White bucks at The White Buck

We’ve had quite a week, and quite honestly, where to start. For the first time in what seems like a long time we had a short break staying in a hotel (rather than self-catering) and one that wasn’t in the Midlands or the north of England. We bucked the trend (sorry!), our own trend that is and headed down to Hampshire with visits to Exbury Gardens and the Gardeners’ World Spring Fair at Beaulieu, and planning to fit in a walk in the New Forest at some point.

There was so much to see, and consequently so many photos to edit before sharing, and then back home a visit to Grand Designs Live over at Excel has just added to it all. So not really knowing where to start, I’m sharing our hotel - The White Buck at Burley - which was just what we needed. It was so nice to get away and have a complete break, and we had a great stay and spotted plenty of bucks in the decor.

But done in a way that wasn’t kitsch. I mean who could resist a stag candlestick?

There were some great furnishings in the bar area too, a good reminder that patterns and plains can give a traditional style a modern twist.

The look and feel continued through to our room too, with the reclaimed wood and neutral palette with pops of colour. Here they came from the bedside tables and the scatter cushions, where the material was also used on the chairs.

The artwork in our room was also stag based, and these two stags looked over us. The brown one (on the left) had a pattern of fir trees on its body, the right (the blue) was just a bit more random, but both worked in the room and actually gave me an idea for a future craft project - another one to add to the list!

I was also taken with the prismatic-type stags head artwork also in our room. So simple, but so effective, understated but impactful.

I’ll share more about our trip, and our visit to Exbury Gardens, the Spring Fair, a brief visit to the National Trust’s Mottisfont and our day at Grand Designs Live and more soon, I just need to get myself a plan as there’s lots to share!

The loo we couldn't find at first

Once we found our hotel in Lyon - which was trickier than you might expect, as the entrance was low key to say the least, we learnt we’d had a room upgrade as we checked in. That doesn’t happen to us so often, so it was quite exciting. As we were shown our room we took it all in our stride as we were shown around, but as soon as she was gone, we were exploring for ourselves, looking out of the window for the view, checking the snacks on the dressing table, the wardrobes with its towelling robes, and the bathroom. It’s just that one thing was missing. And that was the loo.

Seriously.

A huge bath, luxurious toiletries, fluffy towels, a fancy sink. But no loo.

There had to be one. And then in clicked.

It had to be off the mirrored entrance-way…

And so it was, opposite the wardrobe. The brass door knob in the picture above was the only clue we had. And neither of us were quite ready for what was behind that door.

Yes, our very own OTT hand-painted chateau-scene. If It’d have told you beforehand, I’m not sure you would have believed me, and seeing was believing.

It was totally bonkers, and totally made for my Loo Series posts - did they know? And what were the other room’s loos like?

In truth, it was a bit like a caravan loo, just quite a fancy one. But still bonkers.

Only in Lyon. Or is it?

The Dudley at Coombe Abbey

Barbados, as we’ve discovered since we’ve been here, is often called Little England. That’s not so surprising, though the architecture and decor are miles apart. You’ll know how much I’m a fan of and enjoy colour, well Barbados delivers on all of that. The bright colours though, don’t seem to work back home so much, just as the traditional decor from our relatively recent visit to Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire would look out of place in the Caribbean.

Both work, in their own environments. Here’s some more from our mediaeval banqueting weekend, mostly of our room - the Dudley.

We’d left it later than we should have to book, and so ended up booking more than the basic room. Usually MOH would have known this wasn’t a good thing, but even if he did when we arrived in the room and were met with our own spiral staircase he just might have been forgiven.

We’ll come back to what’s at the top of the stairs later though. First, drink in the grandeur of the decor, the swags of the curtains and the mock canopy over the bed. They’re about as traditional as you can get…

Upstairs was also traditional, and a tad extravagant. A roll top bath took pride of place, with a generous sized room to itself.

A pile of stones in one corner of the room was slightly odd though, or at least I thought so.

We were only there for one night, and there was a delay to our room being available, so we weren’t able to take full advantage of all it could offer. We spent the evening celebrating my BIL’s half-century birthday at the medieval banquet, and while they worked that out in the end, that too was disorganised and chaos for our party.

Personally I think the hotel had too much going on, with banquets and weddings, and just weren’t organised enough to cope. We may just have been unlucky, arriving at a particularly busy time, who knows.

Throughout the hotel the decor matched the ambience it promised, and with my gown with the never ending sleeves (seriously, they touched the floor) it was easy to believe we’d been transported back in time.

Perhaps, that is, until we encountered this: