Verbier, Zermatt, Val-d’Isère, Chamonix, Courchevel, Méribel and Megève… these are just some of the names you’ll be familiar with if you’re a keen skier. But what if this passion has become so central to your life that you’re deciding whether to buy a ski chalet of your own? Perhaps you’ve had years of renting one and have at last resolved to make a more permanent commitment. Or maybe you used to stay in resort hotels and only discovered the joys of a chalet in more recent years. But whatever stage you’re at in your chalet journey, if you’re going to take the plunge then at some point you’ll have to contend with the ins and outs of decorating and furnishing it – and that can involve bringing things from your home in Britain all the way to the Alps, the Pyrenees and beyond. Fortunately, Anthony Ward Thomas has years of experience moving furniture and equipment to chalets and is perfectly placed to help you.
- Where are the Best European Ski Resorts to Buy a Chalet?
- Choosing Your Ski Chalet
- Decorating Your Ski Chalet
- Furnishing Your Ski Chalet
- Moving Items to Your Ski Chalet with Anthony Ward Thomas
Where are the Best European Ski Resorts to Buy a Chalet?
This partly depends on what you’re buying your chalet for. If it’s in the hopes of guaranteed snow every winter and spring, you’ll want to prioritise some resorts over others. If, however, you’re hoping for a year-round getaway and maybe even one day a permanent home, you can expand your list of potential places. If it’s got to be snowy, then resorts that have performed time and again, year on year, include Saas-Fee and Zermatt (Switzerland), Cervinia (Italy), Val-d’Isère, Val Thorens and Tignes (France) and Soelden (Austria). You should find that, in the ski-season weeks when you’re not planning to visit, your chalet will have highly competitive rental potential.
If, on the other hand, you’re after a chalet you’d be just as happy to visit in summer and autumn (perhaps you’re as fond of hiking, climbing and biking as you are of skiing), then a whole host of mid-altitude areas, including Megève, Villars and Chamonix, are worth looking into. In recent years, The Times has been particularly good on the matter, with excellent chalet-buying run-downs for both snow-lovers and all-year types.
Choosing Your Ski Chalet
Even when you’ve worked out whether you want an all-year chalet or a ski-season one, there are plenty of other considerations to bear in mind. Ask yourself: what do my family and I enjoy doing? What are our main indoors and outdoors hobbies? How much do we care about the distance between chalet and slopes? What are the services and amenities like in this resort? Is it a bustling, culture-filled town that would be enjoyable without skiing? What’s the après-ski like? And how near is the nearest airport? With that last question, we don’t just want to be certain about the distance in miles/km, but also what the available methods are for making that journey. Once you’ve established some answers to those pleasure/convenience questions, there are some very practical ones to go over. If you’re buying a chalet, you may well be thinking in terms of a return on your investment. If you’re opting for a resort with all-seasons appeal, then this could allow you a steady income throughout the year. If your chosen resort is highly in-demand for skiing, then it could be you’ll have an income that spikes dramatically during ski season but then falls off afterwards, if the resort doesn’t appeal to travellers out of ski season.
Decorating Your Ski Chalet
If there’s one thing to avoid when decorating a ski chalet, it’s ending up with the kind of bland, resort-cabin look that can afflict such properties. What’s the point in having a chalet of your own if it looks like it’s been decorated blandly, as if it’s trying to appeal to as many people as possible, without really appealing to any of them too deeply? Instead, you can focus on turning your chalet into a place you’ll adore inhabiting as much in summer, when there are wildflower meadows and trails to explore, as in the ski months. Concentrating on natural materials, particularly stone and wood, is as good a place to start as any, whether you use them for your flooring or simply dotted here and there as pieces of furniture. If you have stone walls and exposed beams, then furniture that’s rustic in style will work extremely well. Chalet decor is often about bringing aspects of nature and the outdoors into the indoors, using earth tones (browns, greens, burnt umbers and oranges) and fabrics (fake fur, wool, knits) that reflect the landscape seen through the window. Accent can be achieved with bursts of red. There’s no shortage of ski chalet design inspiration online and among the best are this House & Garden feature and this step-by-step from Ovo Network
Furnishing Your Ski Chalet
Bearing in mind the colour palette with which you’ve decorated, now it’s time to think about textures that reflect the natural world, such as chunky knits (e.g for pillows), fake fur (for throws), smooth leather and woven fabrics. Rustic coffee tables made from reclaimed wood can make the perfect surfaces for après-ski get-togethers while chandeliers and lamps will enhance the lodge-style atmosphere. While your chalet is unlikely to be your permanent home, there’s no reason not to personalise it with framed photographs and artworks, steering it ever more determinedly away from rental-style blandness. Don’t forget that to be its best, your chalet will need the kind of functional storage that’s dedicated to skiing; wall-mounted ski racks, benches for your mudroom, shelving that’s good for boots and poles.
Moving Items to Your Ski Chalet With Anthony Ward Thomas
No matter what European resort you choose for your chalet, Anthony Ward Thomas can move all your items to it in a seamless and efficient manner. We move people to European countries every week and have personnel in place with exceptional command of French, Germany and Italian. Thanks to our membership of the Master Removers Group network, we can use trusted experts and partners at every stage rather than unknown third parties. Depending on the amount of materials you need in your chalet, you may find that you’re able to use one of our part-loads services, sharing a moving consignment with other clients to bring down the cost. You can find out more on our dedicated Switzerland , France and Germany pages, our European Removals page, and the International Removals overview. You may already be familiar with the Anthony Ward Thomas level of service if you’ve used our UK moving service; all of that remains in place for international moves. We will pack your items so that they’re completely travel-safe and then unpack them in exactly the same condition, placing every item according to your instructions so that you have an immediately habitable space. The entire process will be scheduled and executed in such a way as to cause minimal stress and disruption to your life.