A little later than planned, but here is the cottage reveal for you! I know I've shared some pictures already on Instagram, but this gives a better perspective on how it connects and flows together.

DeVOL kitchen designed by Laura Butler-Madden for her Cotswold Cottage

At the bottom of the post, there are some pre/during renovation pics - we bought it as a charming two-bedroom home that was a little tired in places. For example, the kitchen was very dated and almost like a camping kitchen - a basic hob and oven housed in concrete and just shelves...in fact, there wasn’t a cupboard anywhere in the house! We did find that a struggle moving in last summer and downsizing from Dorset with a toddler! But under-bed Ikea drawers came to the rescue and we survived :)

The property had a lapsed planning permission for an extension when we bought it and we weren’t sure if we would do it straight away or wait a little bit - in the end we decided to get cracking as our team were available and that is so important to us. We applied for a slightly different extension - the original one extended the kitchen slightly and added a bedroom and shower room upstairs, but we wanted to bring it round to the side to create a dining area and also make the cottage look more in proportion from the outside.

We started work in late October - at the time we were buying our new home in Somerset and completion was set for mid-November…so we packed everything up from the cottage and sent it to Dorset to store will all our other furniture and belongings…we literally had a couple of suitcases and some toys for Lily and went to stay with a friend for the few weeks between cottage renovation starting and moving into our new home. A few days later the purchase fell through - we found out (fortunately prior to exchange) that the house wasn’t insurable for flood damage. It wasn’t anything we had ever come across before, but we felt very lucky we found out when we did…we were already slightly stretching ourselves and so any future issues would have been very stressful. I do still feel sad that it did fall through when it did - it was such a special house, but clearly just not meant to be - we now of course have found our next home in Bath, which we absolutely love and can’t wait to move into it soon.

Sorry for the slight diversion - back to the cottage! We started work at the end of October and hoped we would be finished by late February/early March ready for the summer rental season. As always our team were super efficient and all was on track for a March completion, until Covid appeared. Our team had gone home for a week’s holiday before finishing the final bits at the cottage and then moving on to Bath when the Polish borders were closed and they were stuck!

Three months later they returned - over that three months we worked hard on the garden, and it needed almost everything doing - new lawn (we seeded and I popped over to water when I could during lockdown) and we planted lots and lots of new plants. Patrick thinks I’ve gone a bit crazy, but the borders are looking so full and colourful and I’m very happy. I will do a separate blog on the garden - we are waiting for the sun to come back to take proper pictures!

Throughout June we worked on the final bits here and then styled and moved into it. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the result - so much so that I don’t want to leave ever!!! It is an investment property for us though, so sadly I will have to leave as we are going to be renting from mid-August onwards (here is the link to it on Airbnb). We will still be coming to use it very regularly, as we have totally fallen in love with the village and the area. And you never know we may one day move back to this patch full time - we spent a lot of time exploring on our bikes during lockdown and it really has captured our hearts.

But for now, we are getting closer to work being finished in Bath and we are super excited to move there in September and start another mini adventure as a family. Safe in the knowledge that the cottage will be here and we will be sneak back very regularly between bookings.

I will be sharing each room with more details about suppliers over the coming weeks, as well as room tours on IGTV, the garden and a full cottage tour once we’ve tidied up again and the sun comes out again!

If you have any questions about anything in the meantime then do comment below or message me.

Laura x

Here is the Airbnb Link for rental enquiries :)