Mr & Mrs Smith

Carrington House

Norfolk , United Kingdom

Grand Georgian red-brick residence from the outside, over-the-top kitsch-but-quality glamour palace on the inside. An adjoining cottage provides a secluded side to the property. As for entertaining – this house is made for letting the good times flow. Two stylish sitting rooms, a flamboyant dining room that seats 22, a sociable kitchen and a basement leisure lounge which, as well as having DJ decks, karaoke machine and cinema screen, even has its own dressing-up room – complete with costumes.

Need to know

• Rates information From £4,550 for a week's stay; £3,650 for a weekend.
• Ideal for Up-all-night celebrations with friends, inspiring brainstorming breaks, eccentric family escapes.
• Sleeps Up to 20 (nine bedrooms in total plus a sofa bed for 2 in the cottage).
• Property style A Grade-II Georgian red-brick residence with colourful retro-meets-now unscrimping design.
• Grounds A lovely garden is framed by copper beech trees and visited by friendly chickens. There’s also a walled terraced area furnished with sun loungers, a stable with a hot tub and, hopefully in the future, a sauna and spa-treatment room.
• Minimum hire Three nights.
• Children What child wouldn't love this fantasyland? An eccentric rendezvous geared at young-at-heart adults but also actual children, they can provide all the hardware your little ones might need. More...
• Booking process 20 per cent deposit needed to secure booking. A sum of £1,000 will be held on account by the hotel from seven days prior to your agreed date of arrival. The same sum of £1,000 is to be released by them on satisfactory completion of the checking of the inventory following your stay. Smith deposit taken when you book.

Floor plan

• Every bedrooms is decorated differently, and all flamboyantly. Not all are en suite, but each has its own (fabulous) mosaic or gilded high-spec bathroom.

• Bedrooms

  In the main house:

  Bedroom 1: The bijou Ferrari-toned Red Room is rather special – it can either be a cosy twin, or ask them to fit the custom-built mattress and it becomes an eye-popping BED-room that is big enough in which to swing a cat, a dog, and a whole herd of larger animals, frankly.

  Bedroom 2: Heck, the wallpaper panels in the Chinoiserie Room alone cost more than many hotels furnishings in their entirety. Understated, it ain’t. And this room can be made up as two twins or as one big bed for two. At least.
  
  Bedroom 3: The Hollywood Room is a double-queen delight – as in the two large beds. The Fifties gold-and-pink flourishes are pure showbiz – all that's missing are effigies of Elton and David.
  
  Bedroom 4: Black-and-white classic, the Versace Room, could be seen as the master suite; mind you, if it’s where you want to take your mistress, make sure those curtains are drawn. As you drive down Snettisham's high street, when illuminated at night, the view into this boudoir's windows rather steals the limelight.
  
  Bedroom 5: Much like lots of Carrington House, village-view Green Room has a look to it that you’d expect to see in a stylised biopic of a Hollywood starlet’s house in the Fifties. But with boosted Technicolour.
  
  In the adjoining cottage:
  
  Bedroom 6: The black-and-white Terrace Room has its own – have you guessed yet? – yup, terrace. There's a quirky four-poster bed too.
  
  Bedroom 7: The ornate-walled Balcony Room overlooks the garden.
  
  Bedroom 8: The Cabin Room is fabulously intimate with its wood-panelling and cruise-ship cosiness. Who needs big windows when you have that freestanding bath to occupy the view?

• Kitchen

  If you’re a believer that the kitchen is the hub of a sociable house, then be assured that this is your mothership. These sunny, canary-coloured cooking quarters not only boast an aga, breakfasting table and pantry – there's even a sofa. All that's missing is a pinny-wearing Doris Day. Next door is a more functional catering kitchen complete with shelves of CH monogrammed dinner service. Nothing at Carrington House is done in halves.

• Living room

  Relax or rev up by the fire in the banana-leaf-walled Den. Friends may find it’s where everyone mingles most, while families may want to flop here in front of the plasma telly. Across the hallway is the Pavilion Room, a drawing room steeped in special-occasion sophistication – the bamboo- and parakeet-flocked black wallpaper is art in itself. And a backdrop heaven sent for cocktail hour. Head down to the basement and you'll find the equivalent of Carrington House’s jewel in its crown; the precious gem in a gold Versace belt buckle, perhaps? The Leisure Lounge is a hedonist’s sound-proofed audio-visual paradise. Karaoke machine, DJ decks and at-the-ready CD mixer, projector and cinema screen – ad hoc performance of Stars in their Eyes, anyone? There's even a [drum roll, please] dressing-up room; for those that just can't enjoy a social event without some velvet-rope exclusivity this can double as your VIP annex.

  There’s an additional cosy sitting room in the adjoining cottage. Don’t go having too many drinks though and think that patterned carpet is a Magic Eye artwork. Although we swear we saw a dolphin.

• Dining room

  Banqueting doesn’t get more decadent than at this table for 22. Monochrome, hexagonal and hot pink, the décor of this dining room is anything but traditional. Even the dullest board meeting would get a boost if hosted in this eccentric event space.

• Poolside

  There isn’t a pool but there is a hot tub. Oh yeah.

• Gardens

  There’s a lovely garden and a wonderful walled terrace furnished with sun loungers, which are heavenly in summer. Hopefully in the future (2010), a sauna and spa treatment room will be added to the stables which currently house the Whirlpool. And not exactly on-site, but connected to Carrington House, is their beach hut on Old Hunstanton beach, just ten minute's drive away.

• Private parking

  There is space for a couple of cars at the back and on the road, but this is a small country village, so be considerate of the neighbours.

Also worth knowing

• Weddings This property is suitable for weddings. More...