are empty milk bottles in the kitchen which you can take to the local dairy and fill with fresh raw milk for just £1.
Amanda describes the interiors as “not too polite.” She has deliberately given space to decorative items that challenge. “I want to make people sit up a bit, but not in a terrifying way,” she says. The cottage has proved so popular that Amanda is looking to roll out the concept to other properties, and organize craft-making events and bespoke workshops for guests, including a collaboration with the nearby Messums Wiltshire, a pioneering gallery and arts center that opened in Tisbury last year.
More lodgings in the United Kingdom:
- FForest: A Former Farm Transformed into the Ultimate Welsh Country Retreat
- Summer Escape: A Seaside Rental in Cornwall
- The Ferry Boat Inn: 15 Ideas to Steal from a Seaside Pub in Cornwall
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