The change of a lifetime: Fantoush surpasses expectations in Lunshaw House

Experiencing an interior designer’s work in the flesh – running your fingers over the fabrics, examining the finishes, seeing how the colours work as day moves into evening – is undoubtedly the best way to decide if you like it or not. But who ever gets the chance to do that? Well, the owners of this house did – completely by accident.

They were “in the right place at the right time”, according to Emily Smoor of Edinburgh creative interior design practice Fantoush. She had recently finished an extensive programme of work at the Kirkstyle Inn, an award-winning pub with rooms in Northumberland, when it was visited by a couple from Yorkshire who just happened to be thinking about overhauling their home. They fell head over heels with the Kirkstyle’s interiors and Fantoush’s blend of relaxed style, colour and craftsmanship.

Fast forward a few months, and Emily and her team found themselves at the couple’s home, a former farmhouse in the grounds of the historic Lunshaw shooting estate in the North York Moors National Park. The clients were planning to completely refurbish it as a second home and, once the architect-designed new internal layout had been completed, it would be up to Emily to take the interiors to the next level.

“When we first saw it, it was a complete shell, down to the stone, sitting in a muddy building site,” she recalls. “We asked to change some of the door positions and tweaked a few things to make sure we’d be able to fit everything in, and then it was over to us.”

The clients, who own a kitchen manufacturing company, travel a lot and have eclectic tastes, something Emily was keen to reflect in her design. After spending time getting to know them, she and her team produced vision boards and tactile samples so the clients could touch and see the materials for flooring, fabrics and wall finishes.

“As well as really loving the Kirkstyle Inn, they mentioned a London hotel, the Beaverbrook, as a secondary source of inspiration, particularly the colours in it,” explains Emily. “So I went to have a look. “It was designed by Nicola Harding, who’s really good at saturated colour and putting together strong palettes, but in a restful way. That’s kind of what we do too, so it was a good match.”

As the house is a second home, to be used to entertain family for Emily. “The bedrooms are guest rooms, so it meant we could be quite bold. We wanted it to feel a bit like a hotel in that each bedroom had a unique personality. In the communal spaces, however, there was a theme – a combination of green, mid-blue and a pinkish burgundy red. This extends through the hall into the kitchen, the back lobby and into the library. So, there was a thread through the spaces that people would be walking around.”

The building was stripped back and a new layout was created, including a stunning sitting-room extension with vast glass walls. All of this meant Emily’s remit was very deep; Lunshaw is a good example of the degree of technical knowledge and creative vision required by an interior designer on such a large-scale project. “We’re doing things like bridging all the interior elevations and, essentially, doing the interior architecture,” she explains.

This is an excerpt from issue 165 of Homes & Interiors Scotland. Want to read more? Buy your issue here.

This converted steading is party central for its Perthshire owners.

This converted steading is party central for its Perthshire owners