Inside a Cosy, Charm-Filled English Farmhouse with Hannah Heemsbergen

Hi Luxury Home Show, I'm Hannah Heemsburg and welcome to my Dorset farmhouse nestled in the countryside. Something that you don't get in a new house are witch's marks. It's something that you can't really purchase in a new house. I like having something that's really unique, like no one else is going to have this grandfather clock, no one else is going to have this table with all the marks in it and stuff like that. So I thought it was an amazing space for stargazing because it gets so dark here at night. So yeah now it's like a little stargazing nook. So we're in West Dorset and I live here with my partner Ollie and my two dogs Evie and Rosie and then my two cats Winnie and Maggie. So the house is actually dated back to the 16th century and we've only been here for about a year and three months. This is basically the snug we call it. It's got piano in it, a lovely cosy fire, this is kind of where you'd come and sit next to the fire and read a book. See the dogs also love it in here as well. It's just full of like little knickknacks. A lot of people ask me about these hops, these are just dried hops. They're still in season now I think, so they're usually in season from like August to October and they will eventually kind of dry out but they just are a lovely kind of decoration. The colour is by Copaint and it is called Cargo. At first I painted this like bright red in here and I made a huge mistake because the light just hit it completely wrong and it just looked really dark and moody. So it's definitely lightened up the space now. The original flooring is still here, there's like patches of where you can kind of see where it's been repaired. Just to think this is like almost 400 years old and you would have had like a horse and carriage outside and stuff and I just feel so fortunate to be living here. So I'm originally from the Midlands but I moved down to Salisbury just after university. I studied printed textiles and surface pattern. As you can probably tell by the house like there's a lot of pattern going on and loads of lovely kind of textures and textiles. We kind of lived in Salisbury for almost 10 years and then decided to come and move to Dorset just for kind of a slower pace of life. It's a very old brick farmhouse, just so many original features. All the doors are original, the flooring. I am a big antique collector and I love kind of finding little knickknacks whether that's from going to car boots or antique fairs or even just on my travels. This here is actually my craft cupboard which is just full of different papers. Even if I see like a strip of ribbon that's been tying up something I'll just strip it off and just use it to like wrap up presents at Christmas. I have a lot of my own pottery pieces dotted around the house. It just kind of shows kind of creativity and it just makes me smile. So over here we have a kind of like lettuce vegetable plates and I collect a lot of plates as you'll see dotted around the house. I have some like portuguese plates over here and then these I've just kind of collected over time and I just absolutely love them. So this is an original painting of a boy. I used to have it in our old guest bedroom but now I have it in here and I really love it. So next to the snug is this amazing office space which when we first viewed the house this was one of the selling points. And this amazing kind of library wall which is mainly used for books and different instruments. And my partner Ollie designs loudspeakers so this is like the perfect hub for him. So stepping from the snug room into the kitchen dining area which is probably the room that we use the most. A lot of the time I'm in here doing work. It's also absolutely massive and loses a lot of the heat. It can get really cold. Sometimes you're down here eating your toast in the morning you can see your breath. A lot of the actual kitchen itself we've kind of left. It's such a good quality kitchen that we didn't really have to change much. I think eventually I probably will paint it and stuff but for now like it's such a functional kitchen. And I also put this in which is like an old kind of French antique hanging rail. Again it's super lovely but also really functional for all the pots and little things that I always collect. And then coming over here we were fortunate enough to have an AGA already installed. Again it's like 20-30 years old but it still is really good and it's very good for baking. So this is kind of the coffee and tea station where I come down first thing in the morning after feeding the girls. And this is an artist called Big Al who I've got a few pieces from but this is actually an original piece. I'm actually lactose intolerant that's why I bought this. And I thought it was just really cute and kind of funny at the same time. So yeah we've got that in the tea and coffee station just there. Always reminds me to use the right milk carton. So from here it's also really lovely to look out onto the garden and kind of watch the dogs playing and stuff. There's also a little orchard out there as well so it's lovely this time of year because all the leaves are changing. And then this is kind of the dining table which actually was the first piece we ever bought in our last house from a little place in Wimborne called Toad Hall. And then this was actually in the house when we moved in. The lady who lived here before it's actually her grandfather's and it was too heavy to move so they actually left it here. I really like blending kind of new and old together especially when it comes to art. I also like reusing things as well. I don't necessarily want to buy loads of things that are mass produced. I like having something that's really unique like no one else is going to have this grandfather clock. No one else is going to have this table with all the marks in it and stuff like that. This again was another vintage antique piece bought from an antique dealer. And these little statues are kind of a Rosie and Evie. Not quite the right colouring for Evie but I still really love them. So I have like a collection of artworks here. We've got quite a few paintings of Salisbury dotted about and this one I actually bought for a couple of pound from a car boot. And then my friend who actually deals antiques and stuff actually told me that it was worth like over £500. And I was like no way! Obviously I'm not in the market to sell it but I just thought it was really interesting that you can get like original artwork that's worth a lot of money for a couple of quid. We're going to carry on the tour of the living room. Just through here is access to the gym and the back garden. So now we're coming into the back garden and this is kind of going to be like a second phase of the house. We've only been in the house for just over a year so we've kind of focused on the inside not necessarily the outside. So I've done a few things that I'd like to show you but yeah it's all a work in progress. This is the little potting shed and before it was just full of kind of rubbish and stuff and I emptied it out and put some lovely pots and bits in there. It's really useful, a really useful space just to come up and be kind of sheltered while doing gardening. So we're going to go down now into the courtyard bit but before we do I just wanted to mention about these lovely plum trees. And the harvest this year was amazing so we had plenty of plum crumbles. And basically the long-term plan with this garden is to have like a nice decking area here because the view is so lovely over there. And then have kind of six raised beds of kind of veggies and cut flowers and stuff like that. And kind of cut this right back because at the moment it's quite overgrown. So now we're in the courtyard area and here before it was just gravel. And I've basically put in these four kind of partitions and yeah planted different types of lavender. There's loads of types of olive trees and stuff so yeah it's a super kind of welcoming space now. And there's also an old well here which is no longer in use but it's very cool to have in the garden and it's almost like a little feature now. So we're back in the entrance hall and in here it kind of felt like a bit of a blank canvas before. So I've decorated the walls in a very soft pink colour. And this is Coat Paints, I think the colour's called Baked. And before again you didn't really realise that this wall was actually shiplapped. But actually it looks so much more like a feature now it's been painted. I have like kind of personal photographs, again a piece by me. I know it's really kind of maximalist but I love it. So we're now in the living room which is where we come and kind of just watch TV on an evening at work. It's a really nice space to kind of relax and grab a book and just chill. Again in here we've got like a mix of new furniture and antiques. So this is from Loaf, this lovely sofa. And then this was actually picked up down the road at an antique shop which I absolutely love. I love the mix of kind of pattern and then modern and plain. This was actually left here which is just a games cupboard. This popped up on Gumtree or something and we were in love with it that much we got it shipped to us to Salisbury. Again we've got some dried hops, this is what they look like dried. And I thought with the kind of tones of the room it didn't really matter that they weren't fresh anymore. And we've also got an open fireplace but to be honest with you it really doesn't give off that much heat. So we've kind of just filled it with dried flowers which looks quite nice. Something that you don't get in a new house are witches marks. And usually they're above doorways and beams like this to warn off bad spirits. It's something that you can't really like purchase in a new house. It just shows the history of the house and adds a little bit of character. I mentioned that I really like to collect things and in this little nook here I've got some of my favourite books. And also these lovely kind of little fabric boxes. But in particular I love Staffordshire dogs and you'll see them all kind of dotted around the house. I really love this piece of artwork that one of our neighbours actually did for us when we moved in. Her name is Heather Putner and it's literally just of the street down the road. Now we've finished in the living room we're going to head upstairs. But before I do I just wanted to show you these lovely hair. They're a bit tongue in cheek kind of little illustrations actually from a local place called Brockenhurst in the New Forest. If you actually look at them they are quite rude some of them but I kind of love them. And I picked these up again at an antiques fair. So now we're upstairs and this is the landing which has three double bedrooms off it and then the main bathroom. So this is one of the spare bedrooms and I love it in here because it's north facing so it feels like a little cave. And again it's got some lovely kind of textiles. It's painted in Edward Bulmer Jean Quill which I absolutely love this colour. And it's just proper soft and lovely. Lovely Liberty cushions. My little brother actually bought me this as a throw for Christmas but I just put it up as a tapestry piece. Almost makes it feel like a lovely headboard. Quite an unusual feature that this room has is this little reading nook. I've wallpapered it with vintage Laura Ashley wallpaper. And at first I didn't really know what to use it for so I kind of put books and cushions in it. But unfortunately my grandad actually passed away recently and I inherited his telescope. So I thought it was an amazing space for stargazing because it gets so dark here. So yeah now it's like a little stargazing nook. So now going from the guest bedroom to the bathroom. One of the things I absolutely love about this room is how big the bath is. And my dad kind of describes it as being in a big ship. And the wall colour is Thames Reeds by William Morris which I actually had a lot in the last house and I just absolutely love it. I'm also a fan of collecting stuff like fish and ducks and stuff so you'll kind of see them scattered around this bathroom. So now coming into another spare bedroom. A fairly small proportion but really sweet. It's kind of Victorian fireplace which if you imagine they didn't have any central heating. And this was the only way they could kind of keep warm is putting this fire on. And the wallpaper is Sandberg which again I knew that I wanted to make this room kind of feel again a little bit like the other room. A bit like a cave and really cosy. So I'll just talk briefly about this little corner. Again this chair I got from a car boot. I think it was about £20. Just got kind of like my old teddies and stuff on it. And then this lovely painting our old neighbours got us commissioned when we actually left our old house which I thought was a really sweet thing. And every time I look at it it just fills me with joy. So briefly before we go into the master bedroom I just wanted to talk about this lovely piece that I think again I got it from a car boot. But they're quite collectible and I'm on the hunt for a few more. But I just love this little ballerina and she kind of sways for quite a few hours. Now we're coming into the master bedroom which kind of feels like a bit cosy. Mainly because I've put this throw up just to kind of make a bit of a feature out of the bed. The bed frame and everything is natural mat and then this is just vintage. It's painted in oval room blue by Farrand Ball. The lampshades on each side of the table mean quite a lot to me as well. This one was like a vintage purchase from a brocante that I went to. And then this lovely throw is from a vintage shop around the corner. It's actually sourced from an American market. And in the pattern they've embroidered every kind of person that's kind of owned it or like every family member. So there's different names embroidered into the throw. So over here we have a chest of drawers that actually was left here. So when we moved in we inherited this lovely piece. And behind that is a kind of snippet from a French hand-painted wallpaper. And I just thought it was a piece of art within itself. So I just pinned it up and it looks lovely. There's a lovely kind of hand-painted hat box there as well which I got from Shepton Flea Market. Now we're going to go to the top floor where it houses my dressing room. So now we're on the top floor which is kind of in the eaves of the house. I actually wallpapered this myself which I'm very proud of myself for because it's quite difficult to go in between all these beams. But this is a Sandberg wallpaper. So now we're in my dressing room which almost feels like a vintage shop. Which I kind of love because as soon as you come in here you can kind of see all the clothes on display. My first job was actually in London as a fashion designer. So I have a big passion for textiles and fashion and clothes. Anyone who's known me since I was really young I used to have like wardrobes that were like bulging. So my mum's really good at crocheting and this is one of her pieces that I love wearing in the summertime. And yeah I just like kind of putting pieces that I really love up on display whether that be on the wall here or just hanging. So this is the other side of the room and I usually have things in this room that kind of mean quite a lot to me. Here I've got a nice picture that my friend Freddie did and this lily I inherited from my granddad as well. So yeah they're just a few things that I like to keep up here. So I mentioned earlier about being in the countryside. We're actually in West Dorset here kind of nestled on the side of a village. And we wanted to move here mainly because we just wanted a slower pace of life. More space, more space for the dogs and the cats to roam as well. So the house actually dates back to the 16th century and is Grade II listed. And we're also in a conservation area here so you can't really do that much to the house. Not that you'd want to but we still have the original wooden windows as well. Timber frame windows and they are all single glazed which makes it extremely cold this time of year. Another feature of the house which I really love is the kind of gothic style porch with the name above it. And actually in the UK one tenth of the thatch houses are in Dorset which is amazing. And as you can see like down this side street that we live on there are quite a few. So this is my Dodge Karma which I've just purchased. And again another little project which I can't wait to start on. I have camped in it a few times and it is very comfortable. The interior inside is all original 1980s as you can see. Super old and yeah when it starts up it just makes the most amazing sound. It definitely needs some work but it just sounds so good. You don't get a modern car that sounds like this. Always going to be like what are you doing? That concludes the tour. Thanks so much for coming around. If you want to see more from me follow me on Instagram at Harnam House. Bye. Hi Luxury Home Show my name's Sue. Welcome to my home in Shropshire. Let me show you around.