In North Yorkshire, Melanie Phipps has furnished a pair of shepherd’s huts with every creature comfort

WHEN Melanie Phipps and her young family left London for North Yorkshire, she was drawn to the idea of merging upmarket glamping with B&B. After much research, she decided to instal two shepherd’s huts from Dorset-based manufacturers, Plankbridge (01300 348414; www.plankbridge. com). Fitted with bathrooms and woodburners, one stands in a field under an oak tree, the other in the walled garden.

When it came to decorating them, Mrs Phipps opted to include all the comforts of a full-sized house, within the limited space at her disposal. With this in mind, she ensured that the king-size bed is extralong ‘for tall guests’.

An eye for tiny details is clearly a forte, too. A quiet stripe in rust-red on oatmeal, sourced locally through Waltons Mill Shop, was used for the window blinds and the bed valance (01423 520980; www. waltonsmillshop.co.uk); the latter is on a swing arm to access storage underneath the bed. The bed linen was sourced from Cornwall-based Antique Designs (01409 271284; www.antiquedesigns.co.uk)

The walls are covered in tongue-andgroove and painted in Farrow & Ball’s All White (01202 876141; www.farrow-ball. com) and the oak floors are covered with a lime-washed harlequin pattern. Mirrors, sourced from Dairy House Antiques in Wiltshire, have been strategically placed to bounce light around the space (01747 853317; www.dairyhouseantiques.co.uk).

Meanwhile, Mrs Phipps’s husband, Jake (a respected furniture designer), made the breakfast table, which is supported by a reclaimed hayfeeder bracket. Arabella Youens The Hut B&B (01325 374259; www.thehutbandb.co.uk)