Overton Steading is a complex of farm buildings, set out to form a courtyard. Parts of the steading were still inhabited. The section I was asked to work on, originally cow byres, was derelict and on the brink of losing its original pantiled roof. The outside walls of the steading were sunk into the ground, a common feature of steading buildings, making the building single aspect.  Although not listed, this is a typical Scottish traditional vernacular farm building with great charm and character.

My client’s aim was to convert the old buildings into housing to let to local people.  The steading has been converted into 3 housing units, two two-storey with two bedrooms, and one one-storey with one bedroom.

The main buildings faced northwards into the courtyard. By raising the roof line by a half storey and putting the living spaces on the upper floor, they could look southwards, and also be at ground level. The new upper floors are lofty, light-filled open-plan spaces, also open to the roof structure, and broken up into different areas by the roof shape and built-in storage units.

To address the issue of the damp subterranean walls, we removed the made-up ground against the rear solid stone walls. We weren’t sure if the stone would be dressed or even plumb, given that it had been built never to be seen. However, it was amazingly plumb, especially given that it was built from round whin field stone, with pinnings. The newly formed living spaces are each linked to their south facing gardens with a wide timber bridge, that doubles up as a terrace to sit out on.

All new walls and infill panels are clad in larch timber cladding left to weather naturally to a silver grey colour, a crisp contrast to the original stonework. Roofs are in either salvaged pantiles or profiled metal sheeting, following a utilitarian farmyard aesthetic.

Internally, the lower plan layouts are organised so that the bedrooms all use the existing original window and cartshed openings. Bathrooms and stair wells are pushed to the windowless back walls and the stair wells are positioned to scoop natural light down into the lower floor central hallways.

Internal finishes and colours are kept neutral but of a good quality, so the tenants can furnish to their own tastes.  Bedrooms have purpose-made loose shutters and roller modesty blinds.

The houses are heated using renewable technology in the form of mini ground source heat pump tucked into the stair cupboards, in turn heated by lengths of ground source pipework laid into the ground adjacent to the development. Insulation is compacted wood fibre, allowing the walls to breathe and moisture within walls to wick away naturally.  Old materials such as pantiles have been reused.

The brief was to replace an old asbestos-riddled shed with a modern workshop, store/potting shed and car port. The site was in the grounds of a C-listed 19^th century brick cottage characterised by prominent gables.

It was felt important that the new building, despite its quite substantial footprint, should be subservient to the existing house whilst reflecting its architectural style.  The design settled on was a workshop and store with pitched roof matching the pitch of the house, with a flat-roofed car port in front.  The new building was clad in board on board Siberian larch, a visually light material appropriate for a shed, which would be left to weather to a silvery grey over time.

The positioning of the new building encloses an outside space, creating a private courtyard terrace between the house and the garden building.  Slots in the side of the car port give light into the back of the garage and break up the long run of this elevation.

South Gray Street is a beautiful Georgian villa with a later hip-roofed extension housing the kitchen at the rear.  The very small utility room and back hall wasn’t big enough for the family, who needed a boot and utility room for school bags, coats and sailing gear.

The new design uses a stone ‘screen’ wall which facing onto the garden, a typical Georgian device, to hide the new utility room behind.  As this wall turns the corner the material is changed to a more utilitarian engineering brick, onto the ‘yard’ area.

The new room is built across the existing study window. To avoid loosing daylight and natural ventilation, and to provide views to the garden, the extension has a glass roof with opening lights, and the new utility room sash window aligns with the study window so you can look through to the garden beyond.  The walls are lined with storage and a new beech bench.

Morningside Terrace, Edinburgh

This busy family home is a Victorian end terrace, and is almost single aspect as it turns the corner of the road.  The brief was to increase storage and a feeling of space, and to open up the kitchen and dining room, to create one big family kitchen and dining space.

The walls between kitchen, dining room and pantry were completely removed resulting in a large, elegant, light filled room with three window openings.  One of these was changed into French doors opening on to a new terrace to the south facing garden.  A new kitchen with generous island unit was installed at one end of the new room.  The flexibility of the space was further increased by forming double pocket doors between dining room and sitting room, fitted with large purpose-made panelled pocket doors.  This gives the option of having either one large living space or a more cosy separate sitting room.

A new purpose made dresser was designed for the dining room, giving ample additional storage; new joinery was designed to tie in with the existing door and window joinery mouldings and proportions.

The entrance hall was also opened up by removing the panelling under the stairs to provide space for a new cloakroom and storage area for family paraphernalia with purpose made bench, drawers and shelving. New lighting helps to update the hall and give it a welcoming quality.

Upstairs storage was improved by introducing fitted bookshelves in the hall, and a floor to ceiling purpose-designed wardrobe in the master bedroom. The scale of this fitment is minimised because it is designed to look like a wall of the room, with the cornice running across the front and the wardrobe being painted wall colour.

An existing box room was converted into a shower room; a run of mirrored cabinets running the length of the room above the wash handbasin and WC duct reflects the light and makes the space feel twice the size, whilst providing ample storage.

This elegant A-listed end terrace villa was built around 1817, and is considered to be part of the first ‘suburban’ development.  Although it has beautifully proportioned rooms and fine joinery, the setting of the house had been compromised in 1909 when the adjacent road was widened, taking a large slice off the rear garden and reducing it to a narrow tapering plot.  Furthermore, its privacy had become overlooked by a later Edwardian block of flats built on the opposite side of the road.  The rear rooms in the house were quite dark, and the garden had become no more than a concrete yard with a brick laundry building.

The aims were to reconnect the house with the re-landscaped garden and to improve the light levels in the rear rooms without compromising their privacy.

An opening was formed between the two rear rooms, whilst keeping their Georgian proportions and maintaining the feel of being two rooms.  Two light sources in a space always has a beneficial effect, improving the overall feeling of light and space.  The doorway between the rear outshot and the kitchen was also removed, creating a long vista from the kitchen down the length of the outshot to the back wall of the tapered garden and new bench.  The old kitchen doorway was infilled with glass, giving borrowed views and light into the beautiful Georgian stair hall.  The stone back wall of the outshot was removed entirely and extended a metre into the garden and replaced with very fine, minimal sliding doors, inviting you into the garden.

The new roof was designed with big oversailing eaves to help retain privacy, blocking the angled view from the tenement across the road while also controlling sunlight.  New timber floors have been installed throughout, tying the various spaces together.  Floor and wall finishes are all very light but not bland; the interest is created by subtle contrasting textures and patterns.

The kitchen of this Edwardian terraced house was originally in the small north-facing brick outshot, with the dining room tucked away in the rear room behind the outshot. As with so many properties of this age, the house was orientated with the main living spaces looking towards the front of the house, turning its back to the garden. Now with two young boys the family needed more space, so the aim was to create a big family kitchen/dining room with direct access and views to the back garden.

The planning department insisted that the pattern of hipped roofed outshots at the back of this row of terraces was maintained, so a new zinc-roofed extension was wrapped round the original roof form. The slate on the west-facing pitch of this roof was replaced with a large roof light, scooping light and afternoon sun into the extension. Light bounces off the white wall below, maximising the benefits of the top light. The varied ceiling shapes created also help to zone the dining and sitting areas in the extension.

The new kitchen was moved to the original dining room in the main house and is fitted out in with gloss white Ikea units. The clients’ choice of bold turquoise glass splash-backs avoids the space being too stark against the backdrop of white walls.

The conservatory at the rear of this lower villa has been converted into a home office and a new workshop built in the garden. The original glazed uPVC conservatory was removed and replaced with new light-weight insulated timber-framed walls, clad in Siberian larch boarding stained light blue, and roofed in pre-insulated profiled metal panels, to form a snug modern office.

Windows are positioned to form carefully framed selective views while maintaining privacy.  There are two slot windows at the desk side of the office, fitting in between shelves. The side slot looks onto the newly built workshop’s wild flower meadow roof, chosen for its mix of flowers, sedums, herbs and flowering perennials to give a colourful roof full of insect activity.

The office has been lined with shelving, painted with blocks of colours, and capped with a birch-faced plywood shelf that forms a continuous line following round the room.

A new timber workshop has been slotted into an under-used space in the garden, and is insulated with sheep’s wool. Rainwater is harvested in a water butt, avoiding the need to form expensive new underground drainage.

This 1980s bungalow has been substantially reorganised internally and updated externally to form a bright contemporary home.

Externally, areas of heavy looking vertically-hung clay tiles were replaced with crisp, slate coloured zinc panels. The over-sailing eaves were reduced in size and new matching zinc rainwater goods replaced plastic guttering. Single glazed windows were replaced with grey timber framed double glazing, and dated rubble stone walling was replaced with smooth ashlar at the entrance. The mature but overgrown garden was re-landscaped, including areas of stone slabbing and setts, and new cedar entrance gates.

Inside, the rubble stone clad chimney breast which dominated the living room was removed, and rebuilt in plastered brick with a simple stone fireplace to form a focal point for the living room.  The existing kitchen wall was reduced to a small curved screen so that the hallway space flows into the dining room and kitchen, creating one light open plan living space.  The 1980s-style timber stair balustrade was replaced with glass.

Upstairs, walls were reconfigured to fit in en suites for the master and guest bedrooms, and a new dressingroom.

Originally one large terraced townhouse, this B listed property had been subdivided into flats in the 1960s. The current owners, who lived in the basement flat and also owned the ground floor flat, decided to reconnect them to form one generous family home.

The basement flat has a large sunny south-facing walled garden. The aims were to maintain easy access to this from the principal living spaces and to amalgamate and reconfigure the existing rooms over the two floors to form one logical house.  For example, the quirkily shaped former upstairs kitchen was converted into a fun child’s bedroom with a new fitted box bed tucked under an area of low ceiling, and new fitted window seat and desk.

The house is entered from the north side, previously into a long corridor without windows. Large glazed double doors have now been formed at the south end of this corridor, which draw the eye towards the new kitchen/family room and on to the sunny garden beyond.

The three main rear rooms were merged into a large kitchen/family room with a dining room at the end. Double pocket doors give the option of a separate formal dining room if needed.  For everyday living, the three spaces are normally connected.

Two new family bathrooms were fitted, a dark internal basement bathroom, with apsed end curving round a freestanding bath, contrasting with a sunny upstairs bathroom.

Many of the rooms have new panelled joinery, either in the form of shutters and fitted cupboards or concealing duct work, which keeps the rooms clutter free while adding richness. The joinery was all painted in subtle Farrow and Ball off white colours, with the occasional splash of strong colour inside the cupboards. A new bespoke kitchen was designed, with colour matched glass splashbacks, ash worktops and a ‘leather textured’ marble topped island.