Interior Design
Our homes are BEAUTIFUL both inside and out
Relaxed guests will have a happy stay, and are more likely to return. Beautiful design-led interiors play an important role here, ensuring your holiday let is comfortable as well as successful. We work with an experienced interior design, styling and photography consultants who know how to emphasise the best features of your property and present your Fresh Escape in its most alluring light, both inside and out.
At Fresh Escapes, we select unique properties that enable people to escape the everyday, spread their wings and soar. Whether they want a coastal bolthole from which to explore the South West Coast Path or a rural retreat to enjoy moorland walks and rivers, we are passionate about providing our guests with an immersive sanctuary where they can feel inspired, connect to nature and relax.
To help your homestay stand out, we offer expert but budget-friendly design-led consultation. This process is completely transparent – we simply charge an hourly rate for design and project management, from an initial consultation through to completion. Our interior design, styling, photography and copywriting consultant will advise on how to enhance your home’s strengths, improve on any weaknesses and present your home for marketing in its best light. Above all, we want your personality to shine through. Memories are made via a warm welcome, ambience and charming personal details – after all, home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling.
THE FRESH ESCAPES Portfolio
Browse our design-led Devon homestays
Hortons
Teignmouth, Devon
Littlefields
Seaton, Devon
The Cottage
Holcombe, Devon
QUAY HOUSE
Topsham, Devon
Wixels
Topsham, Devon
The Curlews
Bishopsteignton, Devon
Weeke Brook
Chagford, Devon
the crab shack
Teignmouth, Devon
Cathedral yard
Exeter, Devon
Weeke BrookE
Elegant country cottage charm
The owner was inspired by the White Company book of interior design, For the Love of White – an ode to pale interiors and the power of neutrals. Our in-house stylist Sue Vaughton took this theme and ran with it. What we see is a masterclass in using white to highlight texture, natural light and decorative details with injections of colour here and there to add personality.
The traditionally black 13th-century beams made the living room and bedrooms ceiling oppressively low, while black door and window ironware made rooms feel smaller. These were all painted in Farrow & Ball Hardwick White to give the illusion of space. Most of the living room furniture was already there – our ethos is to work with what we have rather than buy all new – but the owner chose a pouf from French Connection and a secondhand chair from a selection curated by Sueto ensure there was enough seating for the number of guests – a must for all holiday homes.
The neutral shades continued into the bedrooms, where bedheads were reupholstered and soft rugs, beaded lamp shades and pompom throws were added to add texture and personality, creating a comfortable, relaxing and peaceful ambience. The downstairs shower room required the only makeover – Fired Earth tiles create a luxurious feel against a calming pale palette, which accentuates the beauty of the greenery outside through the window.
QUAY HOUSE
Quirky waterside character home
Fresh Escapes interior design team exacts words:
Quay House was “the most fun property to style!” The home caught Fresh Escape’s eye not only because of its waterside location but also for its character and charm, illustrated by an eclectic interior brimming with fabulous historic and quirky pieces of furniture, art and ornaments. The antiques dealer owner also had even more pieces in storage for Sue to play with.
Our Interior Design team chose to use Farrow & Ball Hardwick White to calm down orange pine doors, cupboards and stairs, while walls were kept pale. They needed to be a neutral canvas to display all the objets d’art and let the pieces speak for themselves. To decide the feel of a room, Sue chooses one piece of furniture, feature or painting as a foundation to build on.
At Quay House, she knew the ‘bluebird’ car would look fantastic on the sitting room wall and bought two inexpensive blue high street sofas to complement it. Luxury cushions from local interior designer Michelle Sucksmith elevate the look to quirky comfort-chic. Homestays with personality and charm are a Fresh Escapes hallmark – our guests appreciate interesting, different homes with atmosphere. We welcome artist or collector owners who would like to showcase their work that guests can purchase as a souvenir of their stay.
Hortons
Eclectic holiday home by the sea
Hortons is owned by an artist, whose paintings adorn the walls throughout the house. A neutral canvas was required to show off the art, so walls were painted in Farrow & Ball Purbeck Stone, a clean and understated grey that goes with everything. Red accents in the huge, light and airy kitchen-dining area are thrown into sharp relief against this calming background, and natural pine cone decorative flourishes give a hint of the down-to-earth, warm and welcoming characteristics of the home and its owner.
Fresh Escapes’ interior design team worked with the owner to enable each room to tell a story. The shower room was transformed from average into extraordinary with the addition of an amazing wallpaper that warmed up the existing tiles and added real drama to an everyday room. The owner’s paintings influenced the style of each bedroom. A warm, Gaugain-style nude inspired our team to use Farrow & Ball’s India Yellow for an accent wall, tempered by Worsted, a calming neutral grey that can hold its own against stronger colours, on the remaining walls. In the master bedroom, pinks in the landscape were picked up in the rugs, throw and ornaments – all bought in second-hand shops or high street stores – bringing a warm cohesion to the space.
Throughout the home, our team rearranged various pieces of furniture that were already there to best suit the space, as well as adding a mix of new and second-hand pieces. Inherited furniture adds a real warmth to a holiday home, and balancing old with new gives the space true personality. Sue collaborated with the owner to make choices that depend on her budget, personality and practicality.
The family bathroom received the biggest makeover. We employed a carpenter to create tongue-and-groove panelling on the walls and around the bath to add uniformity, while new windows add a sanitised, clean feel. The eye-catching palm tree wallpaper adds life and feels in keeping with the rest of the home’s dramatic decor.
LITTLEFIELDS
Modern comfort depicts the vibe at Littlefields in Seaton. This home is the epitome of relaxed charm. The pretty open-plan kitchen and dining area is ideal for big family meals and bi-fold doors make the most of indoor-outdoor living in good weather. There are pretty lanterns outside for when darkness falls.
The sumptuously decorated first lounge comfortably seats four and is a lovely space to cosy up around the woodburner to watch a movie. The large downstairs family bathroom, finished in stunning Fired Earth tiles, gives the option of a luxurious bath or shower, while upstairs three charming, serene bedrooms offer six guests a restful night’s sleep.
The COttage
Nestled between the stunning coastal towns of Teignmouth and Dawlish and surrounded by lush Devon countryside is the pretty village of Holcombe, where you will find The Cottage – a grade II-listed family home. The four-bedroom Cottage oozes coastal comfort.
Decorated in sea-blues and sand-golds, punctuated by an eclectic mix of art and furniture and recently refurbished to a very high standard, the Cottage manages to be spacious while retaining a cosy and comforting atmosphere.
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