MELLOW.magic

A cider barn has been lovingly transformed into a welcoming home and farmstead hotel with natural textures and a soothing palette of yellows and warm neutrals

- SARA EMSLIE

The plan for Gem Boner, her partner Thom Scherdel and their two children Aries and Deia, was quite simple — they wanted to move out of east London and settle somewhere in the bucolic English countryside. But exactly where, they had no idea.

'We'd dreamed of setting up a business for a while but we didn’t know exactly what we wanted or where to do it, so one weekend we drew a two-hours’ circle around London and started to look for places with lots of land,’ Gem explains. The lure of vast swathes of idyllic countryside and proximity to beautiful beaches made Suffolk stand out as the number-one choice. With location sorted, the rest was straightforward. ‘We fell in love with Paradise Farm the moment we drove through the gates,’ says Gem. “There was a magical feeling and even though it was pouring down with rain, we could feel this place had so much potential. When we explored the land, the place just got better and better — there are so many hidden gems that really captured our hearts.”

The property and surrounding land was once a working farm. Nowadays, the main farmhouse and its numerous outbuildings, all of which are Grade II-listed and date back to the 16th century, are in the process of being painstakingly restored and renovated by Gem and Thom. As well as creating a home for themselves, they are building a thriving business offering accommodation, event spaces and retreats to like-minded urban souls who crave a slice of country life.