Designing Scottish Interiors

I have learned a lot about the people and their homes over the years and in this regular blog I will indeed be talking about interiors but I will also talk about other topics - whatever else tickles my fancy really! Starting with musings on my own process when designing homes in Scotland.

There has been an abiding truism that Glaswegians like bling, that Edinburgers are conservative and country homes have to be cozy. In my experience it has not been that simple. My Scottish clients have been adventurous and individual, not afraid to take risks or to express their personalities through their design choices. They enjoy the process of collaboration, we create mood boards together with varied sources – design sparks have been a favourite film, a Pinterest board, the cover of a book, a grandfather’s armchair, a cherished shoe collection and once even a vintage Kenwood Chef food mixer!

I have often described the process of designing and altering a home as a love triangle consisting of the designer, the client and the building. Each has a valid voice and brings something of influence to the relationship, that balance varies from project to project but the nature of this county’s architecture means that often the building speaks quite loudly.

I’m not including newbuilds because these can be more generic with character coming from the homeowners, location and context. Predominantly I work on interiors in traditional building, these homes have quite a few strengths and challenges in common.

The strengths include well-proportioned rooms, high ceilings, beautiful cornices and fireplaces, generous hallways, wide doors and huge windows. These represent forceful character traits and it is important not to be cowed by them, in fact the resilience of features like these make it easier to stamp these homes with individuality. Spaces like these can be painted inky black and still feel spacious; they can take pale minimalism and contemporary furniture; be filled with eclectic pattern, colour with a cocktail of furniture styles or restored to classical splendour – and everything in between. As long as it can be undone by the home’s next guardian, anything goes. It should please you, don’t get too concerned with what future owners might like or dislike since that’s impossible to second-guess.

There’s a danger of Scottish interiors bingo: Antlers, highland cows, tartan carpets and thistle wallpaper. I have used all these things when they were an appropriate, considered response to a client’s brief but be wary of any feeling of cultural obligation or cliché.

The challenges Heritage Scottish properties present can be pragmatic – it’s expensive to put down flooring in a large room, those windows need a lot a fabric if you want curtains, how do you source a pendant light that’s big enough? Another challenge is adapting rigid floor plans, often with small existing kitchens and bathrooms, and no ensuites, to the way people want to live now. Magazines and home shows are full of dreamy minimalist open plan spaces where the daytime functions of life overlap, people only retreating to conventional rooms to sleep or bathe. I am a fan of modernist inspired open plan living but it is not easy to coerce these ancient masters to play that game. Rooms can be connected with double doorways or even partially knocked into each other, the form and features of the original spaces are evident, this is not a bad thing. In many ways having separate rooms for separate activities can make co-living more harmonious, often moving the kitchen to a larger room closer to the living room is enough to nurture connectedness, and if the kitchen is in a larger space, it can be multifunctional, including space to eat at a table or to lounge, or both.

I spend few weeks each year travelling all over Scotland looking at incredible homes when filming and judging Scotland’s Home of the Year for BBC Scotland. I am always inspired by the sheer range and creativity I see at every scale. From a one bedroom urban flat to a cliffside castle I witness people, unfettered by worrying about what people might think, expressing their personalities with joy and love, surely the very essence of home.