outofruin
Susan Doherty and Tom Moore have transformed an old coach house in Edinburgh into a modern home
for Susan Doherty and Tom Moore, living in a contemporary bespoke family home in a coastal suburb on the outskirts of Edinburgh was the furthest thing from their minds when they started to think about moving from their city centre first-floor flat. However, a gentle nudge from a tenacious friend and a ‘right place at the right time’ meeting with an architect entirely changed the course of the couple’s house-hunting mindset.
“We were living in a Georgian flat and initially we were looking at traditional properties in the centre of town. We were looking to move to a house with a garden — our dog told us very specifically that he wanted a garden!” laughs Susan. “But we kept getting outbid. And at this point, our friend, designer Russell Stewart at Cubit3D, said that we had to look at a place in Portobello that he felt would be perfect.”
The ‘perfect place’ in question was a site featuring an existing building that had been converted from a small stable/coach house in the mid 1980s to form a one bedroom dwelling. The site had been bought by Edinburgh-based architect Matthew Johnson of A449 Architects after spotting it close to his practice’s office. “We saw the potential, although it was deteriorating and it was damp. We originally thought about developing it as our own family home,” says Matthew.
At the point when Tom and Susan viewed the property, planning had been secured based on Matthew’s initial design proposal that involved saving as much of the deteriorating property as possible and sympathetically extending it to secure its future.
“We felt that location-wise it might be too far out of town, but Matthew was open to our interest and when he showed us the plans, as soon as we looked at them we knew that it was amazing,” says Susan.
The Design
The design involved the creation of a three bedroom home over two levels. The original coach house would be stripped back to a shell and the south-east wall carefully demolished and rebuilt — retaining as much of the original brickwork as possible. Tied into and behind the boundary wall was to be a new timber frame extension featuring charred larch cladding. (The decision to char the timber loosely reflects the historical use of the site by a coal merchant and pays reference to the original stable doors, but also serves a practical purpose; it will increase the longevity of the larch.)
The principal living rooms are accessed from a central hallway, making the most of the narrow and low existing building. An en suite guest bedroom/study features in the original rebuilt coach house while the extension makes room for an open plan living, kitchen and dining area. “We were keen to create one open plan living area while retaining a minimalist aesthetic,” says the couple. Located on the first floor are the master bedroom with en suite, third bedroom and snug area.
Tom and Susan admit that they were attracted by many aspects of the design including the quality of light, introduced via extensive glazing overlooking the southfacing walled garden, and its environmental credentials. A highly insulated timber frame sits within the stripped-out shell of the original building and the super-insulated extension. The house features underfloor heating throughout which is controlled via an app. “We liked the materials and features proposed (from the burnt larch to the shadow gap skirting) and the size of the space was ideal for our needs,” they say.
The couple, who stayed in their city flat during the six-month construction, were also able to tailor and tweak the design to their specific needs before the build really got off the ground, including adding two skylights to maximise light on the first floor. “We had a very good feeling about what we wanted the house to look like,” explains Susan. “We also worked out the design of the kitchen and were keen to have nice light oak Scandi-style flooring downstairs.”
The couple didn’t have to look very far for furnishings and accessories, as Susan owns concept store Life Story which specialises in Scandinavian design. “We didn’t source a lot online, we were lucky enough to be able to source many things locally in Edinburgh,” adds Susan.
lenge being getting everything to and from the site safely, with the least disruption to this tight restricted site,” explains architect Matthew Johnson.
“We had a 6m-long piece of steel that had to come to the site as well as the large windows causing some logistical issues, but we managed it. Getting the soil and waste out in skips and wagons was the trickiest bit — getting stuff in was easier.
“During the build the biggest issue we faced was when the boundary wall fell over!” continues Matthew. “We were hopeful that we might get away with a bit of pointing, but structurally it wasn’t sound so we basically had it rebuilt. This gave us a £4,000 hit to the budget, but it needed to be done. However, this was the only fly in the ointment as the builders were spot-on and the schedule went more or less to plan.”
Any other on-site issues seem a distant memory for Tom and Susan though. “It’s our first ‘stand-alone’ house, which is a really nice feeling,” concludes Susan. “Even though we’ve been in it for a while I still love when I come back from being away somewhere, or even after a long day at work. And the dog loves it!”