A hugely popular holiday lodge with a country house image – open-plan but each element of the living space having its own character

Amid beautiful North Yorkshire scenery between Pickering and Thirsk lies the small town of Helmsley. It's well-known as a centre for shooting; a pleasant place with a pretty marketplace, galleries and some boutique shops, all of which earns it a place on the international tourist route.

Think leather and tweed and all things quality and you are getting some idea about Helmsley.

So it is with Carnaby's hugely popular holiday home named after this historic town on the edge of the moors. Fine, distressed-leather-look fabric upholsters a sumptuous armchair whose style bestows a country house image upon the Helmsley.

The same rich, brown leather-look upholstery covers the four comfortable dining chairs and the base of the gigantic L-shaped sofa that has just a hint of chaise longue style about it. Curtains and cushions owe their inspiration to tartan. The whole look is redolent of country-house-meets-modern-holiday-lodge. Little wonder the Helmsley is a volume-seller for Carnaby.

Options

There's more to this country lodge than cosy looks to ensure its wide appeal. The Helmsley is available in various guises, from aluminium exterior (standard) to embossed plastic or CanExel, to suit your surroundings.

There are nine colour options. Four window frame finishes are available, too.

You can also increase the spec of the interior; various options are available, so you can tailor your Helmsley to your budget as well as your taste.

Interestingly, and taking into account that all holiday home prices are hugely influenced by the location of a park, you can get an aluminium-clad Helmsley for a mid-£40,000 figure or you can pay anything up to double that figure for a cladded, top-specced version of the same home, built to full residential specification.

Layouts

Four layouts are available: two with two bedrooms, two with three. All these bedroom configurations are available in Helmsley Lodges with 37ft and 39 ft lengths. All four models are 13ft wide.

Kitchen

The four versions have generously-sized kitchens, in an almost square shape with the dining table adjoining; an ideal cooking-and-eating arrangement.

Natural oak cabinets enhance the high quality country lodge appeal, as does the gloss stone-effect kitchen and dining table surface. Copious quantities of cupboards and drawers make sure that keeping this kitchen tidy would be easy. Six shelves, three on each side of the dining table, are in the perfect place for goblets and other tableware that you use frequently.

A large cooker with a four-burner hob and extractor fan above sits conveniently next to the sink and drainer. A combination microwave is set within a cabinet unit on the aft wall. Everything, it seems to us, is planned for ease of cooking.

Lounge

Although the Helmsley is ostensibly an open-layout, the kitchen's square shape and cohesive design makes it look a separate entity from the lounge. That's another aspect of the Helmsley which explains its high sales figures; each element of the living space has its own character.

And you can choose your lounge layout. You have the option of that lovely long L-shaped sofa we mentioned earlier (37ft two-bed, 37ft three-bed and 39ft three-bed), or you can go for a two-seater sofa plus an additional armchair (39ft two-bed).

With all options, you get a traditional log-burning-style fireplace with a mirror above, and full-height windows with opening doors, so, whatever the weather indicates – cosy comfort or letting in the fresh air of a sunny day – the Helmsley has the answer.

Bedrooms

The two-bedroomed lodges have super-sized, full-width bedrooms with the bed centrally positioned with the bedhead against the rear wall.

Cabinets and wardrobes extend around the room. An en suite toilet and washbasin room is in one corner.

The 37 ft-long three-bedroomed Helmsley has the rear of the lodge divided into two bedrooms – the double and a twin alongside it, with a second, larger twin room forwards of this bedroom area.

The longer, 39ft, three-bedroom layout is intriguing – a clever design with a large double bedroom across the rear, with adjoining ensuite toilet and washbasin room; and two twin rooms alongside one another, again, one is slightly larger than the other. In each case the largest of the twin rooms has wider beds (76cm compared to 61cm).

All four layout options have a spacious family shower room towards the centre of the lodge.

What about the Envoy?

We reviewed this model in our Winter issue; this is what we said about it:

The Envoy, Carnaby's flagship model, gets some major changes for 2018, with new layouts for the living room and main bedroom.

Its open-plan lounge-dining-kitchen area of the 40x13ft means the Envoy has been opened further, designed to create a more sociable, dynamic atmosphere.

The idea is that conversation can flow from the kitchen – with its under counter LED lights, sleek, handleless cupboards and matt finishes – through the centrally-positioned dining area to the open-aspect lounge.

Its sofas now face each other, encircling a large, low-level coffee table – this then draws your eyes to the fire at the head of the holiday home, flanked by large glazed doors transmitting light in abundance.

Once night falls, the deep purple blinds can be closed enveloping you in a tranquil atmosphere…

Contact

Address Carnaby Caravans,

Bridlington, East Yorkshire

Website carnabycaravans.co.uk Telephone 01262 679971