For a few years now, there has been a quiet shift in the way we celebrate life’s biggest moments. Milestone birthdays, anniversaries, and family gatherings are increasingly spent not in hotels or restaurants, but in specially rented houses where we cook together, linger over breakfast, head out for long walks, and stay up talking long after midnight. The house has become every bit as important as the occasion. The best holiday homes understand this instinctively. They don’t simply provide somewhere to sleep; they help shape the weekend.

Hidden away on a historic estate between Groombridge and Hartfield, Blackham Court Farmhouse is one such place, and one of the latest additions to the Bloom Stays holiday letting agency. The beautifully restored Grade II listed farmhouse combines medieval origins, Tudor beams and Victorian additions with a heated saltwater pool, games room and space for twelve guests, rising to fourteen with the neighbouring studio. Yet its greatest attraction is its personality.

“I didn’t want people to book somewhere that felt like their own house,” says Vikkii Webb-Medhurst, who has overseen the transformation of Blackham Court and several neighbouring holiday properties across the estate. “You live in your own house every day. If you’re coming to stay for a special weekend, I wanted every room to feel like an experience.” That deceptively simple observation explains almost every decision she has made.

Spend an hour wandering through Blackham Court, and you realise Vikkii isn’t really designing rooms at all. She is imagining weekends: a bride getting ready on a summer morning; grandparents introducing children to Poohsticks on the real Pooh Bridge, just down the road in Ashdown Forest; old university friends celebrating a fiftieth birthday; parents enjoying coffee – or a glass of wine – while children disappear into a world of their own.

Old houses have a habit of telling you what they want, and Blackham Court is no exception. Surrounded by a historic moat and layered with centuries of additions, the farmhouse is gloriously irregular. Ancient oak beams cut dramatically across ceilings, walls refuse to be perfectly straight, and no two rooms feel remotely alike. Rather than fighting the building, Vikkii allowed its quirks to lead the design. “I wanted the beams to be seen,” she says. “They’re beautiful.”

One room in particular presented a dilemma. The principal sitting room, with its magnificent oak frame, was also the darkest in the house. Conventional wisdom might have suggested pale walls to bounce light around the space. In Vikkii’s case, the answer came during a visit to Pizza Express. “I saw dark blue walls with orange seating and thought… That’s exactly what I need.”

The deep navy walls, from Lick’s beautifully muted paint collection, allow the centuries-old timber to glow, while burnt orange velvet sofas from Sofa.com bring warmth without overwhelming the architecture. This is the reception room to sink into with a whisky at the end of the day. So, what to do with the other one?

Tucked into a corner of the drawing room is a Great Gatsby-inspired bar, where mirrors bounce light around the space and glasses and vintage decanters  wait patiently on the shelves. An offcut of reclaimed marble was transformed into the counter, and optics are ready to receive guests’ favourite bottles.

It is one of the house’s great talking points, and the place where celebratory groups naturally gather for cocktails before dinner. Above all, it is thoughtful hospitality informing interior design.

The same philosophy appears throughout the house. Open what looks like an ordinary cupboard in the children’s bedroom, and you’ll discover… a bath. The idea came not from a glossy interiors magazine, but from a family skiing holiday in France. “I saw one in a chalet and thought… I wonder if we could do that?”

A local plumber agreed it was possible, a carpenter built little timber steps so children could climb safely inside, and suddenly a practical bedroom became unforgettable. Children love it, and grown-ups smile – exactly as Vikkii intended.
Many designers begin with a colour palette; Vikkii begins with a person. Each bedroom was imagined around the sort of guest who might stay there. Nowhere is that clearer than the Willow Room. Flooded with natural light from two directions and overlooking the willow tree echoed in its feature wallpaper, it feels calm from the moment you walk in. The wallpaper was another happy discovery, spotted while Vikkii was searching B&Q for paint. “I looked at it and thought… that’s the tree outside.”

The room unfolded naturally from there: a beautifully simple rattan bed from Time4Sleep, soft furnishings that never compete with the view, and a generous ottoman positioned perfectly at its foot. Then came the defining thought. “If I was getting married, this is the room I’d want.”
Suddenly, every detail makes sense. The natural light is perfect for make-up artists, there is space for photographers to work, and a plain section of wall allows a wedding dress to be photographed before it is worn. Friends gather, Champagne glasses appear, and hairdryers hum quietly in the background. It is less a bedroom than the opening scene of someone’s wedding day.

Elsewhere, another bedroom celebrates the meadows surrounding the estate through exuberant botanical wallpaper. The four-poster room embraces rich chocolate tones and warm copper, its dramatic bed chosen to complement the beams. The children’s room gives a gentle nod to Bedknobs & Broomsticks, with painted metal bedsteads and carefully chosen vintage toys.
Even the kitchen joins the conversation. Centred around its handsome blue Aga, its Winnie-the-Pooh reference is not immediately obvious. Only later, when guests realise that Hartfield, Pooh Bridge, and the Ashdown Forest lie just a few minutes away, do they fully appreciate Vikkii’s affectionate hat tip to the area’s most famous residents.
Perhaps the greatest surprise at Blackham Court is how attainable much of it feels. Luxury here does not rely on extravagant spending, but on imagination. Vikkii spent days trawling charity shops across Tunbridge Wells, Crowborough and Uckfield, looking not simply for bargains, but for possibilities.

A yellow chair costing just £5 has become one of the house’s most admired pieces. Vintage maps of Kent and Ashdown Forest were reframed, old postcards became artwork, and Rupert Bear books now sit waiting for another generation. Sometimes, the picture was not worth buying, but the frame was. “I’d buy the frame and change what was in it.” It is an approach that feels quietly refreshing in an age of next-day delivery. These are not interiors assembled with the click of a mouse. Instead, old finds have been carefully repurposed and mixed with the new.
For lighting that brings warmth to each room, Vikkii chose Nkuku. White Company bedding adds uncompromising luxury to a good night’s sleep, while Dunelm soft furnishings prove that good styling needn’t be expensive. Where she couldn’t find what she wanted, she commissioned it: a bespoke banquette was built from estate timber by her favourite local carpenter, with much-needed storage hidden beneath its seats.

Living with a centuries-old building also means accepting that very little is square. Window openings wander, walls lean and floors settle. Made-to-measure curtains from Blinds2Go solved another old-house challenge. Adjustable hooks allowed each curtain to ‘kiss’ the floor despite the uneven walls, while the company’s inexpensive measurement insurance proved invaluable when one blind was ordered incorrectly.
Throughout the property, Lick paints provide rich, muted colour that sits comfortably alongside the ancient timber. Durable enough for busy holiday accommodation, they have brought confidence to rooms that could easily have slipped into predictable country-house neutrals.
The final lesson Blackham Court offers has little to do with wallpaper, sofas or lighting. It is about hospitality. Before guests arrive, Vikkii is already considering the details that might delight them: birthday balloons waiting in a bedroom, recommendations for favourite walks, directions to Pooh Bridge, advice on local pubs, and suggestions that rarely appear in guidebooks.
You can book Blackham Court Farmhouse through the lovely people at Bloom Stays, who carefully curate every property in their collection. When you arrive, you’ll still meet Vikkii, who likes to greet guests herself. Having grown up nearby, she knows the area in a way no online listing ever could.
That generosity of spirit runs through everything.

The house itself may date back hundreds of years, but it feels remarkably contemporary in one important respect: it understands that today’s luxury isn’t necessarily about bigger televisions or smarter kitchens, but about time together.
Long after the bags have been unpacked and Monday morning has returned, guests may struggle to remember the exact shade of blue on the sitting-room walls, or where the pendant lights came from, but they’ll remember the hidden bath. They’ll remember the bar. They’ll remember playing Poohsticks. And they’ll remember a house where every room had a story waiting to be discovered.

Address Book:
To find out more about booking a stay at Blackham Court Farmhouse through Bloom Stays visit bloomstays.com/property/blackham-court-farmhouse
Blinds2Go blinds-2go.co.uk 
Duncan Warmeant, painter, duncanwareant@yahoo.co.uk Instagram  @dwarmeantdecorators 07774 780020
Jason Wing, carpenter, Woodystump Creations 
07810 532385 
woodystumpcreations.com
Lick lick.com
Nkuku nkuku.com
The White Company thewhitecompany.com
Time4Sleep time4sleep.co.uk