Anyone lucky enough to have stayed at Captains Rest in Strahan, Tasmania, will tell you just how special it is.
A lot of that is down to Sarah Andrews’ attention to detail. After sailing around the world, she poured her heart and soul into renovating the one-bedroom accommodation after buying it as a dilapidated shack about seven years ago.
‘Captains Rest was a space I created after returning to Australia after being shipwrecked off the coast of Mexico,’ Sarah says. ‘I lived on my own boat for a long time — and needed a space to restore that held everything I loved about living on the sea, with the safety and comfort of being on land.’
Everything from the heritage cottage’s charming furniture to the nautical styling has been especially designed to transport visitors to another place and time. Inside, there’s a wood fireplace, a claw foot bath, and the bedroom looks out the antique windows to the property’s jetty, making the most of the serene water views.
‘It really is like stepping through a wardrobe into a kind of Narnia,’ Sarah says. ‘There really is no more beautiful stay on the planet — and our guests tell us that too.’
With a background in spatial science as well as design, Sarah has been sharing her unique approach with design education classes in both The Hosting Masterclass and her Styling School.
Her new book The Poetry of Spaces, is all about guiding others to ‘craft their own worlds’ as she has with Captains Rest. It’s beautiful book of interiors that reveals Sarah’s five lessons for creating these special spaces and the meaningful stories behind them.
‘I really wanted to share parts of that in this book so that everyone can have a little piece of this knowledge,’ she adds. ‘It has been the product of almost three years of hard work, but what a privilege to have my own work, and the work of my students, in print.’
To celebrate the launch of her new book, we’re giving one lucky reader the chance to experience the magic of Captains Rest for themselves, along with a prize pack worth more than $3000!
Enter the competition form below to go in the running to win a three-night stay for you and guest, in addition to a signed copy of The Poetry of Spaces and a spot in either The Hosting Masterclass or Principles of Styling & Storytelling. Competition closes Sunday 15 October at 11:59pm AEST. See here for the T&Cs.
Purchase The Poetry of Spaces published by Hardie Grant Books online here.
