Stable with style

This conversion was well worth the work, writes Jenny Shields

BUYING a Georgian stable block – if you can get your hands on one these days – to convert into a home can be f r aught. It seems like a simple enough idea but even with the help of an architect and an interior designer, things can go wrong.

Try to be too modern and the finished look can seem quite sterile but with too much decoration and fuss, you lose the inherent charm of the old agricultural building.

It takes a deft touch, but Foretops at Antons Hill near Coldstream, Berwickshire, has managed to transform a redundant stable block into a warm house with style and energy.

The layout is essentially single- storey, with only two en suite guest bedrooms on an upper l evel, and the ground floor meanders about, linking old buildings interspersed with some new.

The heart of the property is a stunning drawing room, which opens into a new conservatory bathing in a peaceful suntrap of a courtyard.

There is a formal dining room, a sitting room, a large Agricultural charm: The home combines old and new with its tasteful and carefully chosen decor kitchen, a garden room and all the extras you would expect in a country house, such as a boot room, a utility room and storage rooms.

The bedroom wing has a master suite, a guest suite and two more en suite double rooms. The old hayloft and groom’s room on the upper level were also converted into en suite bedrooms in 1995.

Care was taken to give the rooms a Georgian flavour, with the addition of delicate plasterwork cornices and ceiling roses.

The property, only a mile from the village of Leitholm and 45 miles south of Edinburgh, is surrounded by 13 acres. There is a large paddock and a formal garden.

Selling agent Smiths Gore in Wooler has put a guide price of £650,000 on Foretops.