Lynn O’Rourke: ‘My child looks enormously pleased with herself. I admit defeat’

Published on 03/06/2012 16:57

WITH last weekend’s beautifully sunny weather we were all outdoors most of the time, so you’d think the inside of the house might have escaped the usual weekend onslaught. Oddly enough, it never seems to work that way.

I start off spending too much time rummaging about in the attic for the bag of summer stuff that is only ever dragged out for holidays but that I knew was lurking in there somewhere. (And if that hot and dusty little experience hasn’t taught me to label similar-looking storage bags in future, nothing will.) The new paddling pool demands at least two outfit changes and two towels apiece for the kids, and that was just day one. The aftermath is a grassy trail of destruction that tells me exactly where they have been and what they shouldn’t have been up to. A lovely trip to my aunt’s remote farmhouse in the Borders sees all manner of stuff going with us – and all manner of washing coming back. As I finally empty the last bag and start to think things are under control, I hear an excited little shriek from upstairs. “Mummy, come and see all the snow in here!” I drag myself up there only to be greeted by what does genuinely resemble a snowstorm in the youngest one’s bedroom. One tell-tale corner of what had been a large piece of polystyrene peeks out from under the bed. My child looks enormously pleased with herself. I admit defeat.

This week we get the story behind the transformation of city centre office space into a fantastic family home on page 4. Susan Macfarlane unleashed her inner minimalist when furnishing her rural Stirlingshire home and the result is a striking boutique hotel look, which you can see on page 10. Quilter Pauline Burbridge and her husband sculptor Charles Poulsen have created a fantastic personal space that is filled with colour in their former steading home in the Scottish Borders.