About
Built in 1882. Redesigned by Jo Berryman. Loved since 2018.
Our home, yours too
Somerleaze isn't a hotel. It's a sanctuary available for your exclusive use, with all the care, nuance and design sensibility you'd expect from a collaboration between esteemed interior designer Jo Berryman and RIBA award winning architect Takero Shimazaki.
Jo and Philip live here, with their children and dog. When guests arrive, they step into a world that is earthy, glamorous, playful and still an appropriate backdrop for any celebration or milestone event.
That's what sets this house apart from all others. It's not a soulless rental property, or styled out set. It's a home and a much loved one at that.
A house with many lives
Built by ecclesiastical architect C.E. Giles as a private family home. Victorian gothic with Somerset stone.
Home to the Buckley family. Amateur film footage of the house and grounds survives in the BFI archive.
Acquired by the Begley family. Decades of quiet Somerset life.
The Booth family takes over. Extensions and garden development.
Jo Berryman and Philip Bergkvist arrive. A fearless redesign begins, stripping back layers to reveal the house's original character.
Jo & Philip
Jo Berryman
Interior Designer · Co-Owner
Jo is an interior designer whose work has been featured in Vogue, Elle Decoration, and The Times. She designed Somerleaze from the ground up, stripping back decades of additions to reveal the house's original Victorian character, then layering in her signature fearless modern aesthetic.
Philip Bergkvist
Co-Owner
Philip's bio here. Philip to write.
Stripped back. Fearlessly modern.
When Jo and Philip arrived in 2018, the house had been added to, layered over, and softened by decades of careful comfort. Jo's instinct was to strip it all back, revealing the original Victorian stonework, tiled floors, and gothic portals that had been hidden.
Then she layered in her own vision: mid-century furniture, contemporary art, bold wallpapers, and a colour palette that ranges from muted earth tones to flashes of coral and blush. The result is a house that feels both timeless and completely of the moment.
“The Supercool Country House”
The Times
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Exclusive use. Somerset. Available year-round.