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The cottage from The Holiday - let's take a closer look
Nancy Meyers' films are renowned for their comfortable covetable interiors; Meryl Streep's sprawling Mediterranean-style mansion in It's Complicated and Diane Keaton's elegant Hamptons beach house in Something's Gotta Give are particular favourites. There is, however, one which beats them all: the English cottage from the Christmas house-swapping rom-com The Holiday. It's undoubtedly one of the most charming houses we've ever seen on film, and it's the style closest to our hearts. Although the rooms of Rosehill Cottage only ever existed on a Hollywood sound stage, that doesn't make them any less covetable.
Where is the cottage from The Holiday?
Although the Rosehill Cottage of the film doesn't exist in reality - the exteriors were built from scratch in a field and the interiors are sets - Honeysuckle Cottage in Holmbury St Mary (which was for sale in 2021 and is now available on Airbnb) provided inspiration for the crew who designed it. The cottage is the home of Kate Winslet's character, who conducts a home swap with Cameron Diaz's LA mogul, and thus provides the setting for Diaz to fall in love with the dreamy Jude Law amidst her comedy dealings with the English countryside.
The cottage from The Holiday has become a phenomenon, summing up the best of the English cottage look and creating a dream of Christmas in the countryside for thousands. The exterior of the cottage, lightly dusted in snow, is like a composite of all the honey-coloured, sightly wonky cottages you can stumble across everywhere from the Cotswolds to Yorkshire, and the interiors encapsulate the perfectly imperfect, cosy look characteristic of the ideal cottage. All the features are there including wooden beams, an open fire, the slightly shabby country kitchen of our dreams, faded chintzes and that tiny, beautiful roll-top bath. Cottages come into their own in winter, and seeing first Kate Winslet and then Cameron Diaz occupying the space in their inimitable style certainly adds something to its desirability.
If you've caught the bug, scroll down to see how you can incorporate some of the atmosphere from the cottage from The Holiday into your own house.
MAY WE SUGGEST: Caroline Holdaway's dream Cotswold cottage
1/15Rosehill Cottage's kitchen, where Kate Winslet weeps over Rufus Sewell and has an unfortunate encounter with the gas hob, is a model of the pretty country kitchen, with open shelves housing a collection of blue and white ceramics.
2/15This kitchen has elegant shaker-style cupboards from British Standard (Plain English's off-the-peg sister company), which are painted in a similar blue. Pale blue is a wonderful choice for a country kitchen - it is light without being austere. Papers and Paints' "Pale Wedgwood Blue" is a delightful classic shade.
3/15The living room is full of comfortably stuffed armchairs and chintzy, mismatched fabrics. An antique drum has been used as a coffee table.
5/15To keep the room from looking too chintzy, the sofa is upholstered in a gentle pink stripe - find similar at Ian Mankin.
Simon Upton6/15In the Dorset cottage of Miranda Alexander, the sofa has a similar stripe in ‘Olive Sacking’ by Guy Goodfellow Collection. Indulging her ‘very English and traditional’ taste in interior decoration, Miranda has used a selection of pretty printed cottons from UK-based fabric houses. Among them are, cushions in the spare room in ‘Chalvington’ (putty), £120 a metre, from Nicholas Herbert, and this ottoman in the drawing room in ‘Marden’ (275), £110 a metre, from Fermoie.
7/15Instead of a coffee table, the living room has a tufted ottoman in the centre of the seating.
9/15No country cottage is complete without a cosy reading nook. The one at Rosehill Cottage has higgledy-piggledy bookshelves and a comfortable, Howard & Sons-style open-arm chair.
Simon Brown10/15For a similar look with more useful space, this bookcase in Vanessa Macdonald's Oxfordshire house is an excellent example. A large bookcase with Georgian-style reeded uprights and an elegant architrave fills a wall and provides both book storage and cupboard space.
11/15The bedroom has a distinct shabby-chic aesthetic, with a white metal bedstead and more mismatched furniture, including a white metal bed frame and painted side table.
12/15This Leirvik bed frame from IKEA is a delightful substitute for the one in the film, and is only £90 for a double.
14/15The bathtub (and Cameron Diaz squeezing herself into it) may be one of the most enduring images of the film - a tiny tub for a tiny space. Note the floorboards which have been pained with a black harlequin design.
15/15Fortunately, you can buy the very same bathtub - the Tubby Torre - from The Albion Bath Company, for all your small bathroom needs.
