WE BLEW OUR HONEYMOON CASH ON A £15k GIN PALACE
MADDIE SIDEBOTTOM, 40, a stylist, is married to former England cricketer Ryan, 43. They live near Durham and have three children between them, aged 11, ten and nine. She says: PERCHED on lime velvet stools at the bar, martini in hand, it’s easy to forget we’ve nowhere else to go.
From afternoon tea with mocktails for the children, to date nights, welcome to Bottoms Up!, as we call our cocktail lounge.
Housed in a gorgeous, cedar-framed garden room measuring 4m by 4m (13ft by 13ft), it cost £15,000 to build.
It was pricey but we paid for it with savings, including the money we got back after cancelling our honeymoon to Marrakech last spring.
As it became clear lockdown was going to drag on, we reasoned there was no point having the money in the bank when we could use it to create something at our home instead.
It’s luxurious but quirky with underfloor heating, wifi, a TV, mood lighting and full power from the main house.
Being a stylist, I adored designing the interior to incorporate lots of pink — our favourite colour — funky animal wallpaper, a Bottoms Up! neon sign, velvet sofa and two 5 ft gold flamingos.
The charcoal bar and cabinetry were made by a local carpenter and feature a mirrored back, shelving, marble bar top and lighting to illuminate our collection of alcohol that includes 40 different gins.
At our wedding last March, we hired a mixologist and have now had a lot of practice making his secret recipes for pornstar martinis — made with passion fruit, lime and champagne — and my favourite, vodka lychee martinis.
One wall is home to Ryan’s cricket memorabilia and England caps, while bifold doors open on to the garden.
On alternate weekends, when we don’t have the children, one of us will say: ‘Let’s go to Bottoms Up! tonight.’
It would have been the perfect place to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. But Ryan is working in India, so I opened a bottle of champagne and said ‘Bottoms Up!’ to him over Zoom.