Ellenborough’s elegant project is revealed

Ellenborough Park Hotel in Gloucestershire is undergoing  an extensive refurbishment project which will see all 61 bedrooms and the brasserie revamped.

The county’s only five-star country house hotel offers a 15th century English country estate and luxury spa set in 90 acres of parkland just a short stroll away from the famous Cheltenham Racecourse on the edge of the Cotswolds. This project is set for completion in March 2023, ready for the Gold Cup Race Festival, a key date for the team at Ellenborough when a loyal racing guestlist will return.

Designs have been lovingly created by talented local designer Ilze Reinke, who describes the task as: “A dream job that has required much careful thought and consideration to capture the history and elegance of the building, ensuring that it reflects the same grandeur in these modern times.”

The bedrooms are undergoing an affectionate refurbishment with lavish fabrics, elegant wall coverings, plush carpets, and country chic furnishings. Brimming with personality – Reinke’s designs are masterful and beautifully capture a graceful homeliness.

Every room tells a different story with a chic country comfort. Cotswold appropriate colour scheme names include Blossom, Wildflower, Countryside, Tudor, Chrysanthemum, Gingham and Rustic. The Horse Box Brasserie has been transformed with soft leather brocades, low lighting, tartan flooring, and countryside tweed fabrics.

All bedrooms will be overhauled, some completely redesigned, while others will be extensively updated. In this historic building, all rooms are different shapes and sizes and so each will be unique and individual. The designer is re-using as much as she can: the wallpaper in one room, the lighting in another, for example. In these, she adds new textures and colours in complimentary fabrics and paintworks, aiming comprehensively to refresh the room rather than starting from scratch, all the while aiming to be as environmentally sensitive as possible.

One of her biggest challenges in working with the existing rooms is the deep research necessary to match or find complimentary colours for heritage schemes, allowing her to keep as much as possible and avoiding throwing out the existing elements for the sake of novelty.

Suppliers include Colefax & Fowler; Nina Campbell; Skopos; Panasse; Brintons Flooring; Warwick Fabrics; Lighting from Coach House.

Marwan Hemchaoui, hotel general manager, says: “Planning of this project began long before the pandemic, so it feels even more special to fulfil now. We are very proud of Ellenborough’s growth over the past few years, and these new bedrooms are a fitting celebration of our 10-year anniversary.