Turning a Balaton Hilltop Cottage into a Year-Round Retreat

The idea is simple: make this an extraordinary place to gather. A luxury rental villa where families and groups of friends come to spend time together — really together. No TVs, no screens. Instead: books, board games, a fireplace, a wine cellar, a sauna, conversation corners, and enough space outdoors that the kids disappear into the garden while the adults sit around a long table with a glass of local wine.

We want to sleep up to 10 people comfortably across three bedrooms: two proper adult rooms (one master with a Balaton panorama, one guest room) and a kids’ room with built-in bunks that can also work for adults. The outdoor area is just as important as the indoors — a large terrace with an outdoor kitchen, a fire pit, play zones, and a natural wood wellness area with sauna, hot tub, and ice bath.

Playful but luxury. Warm but not precious. Child-friendly but never childish.

The cottage has good bones. It’s a traditional Hungarian “présház” (press house) with thick walls, a thatched roof, and a beautiful vaulted brick wine cellar underneath. The ground floor has a living room with a green tile stove, a small kitchen, and a storage room. Upstairs there are three rooms under exposed wooden beams — currently a master bedroom, a guest room, and a kids’ room. Outside, there’s a covered terrace, a stone pergola, and a large garden with mature trees and a vineyard.

But it’s a summer house. There’s no proper electricity for heating, the kitchen is closed off and dark, and the rooms upstairs are beautiful but basic. The master bedroom has a small window where there should be a floor-to-ceiling panorama. The wine cellar is used for storage rather than showcased. And the outdoor space — which is the biggest asset — has no real infrastructure for cooking, playing, or relaxing.

The biggest structural moves happen on the ground floor. Two new openings in the wall — one larger window, and one pass-through — will connect the kitchen to the living room and both to the outside. The kitchen is being completely renovated and reoriented to face outward, toward the terrace and garden. When you’re cooking, you should be looking at trees and sky, not a wall.

The green tile stove stays. It’s the heart of the house. A continuous built-in bench will wrap around it, connecting the entry, kitchen, and living area into one flowing social space. The dining table seats 8–10. Two armchairs in the corner create a quieter reading nook. Bookshelves line the walls.

The goal is a space with many moods — lively dinner parties, quiet morning coffees, kids sprawled on the floor with board games — all in one room. A showcase fireplace adds drama and warmth. And everywhere, indirect ambient lighting: warm, layered, cottage-cosy. No harsh overhead lights.

Underneath the house is a vaulted brick cellar that’s currently used for storing odds and ends. It deserves better. This will become a showcase wine cellar with ambient lighting, proper wine storage, and enough atmosphere to make you want to bring a bottle upstairs and open it immediately.

The brick vault is already stunning — it just needs to be lit and furnished properly. Warm LEDs concealed in the vault curves, a small tasting area, and the same indirect lighting philosophy as the rest of the house. Walking down into it should feel like a discovery.

The master bedroom gets the most dramatic upgrade: the wall facing Balaton will be cut open to install a floor-to-ceiling window. Imagine waking up and seeing the lake from your bed. The room also serves as a quiet workspace — a floating desk in the corner, a reading chair, good light. It’s the only room where you might sit down with a laptop, and even then, only briefly.

The guest bedroom gets painted tongue-and-groove wood panelling in sage green, a rattan headboard, linen bedding, and enough character to feel like its own little world.

The kids’ room is where things get playful. Six built-in beds in a creative bunk arrangement — think train sleeper meets treehouse. Each bunk gets its own reading light, a small shelf, and a privacy curtain. Storage drawers underneath. It sleeps six kids or, in a pinch, adults who don’t mind an adventure. The rest of the room is open floor space with books, toys, and floor cushions.

Some walls throughout the house will be finished with writable or paintable surfaces — so kids (and adults) can draw, leave messages, and make the space their own. No preciousness. This is a house meant to be lived in.

The terrace and garden are where this property really comes alive. The covered terrace extends into an outdoor kitchen with a built-in grill, possibly a pizza oven, and bar-height seating so someone can cook while everyone else gathers around with drinks. A long outdoor table seats the whole group.

The garden is organised into zones: a fire pit with L-shaped bench seating for evening gatherings, a kids’ play area with natural wood structures, and seating platforms built around the existing trees. Hammocks, hanging chairs, string lights for atmosphere.

On one side of the garden: a wellness area. A small wooden sauna cabin, a wood-fired barrel hot tub, an outdoor shower, and an ice bath — all on a wooden deck, all built from natural materials. As natural as possible: wood, stone, nothing that feels manufactured or out of place. The kids will use the hot tub as a pool. The adults will use it after the sauna. Everyone wins.