Photography via Gutshaus Rensow.
I was in an old bookshop in Dublin, of all places, escaping the cold and leafing through a book called The Foraged Home, when I stopped on a spread of an old schoolhouse in Germany and was instantly entranced.
I hurried back to my hotel room to do some Google reconnaissance and discovered more to the story.
They live in the Manor House—really an old farmhouse—and rent out, for vacation lets, rooms in the Manor House as well as the Schoolhouse in the nearby village, which they’ve also redone, all under the name Gutshaus Rensow.
The Manor House (what Christina and Knut call the Gutshaus, or farmhouse) dates to the late 17th century, “with medieval ground cellars, all in all dating back to the ninth century,” Christina adds.
The Manor House
“A lot of people either tear a place like this down or restore it unsympathetically,” Knut told Airbnb’s blog.
Antique furniture and paintings pair throughout with shelves of old glassware and brass candlesticks.
The Schoolroom, an apartment in the Manor House, has dark blue-grey walls and plenty of candles.
The Manor House can sleep 21 people, “spread over four holiday apartments and three simple double rooms,” the site says.
The Old Schoolhouse
The rustic old Schoolhouse–Alte Schule in German—is a short distance from the Manor House in the village and sleeps 12.
Exposed, stripped-back walls stand in lieu of wallpaper or paint. Here, a dining nook, with linen cushions and winter light.
The Schoolhouse is heated entirely by wood stoves.
Subtle color comes in the way of ochre walls and antique chairs.
The ultimate rustic decor: a sheepskin and a stalk, placed in a vase.
In the spirit of simplicity and imperfection, a bedside is adorned with a foraged pine branch and small candle.
A dark-hued bath, with perfectly off-center mirror, in the Schoolhouse.
The exterior of the Schoolhouse.