Despite a major move from London three years ago in search of a healthier lifestyle, designer Petra Boase still risks intoxicating herself every day with fumes. Today she is busy with spray mount in her studio, a converted outbuilding next to the Norfolk flint cottage she shares with her husband, Russell Hall, and their children Florence, three, and Billy, one. Petra's work includes making distinctively quirky greetings cards, notebooks and photograph albums, plus baby clothes and tea towels, all of which she sells through gift shops and over the internet.

“This is my own personal cottage-industry sweat shop,” she laughs, looking up from her transfer press on which she is making textile designs. “If we still lived in London, I honestly think I would be burnt out by now. But, here, I can balance work with bringing up a family yet still have the space and freedom to design.”

The cottage, on the edge of Thetford Forest, was originally intended as a weekend bolt hole, but within months of buying it the couple decided to relocate there permanently. Russell and his business partner Sean Clarkson had just bought a derelict barn a few miles away from the cottage, which they intended to convert into a holiday let. “Russell's involvement with the barn suddenly kicked off and it seemed crazy to stay in London,” says Petra.

After a year of refurbishing work, the barn became Cliff Barns, which groups of up to 18 people can rent as a luxury holiday home-from-home. Russell now manages the Barns, and makes sure that guests are supplied with a range of treats, which vary from locally made soup and specially prepared picnics to extravagant dinner parties with spit-roast pigs and waitress service. “We even have a house cocktail, a mix of sloe gin and grapefruit juice, and a well-stocked fancy dress box,” adds Petra. Presumably a combination of the two provides much of the weekend entertainment.

The quirky decoration of Cliff Barns is what Russell describes as “ranch deluxe”. While no expense has been spared on providing state-of-the-art bathrooms and appliances, he made the conscious decision to fill the Barns with a jumble of locally found curiosities, including stag's heads, saddles, wagon-wheel chandeliers and mismatched chairs. There was no wish to replicate the sleek look of a luxury hotel. “Most of what we have here would look quite ridiculous taken out of context,” he admits. Against the modern architectural design of Cliff Barns, with its high ceilings, exposed brickwork and single-storey layout, the furniture, says Petra, looks “quite bonkers, but really rather fabulous”.

Another recent acquisition is a beach hut at Old Hunstanton. Guests are left the key and a set of directions, which take them past the nearby Sandringham Estate to the seaside, while the family is able to use it when the Barns are empty. “I am itching to do it up,” says Petra, who initially wanted to paint the hut with pink and cream candy stripes. “But we are all so hectic that I haven't got around to doing anything with it.”

With orders flying in for her new children's pictures, and plans to start producing a range of vintage fabric lamp shades, it looks as though the beach hut might just have to wait. They may have moved here in search of a quieter life, but there is a sense that life in the country for this young family is only going to get busier.

To see more of Petra's designs, visit www.petraboase.com; for information on Cliff Barns, visit www.cliffbarns.com.

FEATURE DAISY BRIDGEWATER
PHOTOGRAPHS SIMON BROWN
JULY 2006