Mr & Mrs Smith

Chaucer Barn

Norfolk, United Kingdom

Take one barn in 80 acres of soul-stirring farmland, add striking architecture, creative design and colourful Bohemian furnishings, plus every home and hotel luxury, and you have the magnificent Chaucer Barn. Just over two miles from North Norfolk’s celebrated coastline, this stylish nine-roomed self-catering property is ideal for families who want high-calibred charm as well as every creature comfort. Handpainted drapes reminiscent of a Kandinsky artwork demonstrate the owner’s creative flair, while a packet of Resolve in every ensuite exemplifies your host’s TLC and attention to detail. The open-plan kitchen and dining space is the convivial heart of this hip home from home, with the herb- and flower-filled landscaped gardens visible from every window.

Need to know

• Rates information Weekly stays are £4,330–£5,487. Shorter stays are also available; three-nights: £2,970–£3,520; four-nights: £3,113–£3,980; five-nights: £3,369–£4,467; A five-night stay during Christmas and New Year is £7,502; a week-long stay is £8,542.
• Ideal for Family holidays, private house parties, special occasions and stylish hen weekends.
• Sleeps Up to 18.
• Property style Award-winning contemporary barn conversion with traditional features.
• Grounds Set on an 80-acre farm, amid five acres of landscaped gardens, rolling green lawns and a children’s play area. As well as striking topiary, a herb garden and a romantic wildflower meadow, there’s a pergola with a barbecue.
• Minimum hire Minimum three nights in low season, five nights in the Easter and Christmas holidays and a week in summer.
• Children Cots with bed linen, highchairs, stairgates, baby-changing stand and mat, baby bath, potty, kids books, buckets and spades, and lots of outdoor games balls and cricket bats, kids crockery plates cups knives and forks. As well as the large games cupboard full of board games, there's an Xbox and also a kids DVD library. There’s a duck pond opposite the barn, which should keep accompanied minors amused. There are also swings and a slide in the sprawling garden space. And consult the guestbook to check rules for a game invented by one family who stayed here Called ‘Pom Pom 123’ it involves playing in pyramid trees and it's always a hit. Bewilderwood, the treehouse adventure park is about an hour’s drive away (www.bewilderwood.co.uk). There’s also Dinosaur Adventure Park (www.dinosauradventure.co.uk), and the Splash Leisure in Sheringham Centre with its wave pool and slide, only ten minutes from Chaucer Barn. More...
• Booking process A non-refundable deposit equal to one third of your stay is required to secure booking. Full payment to be received eight weeks prior to stay. £500 damages deposit to be paid and returned a week after stay. Smith deposit taken when you book.
• Also Dogs can come too, for an additional charge: £90 for weekend stays; £180 for a week-long break.

Floor plan

• This award-winning barn conversion mixes contemporary and traditional features, resplendent in English oak, heated York stone floors, and boasting a brand-new glass-walled new wing.

• Bedrooms

  Nine bedrooms, consisting of five doubles and four twins are scattered on either end of the property. All of the twins can be comfortably made into doubles. Furnished in a colourful shabby-chic style, each bedroom has its own unique design, and those in the new wing have a subtle colour theme. Imported Indian furnishings and modern textiles inject colour, with a suggestion of five-star luxury courtesy of crisp white Egyptian bed linen and fluffy white towels.

• Kitchen

  The open-plan stone-floored kitchen and oak-beamed morning room is the heart of this stylish self-catering property, and it looks out onto herb garden and terrace. There’s a large dining table under a candelabra, which seats 18. There’s a double Aga and a walk-in larder which includes two fridges and dishwashers.

• Living room

  The living space is mostly open-plan and perfect for socialising, but still really cosy with plenty of private corners to relax in. In the west wing, there’s an upstairs drawing room that really wows with its stunning views across the green garden to woodland-framed fields in the distance. An open gallery looks down from the first-floor to the main dining area. Tucked in a cosy corner off the kitchen is another sitting room, or snug, with comfortable sofas, an open fire and an oak ceiling – it’s the perfect place to curl up with the papers or a book. In the contemporary east wing, there’s a new games room. There’s also a large adjoining reception room, with another open fire, more striking open-joisted oak ceilings with massive wooden beams and floors. Each room opens west via fully sliding, floor-to-ceiling glass walls onto a York stone patio.

• Dining room

  The fab banqueting area is part of the kitchen, detailed above.

• Gardens

  With five acres of landscaped grounds in 80 acres of farmland, there’s no shortage of outdoor space. Tree-spotters will particularly appreciate the young arboretum and the extensive woodland areas. You can make the most of long summer evenings and entertain amid this flora-filled splendour thanks to a barbecue and an outdoor dining area.

• Private parking

  There is space for up to 20 cars.

Also worth knowing

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