REINVENTING A CLASSIC
Nikki and Stuart McAlpine Miller prove that breaking the rules can reap rich rewards, finds
The Gart in Callander is a period property with a difference
Former graphic designer Nikki and her artist husband, Stuart McAlpine Miller, threw away the rule book when they bought The Gart. I for one, am so glad they did.
There aren’t many houses that actually make you smile when you cross the threshold but The Gart is one of them. That wasn’t always the case though. ‘Nothing had been done for about 50 or 60 years,’ says Stuart. ‘The house had been left to its own devices and if anything had gone wrong it was a patch-up job and it was in desperate need of some restoration. Overall, it was the feel of the house that we fell in love with. I loved the scale of it and the architecture.’
Nor was Stuart the only one to fall head over heels for this Scots baronial pile by the banks of the River Teith near Callander and within the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. ‘It was a bit tired, traditional and brown, which made it really dark and made it feel small too,’ remembers Nikki.
‘However, there was still a charm to it and a nice feel. There’s also a lovely story as to why the owners had bought the house in the first place. The previous owner bought it to house an artist coming over from the Netherlands. At that time The Gart was being run as a B&B and she was going to rent a room for the artist but the owner wanted to sell so she bought the house and the artist lived here for six months and did her a painting. We decided when we put in our offer that we would include one of Stuart’s paintings as part of it and it was accepted. She bought for a painting and sold for a painting – it’s come full circle.’
The baronial mansion was built in 1835, but had burnt down in 1901. When it was rebuilt, it was substantially extended and the only original parts of the building that still
Overall, it was the feel of the house that we fell in love with
It’s a stunning building that we’ve restored and are lovingly looking after
exist are the kitchen and the basement. ‘The good thing for us is that it still had many of the period features and in fact we’ve added to it. Some that were missing we’ve put back,’ Stuart explains. ‘We moved things around too: for example, the fireplace in the sitting room was hidden in the corner of the back room. We moved it and painted it. We’ve raised the house to a new level and we’ve created an environment that will suit 2018.
‘It’s a stunning building that we’ve restored and are lovingly looking after but with a contemporary interior. However, we’ve hung on to every aspect of the original features. Underneath the tiled floor is the original parquet, one which we protected before we laid the tiles. The parquet was different in every room and didn’t really flow. It’s such a big area downstairs and we needed flooring that conformed throughout and that’s why we chose the tiles.’
The couple also decided to settle on just one colour and limit their choices to four or five shades within that palette. ‘Grey was the choice,’ says Nikki, ‘and once we’d made up our mind we didn’t deviate from it, which is why I think we managed to do it quite quickly – within a year.’
Whilst the décor changes have been significant, the structural ones have been relatively minimal given the scale