OUT OF INDIA
Requiring complete renovation, this former 18th century manse was the perfect project for the owners of a Bond-inspired retro furniture company
A Cupar house in need of doing up was ideal for the Scaramanga couple
For quite a few years, Carl and Emma Morenikeji had been hoping their current home would come on the market but what really made them fall in love with it was the fact it needed everything done. The couple were living about half a mile away in Freuchie in Fife when the 1792 former manse for the parish of Lathrisk and Kingskettle came up for sale. ‘I’d always said I’d like to live here as everything needed done,’ says Emma. ‘We could fill it with all our Scaramanga stuff – it was just perfect.’
Scaramanga is the couple’s vintage lifestyle company, named after the famous Bond villain played by Christopher Lee, says Carl. ‘I grew
up in the 1970s and remember that the film
The Man with the Golden Gun had a suave villan named Scaramanga, widely considered to be one of the best Bond baddies. I thought it was a cool name for a retro and vintage business as well as being memorable and easy to spell.’
Celebrating its ten-year anniversary this year, the company started with importing handmade leather satchels from India and has expanded into accessories and small and larger pieces of vintage furniture. And it was this furniture that Emma and Carl were keen to bring into their new home.
However, before they could plan the interiors they first had to attend to the necessary repairs to the roof, put in damp proofing, treat the woodworm and then renew or fix everything else. ‘Some parts of the house didn’t have central heating so that had to be attended to and the electrics were horrific,’ Carl recalls. ‘I would date the light switches back to the 1950s. The electrician said it was really quite dangerous – things were very close to going on fire.’
The couple also had all the harling removed from the property, restored the original stone façade and knocked down the ailing conservatory, all of which served to completely transform the exterior of the former manse. ‘The electrician only finished a few months ago,’ laughs Emma.
‘Some parts of the house didn’t have central heating so that had to be attended to and the electrics were horrific’
‘It’s been a three-year project. When we moved in Ella was two and Josh was four. I was here fulltime being the project manager and doing the nursery run.’
Carl explains that they had to enlist outside help. ‘When you’re doing something as comprehensive as this it made sense to bring in the professionals. It’s a really old building, the walls were curved and leaning, it needed experience.’
However, even the professionals found it quite tricky, adds Emma. ‘We’ve put in period lighting throughout the house and it was quite complicated for the electrician as he’d never done it before. For the plumber it was the lead piping that was the problem and the decorators were here for about four months. Everything took time. However, if we’d been doing it ourselves it would have been a twenty-year job.’
Apart from the remedial repairs, Emma and Carl also reconfigured the layout of the house. The previously dark and gloomy kitchen has been knocked through to create a kitchen and family room which is now filled with their finds, says Emma.
‘As we emptied the kitchen we discovered shelving we wanted to keep, flagstones that were under three layers of vinyl and a layer of carpet. Once we had a blank canvas we were able go for it. ‘Carl had just been to India and I had told him
to buy anything he thought would work in the kitchen and what didn’t work we would sell. So we had a huge container of pieces to consider.’
Because the kitchen is freestanding the couple worked closely with the joiner to see what looked right and where things should go, explains Carl.
‘The only things fitted are the two cabinets on the walls and again I just tried them out,’ he says. ‘The sink area was the tough part for the joiner. The top is from a school science lab in Cumbria. It looks really simple but it took a fair amount of time to get it to fit.
‘The cupboards underneath the sink are old window frames with shutters. We collect the windows in India when they’re demolishing buildings and use them as frames for cupboards.
‘The other cupboards are again from India. They’d usually be used in a bedroom but Indians don’t usually tend to hang up clothes so the wardrobes are shelved, which is ideal for freestanding kitchen furniture.’
In the sitting room, the 1960s tiled surround has been replaced by a real talking point. Created from masonry from the garden wall, stone from the outbuilding and extra bits from the kitchen skirting, it seems only fitting that the stove to complete the look took eight men to carry in.
And it’s not just the main living areas that have benefited from Carl and Emma’s day job. Their bedroom can only be described as eclectic. ‘The Indian door to the en suite was quite simply something the house was always going to have,’ explains Emma. ‘We had one of these in our previous home and when we moved I made sure we had it again.’
The en suites and bathrooms have all been reinstated with period features and quirky accessories. But now that the workmen have finally left, what’s next on the agenda for this ambitious and energetic couple? ‘The house will continue to evolve, it can’t not with all the things we find,’ says Carl.
‘We still want to do some things in the garden,’ Emma adds, ‘and we’d like to develop the outbuilding.’ It sounds like there are still a few more containers of goodies to come …
Clockwise from top left: Airy modern en suite bathroom with period features; detail from a Scaramanga cabinet; a vase of flowers on the kitchen table.
‘The Indian door to the en suite was quite simply something the house was always going to have’