New owners had big plans to shake up this Victorian house. But living in it throughout the pandemic made them realise it was already giving them all the home they needed

This modest granite mansion on the western fringes of Aberdeen already had a feeling of timeless grandeur, elegance and family-friendliness when its new owners moved in with their two young children back in 2018. But they could see it needed work – and not just of the cosmetic variety. “They had lots of visions for the place,” recalls Christina Bull, partner and studio lead at Sims Hilditch, the London and Cotswolds-based interior design studio who were brought in to advise on the transformation. The owners were long-standing clients from a previous project and had a strong relationship with the practice.

“One thing we discussed was adding an extension on the side of the granite mansion, which would have created quite a juxtaposition with the house. There was a lot of back and forth on ideas and plans.”

They were almost ready to go ahead when the lockdowns of the Covid pandemic happened, and everything suddenly stopped. Fast forward a couple of years and, having lived in the house a while and gotten to know and love it, the family decided it was already all the home they needed. Extension plans were shelved in favour of accentuating the abundance of character already in the three-bedroom Victorian property, in everything from tall slim windows and high corniced ceilings to a wonderful orangery off the kitchen, overlooking a garden that sweeps down to a tennis court. Sims Hilditch’s install finally got underway in 2023, by which point the clients were more than ready for it. “They’d completely left the granite mansion as it was when they moved in,” says Christina. “It was quite glitzy – there were mirrored panels inside some of the windows, crushed velvet everywhere, LED lighting in the ceiling in one of the loos. It was very modern.”

A top-to-bottom refurbishment project turned back the clock on the house, while at the same time giving it a renewed sense of life, warmth, purpose and long-term adaptability. “The clients told us they wanted it to feel traditional but not overly fussy,” recalls the designer.

The family’s son, now five years old, wasn’t even born when discussions on the project first began. His needs both now and in the future, like those of his older sister, are intrinsic to how the home looks, feels and flows today. “We were always thinking about futureproofing and this being a space that the kids could grow into,” says Christina.

Structural interventions in the granite mansion were relatively few, and included some changes to the upper storey’s floorplan to make better use of the space. There, a large bathroom was sacrificed to create enough additional floorage for a luxurious main bedroom suite with a walk-in dressing room, lobby area and en-suite bathroom (big enough for both a freestanding cast-iron bathtub and a shower).

The kids’ bedrooms in the granite mansion are double-sized and have their own en-suites. Rather than the bright, fun decor you might expect to see here, these rooms have neutral-toned walls, lots of fitted storage and an altogether more grown-up sensibility, designed to last all the way into teenage years. There’s another reason for this too: these rooms function as guest bedrooms when required (a necessary compromise after ditching the extension plans). “Their daughter has a double bed and their son has a pair of twin beds that zip together to form a bigger bed – it’s super-flexible.”

The children shift to a fun improvised bedroom retreat above the boot room downstairs whenever guests come to stay at the granite mansion. “Originally we weren’t doing anything in there,” says Christina. “It was just going to be storage for the kids’ toys and things like that. But as the process went on, we developed it with the clients, and it now has two really lovely day bed sofas, which pull out and have chunky beds underneath.”

This is an excerpt from issue 161 of Homes & Interiors Scotland. Want to read more about this grand granite mansion? Buy your issue here.

Art, interior design and glorious gardens are a passion at Balcarres Estate, home to the Earls of Crawford since 1580.

Behind Closed Doors: Balcarres Estate, home to the Earls of Crawford since 1580