Stay

Kintsugi is an old Kumaoni stone cottage that we restored. It’s one room with a queen bed, a corner to sit in, and a bathroom with a skylight over the shower.

The room takes its name from the floor. Kintsugi is the Japanese way of mending broken pottery with gold, so the cracks become part of the piece. The floor here is painted like broken stone, with colour running through the cracks.

It stays warm in winter, with electric blankets and hot water through the day.

A small A-frame cabin that stands by itself under the trees. Downstairs is a sitting room with a wall of glass looking out at the valley. A steep wooden stair takes you up to the loft, where the bed sits right under the slope of the roof, with windows on both sides.

There’s a place to sit outside under the trees, and the sunset is right in front of you. At night, look up through the skylights.

Wabi and Sabi are two suites in one old stone house. Each has a bedroom and a small study with a day bed, so a third person can sleep there. Thick whitewashed walls, little niches in the stone, old fireplaces in the corners, and the same hand-painted floors as Kintsugi. The bathrooms have skylights too.

Wabi-sabi is the Japanese idea that things are beautiful because they are old, worn and a little uneven. We think the house agrees.

They’re about 70 steps up the hill from the dining lounge, and look out over the garden.