At home with Cleo and Stewart Hosford

Friends and colleagues were giving different advice about where they should look and Trinity was just another name on a map, but when the Hosfords pulled up outside 130 Trinity Road and spotted the view to the Forth, the deal was pretty much done.

"We're sea people," says Cleo, who worked as an actress when living in London, while Stewart, a keen yachtsman, has just left RBS to become managing director for the Hugo Boss sailing team – a round-the-world yacht racing team fronted by the famous UK sailor Alex Thomson. "I remember saying to the taxi driver, 'We want this house'."

The couple share a love of period property, so it's no surprise that this late Georgian terraced villa ticked all the boxes once they were inside. This little row of Georgian properties were originally sea captains' houses and are some of the oldest properties in Trinity. Walking into the hallway, the first thing that strikes you is the volume, with the stone staircase curving up to three bedrooms and a family bathroom upstairs. The house feels even taller inside than it appears from the street.

This sense of space, with lofty ceiling heights and light-filled rooms, continues throughout, while the _features and detailing display the character that Georgian houses are so admired for, from the deep coving and working shutters to the fireplaces, including a lovely brown-flecked marble surround in the master bedroom.

This isn't a formulaic house: you wind through from the hallway into the dining-kitchen at the rear – a space that would once have been two rooms. French doors open from the dining area onto the rear garden, which faces east so the morning sun streams in, while the kitchen leads into a little garden room within an offshoot (also containing a laundry with WC and a store to the rear) that would have been added years ago. It's all a bit quirky.

Prior to the Hosfords buying the house in the summer of 2006, the previous owners had favoured a darker palette of reds, blues and brown. "I was on a 'light mission'," says Cleo. "All we wanted to do was bring light into the house."

The whole place was redecorated, and Cleo took on the challenge of sourcing wallpapers for the feature walls throughout. Sounds easy, right? There are thousands of wallcoverings out there, but finding slightly reflective ones that will catch the light, and prints that are a little unusual is not so straightforward. The wallcovering in the sitting room is by renowned Australian designer Florence Broadhurst, who specialised in wallpaper and textile designs from the 1950s onwards. Cleo sourced it online and ordered it from Australia.

"I just fell in love with it," she says. The wallcovering used in the hallway and beside the staircase was an easier find from Laura Ashley, and again it catches the light, as does the Osborne & Little print in the master bedroom, while Cole & Son's gorgeous Magnolia wallpaper adds a decorative edge to the dining area. "I was looking online and through magazines for ideas, but it was important to work with the house," Cleo reflects. "The house sometimes dictates what you want to do." In the case of the staircase that meant nothing fussy. "These big expanses couldn't take a heavy or busy print."

The couple, who now have two young boys, Christy, four, and Olan, two, did the majority of the work before they moved in. "We have enough experience together to know that once you move in things become acceptable," says Stewart. "You just live with them." Carpets were lifted and replaced, unearthing some beautiful floorboards in the master bedroom, "but we'd already bought a new carpet so we covered them up again," Cleo sighs.

Meanwhile, the once-dark timber floorboards downstairs were polished and lightened. The rear windows were replaced and the open fireplace in the sitting room was refurbished to create an open fire, while most of the walls were replastered. The couple also stripped out the 1960s fitted furniture from the guest bedroom to reveal an original Edinburgh press and slate hearth.

The previous owners had installed the kitchen with its cream units and stainless steel Smeg range cooker, as well as the lovely airy bathroom upstairs, and the couple added the tongue-and-groove panelled splashback to the former, where the cream Smeg fridge-freezer adds a contemporary edge. Combined with the pale walls, this space has been transformed. Just as the house suggested the decoration, so it influenced the couple's furnishing choices. "I had a moment of, let's make it all very modern, but at the same time, based on the furniture we already had and the house itself, that didn't feel right," says Stewart.

When living in London the couple had frequented the Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park. "You'd have to go at six in the morning, with the dealers, and haggle to get the bargains," says Cleo. "I'm a bit of a car boot sale person; I'm very good at shopping." Once in Edinburgh they soon discovered the delights of Causewayside, and in particular Affordable Antiques. "We never came back empty-handed," Cleo admits. "We'd drive up, I'd jump out the car and run round the shops, and then we'd have to squeeze things in the back of the car." Things such as the antique pendant light in the couple's bedroom, for example, or the worn-in timber kitchen table.

Other pieces, such as the piano or the corner pine unit in the dining area, were inherited from Cleo's mother, while Stewart's mother made the hand-stitched marriage quilt on their bed, which in turn led to the choice of wallpaper and wall colour here. There is also the odd eBay find, such as the overmantle mirror above the marble fireplace. The process was all very organic. As Cleo says: "We weren't looking for things that would last a lifetime, just pieces that would work with this house. With young kids, there's nothing precious."

As the couple talk about how great this location has turned out to be, from the local book club to the nearby Wardie Beach for the kids, it is clear that their forthcoming relocation to Portsmouth will be a wrench, particularly for Cleo whose heart is set on another period house – a place that will reflect the innate charm and character that has made this house into a home. k

Offers over 499,000 should be made to Russel + Aitken (0131-202 0600, www.boutiquehouses.com)

This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 07 February 2010