Bridleways Breakfast Room Refurbishment

If you’ve been following our social media you’ll know we are just putting the finishing touches to our breakfast room refurbishment.

It’s a project that has been on the list for a while, but the bedrooms were our focus, and these have now all been fully refurbished, so we thought it’s time to get the builders in!

Not many will know this, but the middle section of Bridleways was originally two farmhouse cottages dating back to the late 1800’s. These now encompass the kitchen and breakfast room on the ground floor and four single rooms above.

Why refurbish? It looks good as it is doesn’t it?

Whilst discussing the idea and vision of the Bridleways breakfast room refurbishment with our guests, some have queried why we wanted to refurbish the breakfast room as it “looks ok as it is”. On the surface, it probably did. However when you looked closer (certainly around the garden side of the room), the Artex had blown in several places.

Another issue was sound proofing to the bedrooms above. Having originally been farmhouse cottages there are three main supporting beams across the room widthways, and multiple small beams running across in the opposite direction. Whilst this gave the room character, guests could hear early breakfast arrival conversations as there was no cavity or soundproofing between the ground and first floor.

Also, in the summer months we like to offer guests the opportunity to have an alfresco breakfast in the garden. This could only be accessed by walking around the entire exterior of the building or cutting through the kitchen. Not the best experience for our guests and from a health and safety point of view was far from ideal.

We had also purchased a large television for evening use in the breakfast room for the Euros, Wimbledon, and other major sporting events. This was carried in nightly and set-up during these events. The television was placed on a restaurant table which wasn’t ideal as it reduced the capacity as a large table was lost each time.

We often realised that we didn’t have enough tables!

Then there were the operational issues caused by the number of tables and their configuration. The existing furniture when we purchased Bridleways, whilst of very good quality, consisted of three large extendable tables, plus a round table in the centre of the room. During the week when most rooms are single occupancy and many of our guests wanted to eat breakfast within a 90-minute period. This caused us many issues of not having enough tables.

At the weekends where the doubles and family rooms have at least two occupants, many guests wanted breakfast at similar times on Sunday mornings. Therefore only having four tables was again an issue. The existing tables also had fixed legs at each corner which compromised comfort when guests were sitting side by side.

The vision was to create an environment that was contemporary in its appearance with a nod to the old Bridleways heritage by keeping the three main beams and fireplace. We also wanted to create an access directly from the breakfast room into the garden and build a small patio and steps so that guests could easily access the garden for breakfast or just to relax during the summer evenings.

Therefore, to enable the access into the garden we removed the large window at the rear of the room along with the wall below and installed a sliding patio door. We chose a sliding door over opening French doors as we would have lost a table where one of the doors opened. Therefore by ensuring that the fixed piece of glass on the sliding door was nearest to the wall, this enabled us to utilise the space and not lose a table.

A sound idea, and a different look and feel

From a practical point of view we wanted to fill in the recesses in between the three large beams with a soundproof cavity to eliminate the noise transfer from the breakfast room to the bedrooms above. We used soundproofing plasterboard which is denser than normal plaster and infilled the cavity with soundproofing installation to further reduce the sound going into the guest rooms above. This has proved to be very successful and gives the room a very different look and feel.

With regards to the tables and chairs, our main objective was to create flexibility and increase the number of tables for our guests. On each side of the breakfast room there are two long unobstructed sections of wall which we felt would be ideal for banquette seating. These would enable us to push smaller tables together for larger parties or separate them to enable one or two guests to sit at either end of the banquette seating. The new tables are smaller and square with centre supports so there are no table legs restricting access or width. The new configuration has increased the potential number of tables from four to seven.

Other minor considerations were to fit a kitchen unit next to fireplace where the microwave is kept for guest use in the evenings. Previously the microwave was on a low shelf which extended from the brick hearth. The surface is now at a much safer height for handling hot food and drinks. It also provides us with additional cupboard storage space which is always a bonus.

Lighting and storage

Another consideration was lighting. Previously there were only two fittings in the breakfast room and during winter mornings these were not sufficient. Now however we have eight industrial led tube fittings so when they’re all switched on enables Bridleways to be seen from Mars! Six would have been sufficient but the beams split the room into four sections and my OCD would not allow one section without light fittings so eight it is.

Underneath the banquette seating Joe has created six storage compartments so that we can store all our restaurant associated items. We know that guests won’t see any difference, but for us it will free up a lot of room in the garage!

We couldn’t have done it alone…

In terms of suppliers who have contributed to the Bridleways breakfast room refurbishment. Again Joe Swindell has been instrumental and has completed all the building, plumbing, electrics and decorating. He also built the banquette seating in his workshop at home before its installation at the end of the project.

Chris Hooper laid the patio and built the steps outside the breakfast room. The banquette seating cushions were made by Crystal Upholstery from Clay Cross, along with the curtains and scatter cushions.

The curtain material and roman blinds were supplied by The Yorkshire Fabric Shop.

Our new table and chairs were supplied by Warner Contract Furniture who also supplied us with the same faux leather so that Crystal Upholstery could cover the banquette seating cushions.

We’re so pleased with how it’s turned out and would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved. We are delighted with the finished product and our guests cannot believe the transformation, maybe you should come and see it for yourself?