Turning point
Restoring an old farm building in East Lothian led to some unexpected finds
After a year spent travelling abroad, Claudia Chase and her partner Gordon Auld were keen to leave their rented Edinburgh flat and move to a more permanent home. ‘Although we loved city life, we felt the time was right to buy a place where we could start a family,’ says Claudia. The couple had grown up in East Lothian just along the coast from the capital and wanted to move back home, and in 2010 they found a farm cottage in steading near Longniddry. ‘It was in a terrible condition. Everything needed to be re-done. Wiring, plumbing, floors and ceilings, and the walls needed to be stripped back to the bare stone. But we’d been looking for a project – Gordon’s a joiner and we wanted something we could make our own and add value to,’ Claudia explains. ‘This seemed like a good investment.’
Although they’d renovated a small flat in North Berwick, they had never taken on a project of this size before and were unaware of the extent of the work involved – or what surprises they might uncover.
For a year the couple continued living in their flat in Edinburgh, working on plans and deciding what to do with the property. They wanted to keep the style of the original cottage but add an extension to house a large sunny kitchen. Apart from its poor condition, the
Restoring this old farm building required courage and clever ideas – and there were surprises in store…
cottage’s major problem was its awkward layout; the only way to get to the kitchen and bathroom was through the living room, which made it feel like a corridor. Claudia and Gordon spent hours trying to solve this when a friend suggested moving the front door to the back: in essence turning the house round. The planners were supportive and building work started in 2011.
‘Gordon took the cottage back to the bare walls,’ says Claudia. ‘I found the process of removing the external stone wall very stressful. At one point, only scaffolding props held it up – a nerve-racking time for me – but I’ve learned now that it gets worse before it gets better!’ Gordon did almost all the work singlehandedly, only bringing in tradesmen and friends for roofing, plumbing and electrics.
When the couple moved in six months after the work started, the kitchen and bathroom had been installed, but the rest of the house was far from complete. The hall and sitting room had no floor and the walls in the sitting room needed replastering. ‘We still had a long way to go, another year actually, during which we had our first baby, and that held things up slightly,’ Claudia laughs. ‘Plus, I changed my mind about a couple of things, which also caused delays.’
They altered the layout of the original cottage considerably. The old hall became a child’s bedroom and a new hall was created with all the rooms leading onto it. Now the bedrooms are together at one end and the kitchen and living room are separate. The extension includes the large kitchen/diner and study, and Gordon and his father, who run their own joinery business, built double-glazed windows that replicate the cottage’s original sash-and-case ones.
There were a few tricky moments. ‘The kitchen floor nearly drove us mad,’ Claudia recalls. ‘It’s slate in a mix of greys and laying the tiles in the exact colour and pattern formation I wanted tested our patience to the limit,’ she explains. But there were some great surprises too. ‘We removed the living room ceiling to discover it hid the most stunning original beams. It was completely unexpected. We knew we had to expose them, so we opened up the living room to the roof and insulated that rather than the ceiling. Then we sanded and stained all the beams back to their original colour. It was a huge job for Gordon and it took him a while to recover, but this is now our favourite room!’
When it came to deciding on the interiors, Claudia chose subtle Farrow & Ball shades as a backdrop to the artworks and antique objects that decorate the cottage. The sitting room is a mix of monochrome and warm wood, while the study and the children’s room are full of colour. ‘I love natural materials,’ says Claudia, ‘and took a lot of inspiration from Scandinavian interior schemes. Lighting was also a priority in terms of the design. I hate spotlights but love vintage, industrial light fittings.’
Today the once-neglected back-to-front cottage is an idyllic, warm and welcoming family home for the couple and their two daughters. Claudia reckons it was worth the months of work and upheaval. ‘Country life suits us all and we absolutely love the cottage’s transformation and what we’ve managed to create here.’