Over 3 centuries old cottage transformed into a superb holiday home

It's amazing how people in other countries manage to keep all the old houses, keep them refurbish and transform them making minimal changes but adding maximum comfort. I've always wondered how they save and make livable, with everything that now goes into a house - water, electricity, pipes, wires - houses built 300-400 years ago and we here don't manage with "younger" houses, up to a hundred years old. The subject of this post is a 300 year old log cabin in the Beskedy Mountains Nature Reserve in the Czech Republic that has been converted by its owners into a rustic style holiday home.

The Beskedy Mountains are part of the Carpathian chain that runs through Central and Eastern Europe. They belong to Moravia and Silesia, regions in the east of the Czech Republic, and have been a protected area since 1973, in fact the largest protected area in the Czech Republic, covering 1160 km2. It has exceptional natural value due to the still existing virgin forests and the rare species of Carpathian flora and fauna that have survived.

The cottage is called Tara and has approximately 140 sq m of living space. It took the owners 5 years to transform the old wooden house into a superb holiday home with 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, terrace and cellar. Everything was done with great care, with minimal influence on the exterior and interior walls. The roof has been redone exactly as it was originally done, with hand hewn shingles.

The centerpiece of the house is the old oven in the dining room, which has a bread oven, a stove for cooking and a place to sleep. To get to the sleeping place you climb 3-4 steps, with the bed on top. That way, the warmth comes from below and you sleep wonderfully.

I remember that this is how we used to make ovens when I was a child, with a place to sleep. Do they still have such ovens?

The kitchen, also on the ground floor, has kept the old hob, but an electric one has been added, but the two are very similar. The rustic look of the kitchen is complemented by the wooden cupboards, all sorts of rugs and other items that fit in perfectly with the overall look of the kitchen.

The dining room has 2 large tables with benches on either side and a generous sofa next to which is an old sewing machine used as a coffee table.

Every space is used to its fullest, so there's also a more secluded dining area, like a small window booth, with weathered benches and a good view of the old tree trunks forming the walls.

On the ground floor there is a large bedroom and 2 small bedrooms. The 2 bedrooms are real gems. Small, austere, furnished like old servants' rooms, with narrow single beds, high wooden bedside tables, a chair as a bedside table and 1-2 old objects (saucepan, pitchfork) like sets from vintage English films.

Under the staircase going upstairs there is a sofa and a sitting area with a mini library, TV and DVD player. You wouldn't believe that this equipment could find its place in all that old decor with the wood of the walls blackened by time and smoke.

Upstairs there are 3 more bedrooms and a discreet place to read or simply rest.

There are exposed beams everywhere, combined with the white painted wall. Everything that stood for something has been preserved, even the ruins of the old chimney.

The furniture is carefully chosen, there are many old objects of great charm, as is the small baby swing.

All wood has a rustic, natural, patinated look, with no sheen or other inappropriate and unsuitable finishes in an old wooden house.

In the basement is the wine cellar. The stone arches and walls have been left exactly as they were 300 years ago. Above the entrance to the cellar, a beautiful porch with a wooden railing fretworked to form hearts stretches the full width of the house. It is a wonderful place from which to admire the surrounding nature without the eye encountering other buildings.

About rustic look of furniture or houses I've told you about it on several occasions, but I couldn't think of the best example to illustrate it. This old wooden house in the Czech Republic, now a holiday home, is exactly the idea of rustic: simple, straight lines, wood inlays reminiscent of nature, lack of gloss and thick layers of varnish, wood combined with elements leading to the same idea (rugs, carpets, simple curtains).

A wooden cottage, restored with respect for wood, history, nature and ancestors.

source: grove-cottages.co.uk