Hunt for the best home

Three property experts have scoured Scotland to find its finest houses for a BBC television series. Jack McKeown speaks to the Courier Country property owners who have made it to the final of Scotland’s Home of the Year

Arestored former church manse and a picture postcard country cottage are two of the properties in the running to be Scotland’s Home of the Year. Now in its second series, the show features architect Michael Angus, interior designer Anna Campbell-Jones and lifestyle blogger Kate Spiers as they travel around Scotland searching for the country’s finest properties.

The nine-part series sees them pick a winner from a different region of Scotland each episode.

Next week’s concluding episode brings all the finalists together in Glasgow to find out which home is the series winner.

A home near Brechin and a cottage in Strathtay came out on top in the Grampian and Perthshire episodes of the show.

The Glebe is a former church manse in the hamlet of Farnell, around five miles from Brechin. It’s owned by Jane and Ruaraidh Adams, who share it with their three children and their dog.

Interior designer Jane extensively renovated and remodelled the house to turn it into their ideal family home.

They knocked down a wall to create a semi-open plan kitchen and living area, bringing more natural light inside.

Upstairs are five bedrooms, while downstairs the living space includes a formal dining room and a snug.

Each episode of Scotland’s Home of the Year asks the owners to place a love heart on their favourite place in their home. Jane placed hers in the bathtub of their en suite master bedroom, which looks straight out of the window into the garden.

Judge Michael Angus describes the Glebe as being like a movie set, while Kate Spiers says it’s “immaculate”. All three were blown away by the kitchen, with Anna Campbell-Jones calling it “a lovely warm family kitchen.”

A laugh-out-loud moment comes when the presenters spot what they describe as a “bondage tweed cushion” – a sofa cushion wrapped in metalstudded leather bands and a testimony to Jane’s adventurous taste in design.

Michael describes the décor as “powerful, punchy and done with resolve” and gives the home eight out of 10.

Giving it a nine, Kate thinks the mix of patterns and textures comes together to give a clear sense of style. Anna, meanwhile, says it’s difficult to make a space look this beautiful. The interior designer admits she doesn’t think she would be capable of recreating the look – she gives the house 10 out of 10.

It is up against the Lookout, a contemporary home in Aberdeenshire, and a rural church conversion west of Muir of Ord. The converted church gets 27 out of 30, while the Lookout scores 23. The Glebe also scores 27, tying it with the church and taking it to a vote, with Anna and Kate overruling Michael to make the former manse the winner.

Jane, 47, and Ruaraidh, 48, moved into the home seven years ago. “It was my parents’ house,” she explains. “They bought it when I was in first year at university. I remember having some amazing student parties here. When they wanted to downsize they converted one of the outbuildings and we moved into the main house.

“It took six to eight months to do all the work and we lived in throughout, which in retrospect was perhaps a mistake. We had an en suite bedroom and we converted the en suite into a kitchen and lived out of two rooms.

“It’s a listed building and we wanted to do everything in keeping with the original style so we took out the back staircase and added in cornicing to stay in keeping with the rest of the house.

“I was delighted that Anna CampbellJones complimented the decor. To hear that from a high-profile interior designer was something I valued.

“When the episode aired my parents came over and the whole family watched it together with a bottle of bubbly.”

Mouse Cottage sits on the edge of a golf course in the Perthshire conservation village of Strathtay. The two-bedroom cottage is a traditional stone-built home that had been owned by an architect but was “old fashioned” inside.

It’s owned by artist Penny Kennedy, who moved in three and a half years ago. She spent nine months living there before beginning an 18-month overhaul of the property.

“I’m getting on so I thought I’d just do it all at once and then I’d be skint and I wouldn’t have to worry about doing major things when I’m older,” she laughs. “I used a fantastic female builder from Aberfeldy called Jo Penfold, who did the joinery, and we had an amazing plumber and electrician. We installed mains water – I got tired of going up the garden with buckets to clear the silted-up water tanks.”

Penny bought a piece of land from the golf course to expand her garden.

“There was plenty of room on one

I was delighted that Anna CampbellJones complimented the decor. To hear that from a high-profile interior designer was something I valued