This was a beautiful house with a beautiful garden – but there was no connection between the two. Now, with an extension and a new layout, the two parts of this Edinburgh home are united at last

It’s a glorious summer’s day and you look out the window to see your gorgeous, south-facing back garden in the heart of Edinburgh drenched in sunlight. You’re filled with the urge to fling open the door and dash out to soak up the rays… but you can’t. There’s no door here – it’s all just windows.

That was the problem facing the new owners of this magnificent Victorian villa in Fountainhall Road in the city’s sought-after Grange area. “The garden felt so magical when you looked out there,” says Gillian Hanley of Crew Architects, who was brought in to find a solution. “It was so green and massive. It’s one of the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever seen, and directly south-facing as well. But there was no connection between it and the house. There were just three windows to the rear of the building – and one of those was in a toilet! The previous owners had essentially lived at the front of the house – the dark side – where the kitchen was.”

To begin with, the clients – a couple with two children – had a simple brief: create a bigger room at the back, move the kitchen and somehow connect the house to the garden visually and physically.

After discussing various options with Gillian and her colleague, architect Claire Stirling, the clients decided on a design that included a stylish extension with huge windows and glazed sliding doors that would allow access from the remodelled rear rooms out into the garden. Daylight from the south-facing aspect would flood into the new spaces through the windows and large rooflights.

The kitchen would move from the duller northfacing front of the house to a space at the back with a magnificent bay window overlooking the beautiful garden. From there, the original walls that separated the rooms would be knocked through to create spacious openings into a sitting area and then the extension, which would eventually contain the dining table.

One of the most significant visual changes was a large picture window with recessed seating that could be seen as soon as the family or visitors entered the front of the house.

“Previously when you came in, you were basically facing three doors, one of which was a toilet,” recalls Gillian. “The only good thing was it had a self-closing door, so you weren’t looking straight into it!”

Those three doors have now been replaced with a single broad opening into the new rear of the house, with the picture window offering immediate views through to the lush greenery at the back.

“Now when you look down the hall you’ve got that big window in front of you,” says Claire. “The double doors there can fold right back flat against the wall, so the clients can keep them open, which I think they do most of the time to allow light through into the hallway.”

This is an excerpt from issue 167 of Homes & Interiors Scotland.

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