Treasures from around the globe fill this newly extended, reconfigured and revived Victorian house in Perthshire

How many people can say that both William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fought in their back yard? The owners of this slice of Perthshire paradise have bragging rights aplenty, and a dash of history is just the start of it. Those Scottish heroes were caught up in skirmishes against the Auld Enemy some seven centuries ago in the adjoining Methven Wood, just a stone’s throw from where the seven-bedroom house now stands.

“It’s a stone building, dating from around 1840,” says Stephen Wilson of Lorn Macneal Architects, the practice charged with revitalising the house. “A large extension was added to the south in 1907, and it has had various other alterations over the years. It has always been a private house, though, with large grounds, including a lovely walled garden. There’s an abandoned reservoir too, and an outbuilding that was used as a barracks during the Second World War. You’d expect a house like this to be listed, but strangely enough it isn’t; nevertheless, it was rightly treated as a listed building when we applied for planning permission.”

Stephen and his colleagues at Lorn Macneal quickly got to grips with the house’s problem areas. “There were a lot of separate, cellular spaces and there was no natural progression through the interior. We altered the layout quite significantly and added a garden room extension to connect the house to the grounds.”

The new owners wanted to retire to Perthshire, so bought the house as their forever home. The couple, who are originally from Australia and Fife, had been based in Hong Kong for decades; they moved everything across and sold a property they had in Scone, so had two homes’ worth of furniture to fit into this one.

They chose Edinburgh-based Anna Mills Interior Design to help harmonise it. “Light was the key element of the brief,” says Susanne Barnes, who took the lead on the interiors. “When they first got the place, it was a typical dark, old Scottish house. They wanted to make it feel light and bright.

“The owners also made it clear that they didn’t want to feel they were living in a showhome. They have travelled extensively and like to visit markets and galleries in the places they visit. They seek out local crafts and have an appreciation for embroidery, hand-painted furniture, unusual art, that sort of thing. They have a lot of it! We needed to fit all these incredible finds into one house and make it feel cohesive.”

The grand entrance immediately sets the scene with its sweeping staircase and bespoke niches for the owners’ collection. “This was a dark space with no daylight when we first went in,” Susanne recalls. “The architects designed a new formal entrance with a raised terrace and steps up to the house. Inside, they made a huge opening in the wall and put in those columns at the boundary to the library space. The idea was to reinstate some of the grandeur that had been lost over the years.”

A new skylight above the staircase floods the area with natural light, while a grasscloth wallcovering makes the cavernous space feel welcoming and warm. “It has a silver background, which could sound quite loud, but actually you hardly see it,” laughs Susanne. “It just tricks the eye by bouncing the light around; it makes the space feel even brighter. We can’t rate wallpaper highly enough. People always want to go for paint, especially in halls. But, in fact, wallpaper won’t mark as easily as paint will, and once it’s on the walls, it immediately provides warmth.”

This is an excerpt from issue 164 of Homes & Interiors Scotland. Want to read more about this Victorian project in Perthshire? Buy your issue here.

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