Helmsley cottage project

The cottage at Pockley Gates, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire, is an exciting new venture for the client and the perfect first full-house project for Isobel Star Interior Design.

Crossing Cottage is a commercial holiday cottage project and, having recently purchased the property, the client approached me requiring a whole house re-decoration.  This period property had previously been used as a holiday cottage, but it started life in the 19th century as the railway crossing gatehouse on the original Gilling to Pickering trainline in North Yorkshire. 

The lilac hued sitting room at Crossing Cottage. 

The clients, Karen & Darren Dicks wanted to bring the 2-bedroom character cottage up to date whilst respecting and honouring its heritage. 

The tiles in the existing fireplace provided the inspiration for the colour scheme in the sitting room.

The goal, to enhance and retain the cottages history as a unique building and ensure that, for its next chapter, it would be a comfortable and appealing base for guests to enjoy the surrounding picture-perfect English countryside.

Nestled between the charming and historic market town of Helmsley and the village of Harome, home to the Michelin-starred, The Star Inn, Pockley Gates is perfectly situated. Enjoying a remote position with green fields for as far as the eye can see, it is a peaceful retreat but with historic landmarks and luxury food & drink, markets and shops nearby and easily accessible.

Karen and I made the decision early on that the cottage should feature a mix of old and new, bespoke items and carefully selected mainstream homewares. We wanted the cottage to stand out from the crowd and have a personality. My brief was to create a warm, comfortable and happy home from home brimming with charm and character.

The first step was to maximise the cottage’s natural assets, and I designed and specified the large window seat in the sitting room bay window. It is from this window that the railway gate keeper would keep watch for approaching steam trains.

The railway keepers bay window, now transformed into a peaceful place to sit and look out onto the cottage garden.

In the sitting room we retained the current fireplace and used the tiles in situ as a starting point for the sitting room colour scheme. The soft lilac walls diffuse the south facing sunlight into an almost dream like room punctuated with playful bursts of jewel like colours.

The kitchen at Crossing Cottage is a collaborative design. Dove Furniture & Kitchens designed the cabinets, banquette seat and table. Whilst Isobel Star specified cabinet colours, flooring, tiles, lighting and soft furnishings.

At our first meeting Karen had already commissioned a new kitchen from an experienced local joinery and furniture company. Karen & Darren have been friends with Kim & Craig, the husband-and-wife team behind Dove Furniture & Kitchens for many years. They already had a kitchen design in place. I suggested a couple of updates including in-frame cupboards and specified the colour choices for cabinets. Opting for fortifying olive green, alongside a warm off white to maximise the feeling of space in the kitchen.

Upstairs in the bedrooms, large beds and luxury were pre-requisites. I wanted each bedroom to be distinct from the other and for one of the bedrooms to appeal to both children and adults alike. I designed the calming blue bedroom to sit in the south facing room at the front of the cottage and a warm, soft pink second bedroom on the North side with cheerful, playful touches.

The South facing blue bedroom is a calming, luxury haven from where the far-reaching green views can be admired.

The pink bedroom is soft and playful and invites you to rest a while in its cosy cottage cocoon.

For both bedrooms my goal was to create beds that guests would want to experience. Luxurious softness and hotel level comfort mixed in with pretty, vintage, cottage vibes. For cohesion and a touch of resort indulgence both rooms have bespoke statement headboards.

In the blue room a noble Clarke & Clarke damask headboard is edged with grass green piping. Whilst the pink bedroom features a jolly Ian Mankin stripe highlighted in a hot pink pipe. Both beds boast extra soft cotton quilts that provide additional warmth and joyful pattern.

The bespoke striped Ian Mankin headboard in the pink room.

The bathroom, with windows to 3 aspects is a large and bright room. As a commercial endeavour, budget was key throughout the project and so, the existing bathroom suite and tiles needed to remain. They were still in perfect condition with many years of good service remaining, so deciding not to rip out and start again was the most sustainable and eco-friendly option. However, the bathroom required up-dating, warming up and it was important that it tie in with the ambience in the rest of the cottage.

I picked out the warming brown shade in the tiles and highlighted the woodwork in this. The darker shade frames the windows and the views, and it balances the natural light and space with cosy and earthy vibrations.  Swapping the floor covering for a brighter option and bringing in plants and warming accessories also help to reveal the inherent luxury and appeal in this room.

The still immaculate bathroom has been updated and balanced with carefully considered paint colours, new flooring and window dressings.

Made to measure, natural bamboo roman blinds warm up the bathroom and add texture.

Throughout the house I specified bespoke window dressings. The views from the cottage are spectacular and the window dressings needed to measure up. Like many cottages of this type and age the room sizes are petite meaning curtains would take up valuable space. Recess roman blinds were agreed in all the windows of the main rooms, along with sheer cafe curtains in the bathroom and one of the bedrooms for extra privacy.

Guests can enjoy a bath with a view at Crossing Cottage.

The layout of the cottage is somewhat higgledy-piggledy with several relatively large cupboard spaces throughout the property. Reconfigurations may be possible in the future, but at this stage would have been damaging to budget, timeline and would potentially take away from the character, charm and history of the cottage. I wanted to embrace and make the most of the extra spaces. So designed a useful and stylish cloakroom area downstairs with a dedicated charging area for devices. Upstairs a large walk-in cupboard has been converted into an added dressing space for guests to store and hang their clothes.  A further two additonal large cupboards remain for extra household storage space at the cottage.

The useful bronze cloakroom with charging station and extra storage space for country walks and dog paraphernalia.

The terracotta dressing room. Perfect hanging space for guests planning on evening jaunts to nearby Helmsley, Harome or into York.

Throughout the cottage I mixed vintage, and second hand finds with new items to sustain Crossing Cottage’s humble but vital roots and its sunny position and disposition.

The sunshine yellow front door welcomes you into a hallway featuring a contemporary pendant light against a backdrop of vintage hanging plates.

A vintage kilim hung on the mellow yellow walls of the original Victorian staircase sits comfortably alongside a Pooky wall light and natural hessian blind.

Contact Isobel direct for help with your interior design project.

You can book a stay at Crossing Cottage here.

Images by FORWARDSPACE