A Handmade RETREAT

Written by JOLENE NOLTE

Photography by MARK LOHMAN

Styled by SUNDAY HENDRICKSEN

A strawbale cottage serves as a space for relaxation, full of beautiful, handmade touches.

Imagine living in a charming, small town in Southern California with a she-shed-of-sorts you made and decorated with your own hands. That’s the case for artist and homeowner Bonnie Holt.

The charming town of San Juan Capistrano is built around ruins of the Great Stone Church, a cathedral that collapsed in an 1812 earthquake. As a result, the town itself bears the mark of history, lending it a sense of rootedness and charm.

For San Juan Capistrano residents and homeowners Richard and Bonnie Holt, their home also reflects a sense of history and Old-World charm, relative to Southern California standards. Their 75-year-old Tudor style home sits on three acres, including a former vineyard and what is now a sprawling garden.

Once you know that a strawbale structure is made of stacked bales of straw, you can see it in the finished result. It gives a charming, humble and Old World feel to the garden.

Strawbale Cottage

A strawbale cottage is just what it sounds like—bales of straw stacked neatly on top of each other, interlocking at the corners for stability, and in this case, finished with stucco. When Bonnie first learned of straw bale cottages and got to see some examples nearby, she fell in love. She and her husband built three strawbale cottages.

The first was featured in Country Living, but after 42 years, the stucco was falling off, rendering the cottage unstable. The third one, Strawbale Cottage, sits at the southeast corner of the property and is the only one of the three that has survived.

Bonnie loves to garden, and the Strawbale Cottage is a cherished space for relaxation. “It’s an indulgence that touches my heart,” Bonnie says.

The color scheme coordinates with the stained glass windows. You can choose a central piece to determine your color scheme and have fun painting found furniture to match.

A she-shed is also a great place for decorating seasonally with touches of spring, in this case from the wisteria and robin’s eggs.

Handmade Touches

The beautiful stained-glass windows in Strawbale Cottage are handmade by Bonnie herself. After taking a class in Newport Beach on making stained glass windows, she found she loved working with Warwick, a hard glass. All the stained-glass windows in the cottage are the result of what she learned!

What’s more, Bonnie also paints. All the paintings in the cottage are her handiwork. While a spot in the main Tudor style house overlooking a mature elm tree serves as her artist’s studio, this space is imbued with her artistic work and lends the space aunique and handmade beauty.

Sometimes simple things really make a space feel like your own: blue mason jars, sprigs of wisteria, a decorative robin’s egg nest.

“I’ve always loved art, design, and beauty,” Bonnie says. That is evident in her love for gardening as well. One year, she planted one thousand daffodils in the front yard! Her love for flowers and natural beauty is clear in Strawbale Cottage, where blue mason jars display cuttings from the garden. And the cottage allows Bonnie to be surrounded by what she loves, her garden, beauty, and art.

Bonnie’s artistic creations, from the stained glass windows to the paintings, turn Strawbale Cottage from charmingly rustic to purely enchanting.

A she-shed is a perfect place to experiment with personalizing found furniture. Want to paint a bench green? Go for it!

How to Style Your Own Retreat Space

Maybe you’re longing for a she-shed cottage like this one! If it’s not possible right now, don’t worry, you can always take notes for the future. And if you are lucky enough to have one, then here are some ideas about how to style it.

Make it Personal. If you’re a visual artist like Bonnie, decorate your space with some of your handiwork. You could also display favorite collectibles that may be too fragile or not suit the style of the main house. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s what you love to see.

Keep the Goal in Mind. Determine what you hope to gain from this space. Is it peace and quiet? To exercise and clear your mind? To work uninterrupted on some creative pursuit? Whatever your objective, be sure your decor for the space facilitates your goal. In Bonnie’s case, for instance, the idea is a space to relax and enjoy creature comforts while surrounded by the garden. So, there is a bench, a couch and even a TV—all in the service of relaxation.

Keep it Simple. It’s also good to be clear on a goal because that will help you decide what you need and what you don’t. If the goal is relaxing or carving out a place for a creative studio or mindful movement, you certainly don’t want clutter. Make sure you have enough furniture to accomplish your goal comfortably, but don’t overstuff the space. Bonnie’s Strawbale Cottage is a beautiful example of this balance of comfort and simplicity.

Play Around. This is your space, so feel free to experiment. Bonnie’s cottage is decorated with spring touches—the nest with robin’s eggs and blue Mason jars with wisteria, for example. You could swap things out seasonally or bring touches of whatever seasonal beauty abounds. It also provides a great place to try out customizing flea market furniture by painting it to match your space.