KEYS TO KNOW
The Croft at Blairlogie is a cottage with room for all, discovers Kirsty Mcluckie
The Croft is a sizeable family house, despite its name and its chocolate box cottage exterior. It is set in Blairlogie, a picturesque conservation village made up of Georgian and Victorian cottages, just on the edge of Stirlingshire.
The village sits at the foot of Dumyat, at the western extremity of the Ochil hills, between Stirling and Menstrie.
Laura Ewing, who is originally from Glasgow, was looking for a rural spot to bring up a family 18 years ago, when she fell in love with the “beautiful house and garden”.
However beautiful the property was at the outset, the family have made substantial changes over the years.
In their time here they have added to the house’s footprint and made the accommodation much more practical.
Laura says: “I was pregnant with my second child, James, and already had a two-year-old daughter, Romy, so we were really looking for a nice quiet house with a garden suitable for children.
“They have literally spent all their childhoods here.” The house grew with the family. Laura says: “It dates from 1871 and has quite traditional proportions in the older parts, so the ceilings were quite low and the rooms are quite cosy.
“After about five years we decided that we wanted to extend.
“A much bigger kitchen was added first, followed by the double-height sitting room and dining room extension which has given us a lot more living space.”
The task wasn’t just a case of adding on to the house, but it involved completely repurposing the interior, refurbishing and renovating as they went along.
“We completely reversed the accommodation of the house,” says Laura.
“What was the kitchen is now the master bedroom’s dressing room, so you can imagine it was quite small.”
Reversing the aspect has also meant that the public rooms now have the best views of the garden and outwards over the surrounding fields.
The work took months, but the family stayed in situ throughout, using the conservatory as a makeshift kitchen with a toaster, microwave and kettle.
Laura says: “The kids, who were quite young, loved it.
“They just thought of it as a big adventure.”
The project has transformed the cottage into a good-sized family house, but it retains plenty of the charm of the older building.
There are the original outside walls of the cottage, left rough and painted white, which now mark the divide between the old and new parts. The master bedroom is accessed by quirky steps up to floor level and the dining room features a stunning reclaimed wood ceiling.
While the newer parts are contemporary, rather than a pastiche of the older style, there are enough links to make it feel very much one house.
Varying ceiling heights add interest, as do wooden beams, the limestone floors and wood panelling which graces some of the walls.
The kitchen is chic and contemporary, with a range cooker, matching Belfast sinks and a Corian breakfast bar.
The reconfiguration of the house has also transformed the access to the garden, with doors from the dining room, sitting room and ground-floor master bedroom, where previously there was no access from the living space.
Since completing the major project, Laura has undertaken all the furnishing and decorating, for which she displays a real passion and talent.
She says: “It is a rural cottage so I have tried to maintain that feel, but with working in London and Glasgow there are urban touches too.”
She has particularly enjoyed sourcing unique pieces that are an ideal fit for the house.
A unit for the sink in the master bathroom, for example, was a chest found in an antique shop which Laura repainted and topped with a contemporary flat oval basin.
It is a good example of how new and old work together throughout.
Laura used to commute to London a couple of times a month when she was working with skincare specialists Cowshed, and says the Croft’s location, which is just 35 minutes from Edinburgh Airport, was a plus.
She has now started her own online company, Hi Tea, offering high-caffeinated teas, so the Croft’s home office – and the area’s high-speed broadband – has been a plus.
Families with school-aged children will note that it is less than ten miles from Dollar Academy, with transport provided from the village.
Outside the house, Laura admits a lack of spare time has meant the garden isn’t as manicured as it once was.
“The owners before were very keen gardeners and so left us this fantastic landscaped garden, but it is a lowmaintenance space which is mature enough, with shrubs, bushes and trees, to just require the lawn mowing to still look beautiful all year round.”
A sheltered sun trap terrace has a fire pit at its centre and by the side of the private lane entrance is a lovely fruit orchard.
The newer parts of the house are tucked at the back, which not only leaves the period front unchanged, but means the living space is peaceful and private.
With James turning 18 and Romy soon to be 21, the time has come for the family to move on.
The Croft is an absolutely unique property, which, thanks largely to Laura’s efforts, is now as comfortable and practical as it is charming. The Croft, Blairlogie is a four-bedroomed house on the edge of Stirlingshire.