Janie and Bob Bentley live in Beaulieu in the New Forest with their naughty spaniel Fig and two cats. Janie has confessed that their Turnkey shepherd hut is very much all about enjoying her own space for sewing…..except that the rest of the family and their friends seem to have their eyes on the luxury retreat too!
This is their story….
‘We moved into our house in 2014, but have always lived locally. We have three grown up daughters; one who has just moved back with us after university and two who have moved out but visit a lot!
The Blackdown Experience
We have always loved the idea of building an annex in our garden at some point to allow extra guests to come and stay, so this was the main reason for getting a shepherd hut. We also wanted to make the most of our garden, and I personally wanted somewhere to spend sunny days sewing! I spent a lot of time researching them online before we came to visit Blackdown and were blown away with the quality of the huts. The staff, workshop and set up at Blackdown impressed us so much that I didn’t even need to persuade my husband that we needed to buy one on the way home, which speaks volumes!
‘Our hut is a Turnkey model; it sleeps two and includes the log burner, bathroom and glass roof – which looks gorgeous! The hut layout was based on a show hut that we saw when visiting, and the colour scheme was picked out by us. I am now in the process of making all the soft furnishings – cushions, seat covers etc!
What do you love about the hut?
‘I’m not really sure where to begin with what I love about shepherd huts…….. I can’t believe I haven’t had one before now! I love that every friend or family member that sees it for the first time is completely shocked with how amazing it is. I think everyone expects a very basic wooden hut! It looks so at home in our garden, and it just makes me smile every time I go down there.
‘I would definitely recommend the Turnkey hut to anyone, mainly due to how self-contained everything is – you could genuinely live in it and not want for anything. The attention to detail is second to none, and even now I am finding features that I didn’t realise I needed.
‘The delivery service was excellent, very smooth and well planned out. The set up was effortless and it really was the “turn-key” experience.
‘We would like to personally thank every one at Blackdown, the service from the very beginning to delivery has been second to none and I have never come across a company with such excellent customer service. We dealt a lot with Alan and Lisa who have made the whole process easy and enjoyable and have always been a pleasure to talk to.
‘We have only had our hut for two weeks and already it feels like part of our home. We have spent every evening playing cards, drinking tea (okay maybe wine) and enjoying our little piece of garden luxury, we cannot thank you enough!’
Why not book your stay at the Bentley’s Frenchmoor Shepherd’s Hut here!