Lily 1, 2, 3 and 4 at Château Destinée

Lily 1, 2, and 3 should really be spoken about first, as these three rooms sit together in a row, up two steps and with their own private hallway. The hallway, and one window in Lily 1, overlook the river terrace and the lily pond. Lily 2, 3, and 4 look out over the kitchen garden and the lily pond there. With a lily pond on either side, they could hardly have been called anything else.

Lily 1 at Château Destinée, a light bedroom with a chandelier under the white painted roof beams

Lily 1, 2 and 3

The bathrooms in Lily 1, 2, and 3 quickly rose to the top of our list of major works. Each had a moulded shower unit where the floor and walls were all one piece, sitting on blocks of wood. The drainage was poor, and the whole arrangement clearly needed to be redone properly. We removed the shower units and stripped the bathrooms right back so the pipes and drainage could be fixed.

From there, the transformation was dramatic. We laid new floors in a waterproof click system that looks like whitewashed floorboards, installed new shower trays, added fresh wall tiles and basin splashbacks, and painted the yellow ceiling beams white. With their complete makeover, these bathrooms changed the feel of the bedrooms entirely.

At first, the rooms themselves had felt a little like spaces created in haste, but once the ensuites were finished, the bedrooms needed a touch of class to lift the whole look. We chose fabric with lotus flowers to reflect the water plants visible from the windows, and added antique mirrors in the bathrooms, along with a full-length mirror in Lily 1 and the hallway.

These have become favourite rooms for groups of friends staying together, as the hallway can be closed off and the bedroom doors left open, creating a lovely shared space for talking and getting ready for a special occasion.

Lily 4

Just down the two steps, Lily 4 was a little different. The ensuite needed a new shower tray, but it was not a complete strip-back like the others. The bedroom itself, however, definitely was.

What had once been carpet on the floor, a mural on one wall, holes in the others, and light fittings that looked as though they had come straight from the 1970s meant we had our work cut out for us. A new timber floor, repaired plaster, lotus flower curtains to match the other Lily bedrooms, and new wall-mounted light fittings completely changed the room.

Suddenly, our ugly duckling had become a swan.

These are the rooms where the fun people stay now, and I love them.

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