Interiors:Jill Mitchell transforms her new-build East Lothian house into a home

By Fiona Reid
Published on 19/06/2012 00:00

Adding a personal touch to a Charles Church interior by teaming limited colour with texture and prints

WHEN Jill and Andrew Mitchell first laid eyes on the plot that was to become their home, The Fold, at 14 Toll House Gardens on the outskirts of the East Lothian village of Elphinstone, it was a field. It was the launch day of the new Charles Church development and the sales schedules had not even been unpacked.

The couple had already admired another Charles Church development in the Borders. “We were really impressed by the build method of the houses and the attention to traditional craftsmanship,” Jill explains, citing the deep skirtings, architraves and nine-foot high ceilings. The development was just five miles from Carberry, where they were living at the time. Jill and Andrew already knew that they favoured the scale and layout of the Blenheim style house, and chose number 14 as it sits in a corner plot on a cul-de-sac, in a south-facing position.

So far so easy, but the Mitchells had lots to do before they moved into their new home a year later in 2008. To buy The Fold, the couple had first to complete the renovation of their Carberry home – a B-listed one-bedroom cottage, which they extended to create a four-bedroom house. “We had to create three extra bedrooms and a bathroom in order for our previous house to realise the projected end value that would allow us to buy this house,” Jill explains.

Working on the renovation project helped Jill when it came to specifying the fittings here, from the Shaker-style kitchen units to the Porcelanosa bathroom tiling. “Because it was all happening in tandem, I was already thinking in interior design terms,” she explains. “I knew exactly what I wanted.”

For Jill, the key to making an interior scheme flow is to begin with a limited colour palette and then layer in interest with textures and prints.

It was important that this flow worked well between the open-plan kitchen and dining room, and the adjacent living room, so Jill opted for a creamy palette, picking up on the kitchen cabinets and walnut worktops, and the subtle stone hues of the mosaic splashback tiling by Porcelanosa. In the dining space, Jill complemented the cream with a feature wall in duck egg blue Sanderson wallpaper, and with a dark wooden dining table and chairs from Martin & Frost.

Jill has created impact with feature walls throughout, from Laura Ashley’s Isodore print in the living room, to the pearlescent Cottonwood print, also Laura Ashley, in the master bedroom. Even the family bathroom was transformed with Sophie Conran’s Fleur print wallpaper on one wall.

Jill combines high end with high street. There are some pieces from Sterling Furniture, like the elegant metal-framed console and bedside lamps in the master bedroom, while the Half Mile Searchlight floor lamp in the sitting room was from Pavilion Broadway in the Cotswolds.

The couple drew up the garden design themselves and then set to work building the raised beds and the integrated bench seating, which was created using old railway sleepers. They had a paved stone patio laid, and French doors open from both the living room and dining area.

“We wouldn’t change anything about this house,” Jill reflects. “It’s worked so well for us and realised the vision we had.”

Offers over £330,000; contact Anderson Strathern (01620 824 016, www.andersonstrathernproperty.co.uk)