At home with and Rob Evans' West End Glasgow

WHEN Karlyn and Rob Evans moved from Dorset back to Glasgow with their baby daughter Cecily in December 2007 they hoped the city would inspire their artistic sides and provide a welcoming family home. Just over two years later, the couple smile as they admit that the city has excelled itself and fulfilled both dreams.

It was while renting a flat in the West End when they first arrived back in Scotland that they heard about a 1904 semi-detached house in the South Side of the city that required updating. At the same time, they launched independent businesses under the umbrella name of Re-Decorate – former art teacher Rob offers a bespoke painting and decorating service, while Karlyn does interior design. Karlyn studied design at the Scottish College of Textiles in Galashiels before moving to London where she designed for Jasper Conran, Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci.

Luckily, the three-bedroom house, which also has a basement ripe for conversion, is big enough for the couple to run both businesses from home. While Rob has a studio in a basement room, Karlyn has turned a former bedroom into a sumptuous office, which is wall to wall with luxurious fabric and wallpaper sample books from favourites such as Harlequin, Romo, Zoffany, Sanderson, Mulberry and Vanessa Arbuthnott.

Karlyn has a refreshing approach as she encourages clients to look at their existing furnishings before splashing out, and just as she has had to do in her own home, she keeps a strict eye on the budget.

"You might see a beautiful fabric at 125 per metre, but if you can't afford to use it for the full curtain then edge a plain curtain with it," she advises. "It is possible to get the finish you want on a budget. I think it is important to have a home that is completely your own rather than just having a house that is a show home. People always have pieces of furniture that they have collected – often it is just a case of moving that furniture around or getting an old chair re-covered."

Karlyn and Rob had to do more than re-cover a few chairs when they bought their home – a good helping of TLC was required before they were able to spread their artistic flair throughout the house.

"It was the parents of a friend of mine who owned the house – they had lived here for 50 years and had last upgraded it in the 1970s when they added an extension," says Karlyn. "We managed to buy the house without it even going on the market. The day we moved in we had to rip a ceiling down. In between times I was pulling up carpets and removing cork tiles that had been screwed to the kitchen floor. I said I would live with the kitchen for a year but I didn't."

The couple had to re-wire, and after removing a wardrobe that had been pinned to the wall found that they also had to re-plaster. They knocked down a wall to open up the kitchen and dining-room, in which they put down Karndean flooring. In the living-room and piano room, they sanded and polished the floor, and installed a new fireplace. They also replaced the downstairs bathroom with a contemporary suite dressed with a slate splashback, Zoffany wallcovering, auction-bought Dresden-style mirror and extravagant chandelier.

"We got away with putting up the chandelier as the ceiling height is so high. The Dresden mirror is ridiculous but it is fun too," laughs Karlyn. "I am all for putting a bit of sense of humour into houses."

However, when it came to refitting the kitchen Karlyn exercised all of her interior know-how by sourcing appliances online, commissioning a Zodium composite stone worktop and buying the sleek white units from Magnet. She also installed a wall-mounted chrome radiator that acts like a piece of artwork – the other striking artworks in the kitchen and throughout the house were created by Rob.

In the dining-room, Karlyn's passion for working with her existing gems and adding a few extras came into full force when she painted the old chocolate brown fireplace white, added Romany fabric at the windows and breathed new life into the old dresser that came from their previous cottage.

"The Welsh dresser looked great in our cottage but did not look so great here, so I painted it a Farrow & Ball colour," she says. "You have to adapt things sometimes. My dining table is from Bo Concept, but the chairs are from Ikea so that the covers come off and can go in the washing machine. When Cecily is bigger I will buy more expensive chairs."

Karlyn's love of reusing and adapting came to the fore again in the bedrooms, where she stretched Busby & Busby fabric from her previous home across a wall in one room, and used an antique shoe trolley as a bookcase in Cecily's bedroom, where Celia Birtwell fabric has been used and colourful bunting strung across the ceiling.

However, it was the lounge, which opens into the piano room, that Karlyn admits wowed her when she first viewed the house. "It is a very elegant principal room," she smiles. "I always wanted somewhere to have Rob's mum's grand piano – I just did not expect to find a house with a lounge and a piano room."

Farrow & Ball's "Buff" has been applied to the walls, with the dividing wall between the two rooms finished in bronze. While the lamps are essentially antique shop finds and reclaimed chairs have been upholstered in striped and lime green leopard-print fabrics, Karlyn used her own advice and edged her curtains with a Jane Churchill floral fabric. The room is filled with family treasures and impulse buys, from the Hungarian embroideries that hang over the piano, to the Fray Bentos wooden box and a stuffed cayman that has been cheekily placed as though running over a wall.

Karlyn and Rob have created a home that completely reflects their personalities, and are now thoroughly enjoying helping other people achieve the same results in their own homes.

To contact Karlyn or Rob Evans, contact Re-Decorate Design Services (0141-649 8118, www.re-decorate.co.uk, e-mail [email protected])

This article was originally published in Scotland on Sunday on 21 February 2010