Summer in the city
Dramatic greys and retro finds make this Edinburgh flat a fabulous living space, both inside and out
Dramatic greys and retro finds in an Edinburgh flat
It was her all-consuming interest in food that inspired the design of Hilary Sturzaker’s light and glossy Edinburgh kitchen. ‘I’m a consultant to food businesses and passionate about current trends, local produce and cooking, so when we bought and renovated this flat, the kitchen was our priority,’ she says. It meant extensive reorganisation of walls in this city centre apartment, but the gorgeous room that’s now the heart of their family home was worth the effort. ‘The current kitchen was the back living room, and the dining area was the original small kitchen,’ Hilary explains. ‘We also removed a wall and that opened up enough space to create a study and sitting area where our son Archie plays.’
Keen to add warmth to the minimalist room, Hilary and her husband Graham chose brick tile for the wall behind the dining table. Hilary loves the industrial look, which sits well with the urban, sophisticated theme in the rest of this spacious and thoughtfully designed single-storey flat.
When they bought it 10 years ago, it was in good condition but had been untouched since the 1970s, with woodchip wallpaper everywhere. ‘We’d both sold smaller flats so were able to afford somewhere this spacious,’ says Hilary. ‘We wanted to update it and personalise it, and, as we were in the early days of our relationship, evenings spent stripping wallpaper and sharing pizza and a few beers seemed fun!’
As well as renovating the kitchen space, the couple also replaced the bathroom and had the central heating and boiler system updated. The Woodchip wallpaper was stripped off and every wall and ceiling was then replastered before Hilary and Graham decorated together. ‘The intricate Victorian cornicing was hard work to paint,’ she recalls.
A surprise find came on the day the couple got the keys. ‘We lifted the fitted orange carpet in the hall and realised that the original Victorian floor tiles were all still
intact underneath it,’ says Hilary. ‘To protect them, we left the carpet in place while the work was done to the rest of the flat. Once it was finished we employed a specialist to bring them back to their original condition. He came all the way from Penzance because we’d sent him a photo of the floor and he felt compelled to undertake the job!’
They reflected the colours of the tiles in their choices for the hallway and the remaining rooms, putting together a palette of dramatic greys with vintage finds, retro furniture and collections of graphic posters from their travels. ‘We bought a lot online, because we wanted unique things rather than high street buys,’ says Hilary. ‘Details are important to us both – we replaced the radiators with either retro style or original vintage and we’ve chosen chrome for all the switches and sockets, for instance. I think that contemporary touches prevent a period home from seeming gloomy.’
Little has changed since Archie arrived four years ago. ‘We were determined to continue living in the centre of town: Edinburgh is an extremely child-friendly city and as this apartment is all on one level, we didn’t feel the need to move out to the suburbs and put up stair gates everywhere. Archie does have lots of toys, of course, but he keeps them tidy and we’ve chosen original artworks and classic books for his room rather than Disney cartoons.’
The final touches were transforming the front and back gardens. ‘Graham and I enjoyed the process of designing them ourselves,’ says Hilary. ‘We invested in good-quality Astroturf for a shady spot and bought some decent-sized pots for around the front door. The previous owner walked past recently while visiting a friend and knocked on the door to say how nice it looked.’