The Mount, Somerset
Located in the Somerset countryside this elegant Grade II* Regency period stately home with 18 bedrooms, was purchased for careful renovation as a destination hotel for retreats, weddings, corporate events, and flexibly to be operated as a traditional hotel.
For the clients, supporting local small businesses and embedding energy efficiency strategies were priorities, whilst working within the framework of creating a elevated, luxury experience. Through briefing workshops we worked with the clients to define what luxury means before developing a scheme around craft, provenance, ease and comfort. The project ran alongside a separate application to extend the building to achieve the clients overall vision for the site, which sadly became unviable in consultation.
The images show a sample suite in a neutral canvas that provides a calming, restful space to unwind. Generous linen curtains quietly frame the sash windows and view across the hills, whilst other textiles layer in a comforting tactility with boucle, velvet and jacquard weaves.
Sustainable and circular approaches are implemented wherever possible. Items from the previous hotel site were reused and adapted, with selected antique pieces introduced. Local makers and craftspeople produced beautiful bespoke furniture pieces, such as a console table designed by us to suggest the presence of a absent fireplace, with a handmade oak leaf "over-mantle mirror" referencing the abundance of oaks in the nearby Blackdown Hills AONB.
Technological comforts are quietly integrated, with a TV disguised as artwork, smart control cast iron radiators and motion sensor lighting lighting in the bathrooms.
With the clean air appeal of a rural escape, there's no compromise within the rooms on air quality either, with low VOC, natural paints and wax floor finishes. Metal elements such as the bed frame are finished in beeswax, and socket plates left in raw brass to naturally patina over time, evolving as a new chapter in the story of this fascinating building.
