At home with Denise Cook and Donald Nicolson

"We'd want to put our stamp on any property we bought," says Donald, while Denise is too pragmatic to rip out a brand-new kitchen simply because it isn't her style. "I'd have to live with things for years before I could change them," she says. "We might as well start from scratch," Donald reasons.

Finding a property that needs a complete overhaul is this couple's ideal. Denise says they are "house renovators. We're not developers; we just buy houses and do them up." While other people might turn up and feel dismayed by the level of work required in a house, Donald says: "I go in expecting the worst, and it never seems as bad."

And so it was when Denise and Donald came to view this end-of- terrace townhouse down a quiet cul-de-sac at 1 Cavendish Place in Troon. The property was dated internally and needed new wiring, plumbing, central heating and windows, as well as new flooring, and plastering and decorating throughout, while the rear of the ground floor was "like a rabbit warren", Denise recalls.

Rather than today's interconnected dining-room and dining-kitchen, giving the option of formal or informal spaces to eat, there was a wall shutting off the dining-room – an insular layout typical of many period houses. Removing this turned out to be a bigger task than anticipated. While the wall did not appear to be structural, the couple discovered that it had previously been removed and reinstated badly, and required a structural steel beam to be inserted. Two sets of French doors were also installed here – one set from the dining-room, the second from the dining area in the kitchen – creating a better connection to the rear garden while pouring light into the back of the house.

Structurally, the biggest change can be seen upstairs, as the attic level has been converted to form two additional bedrooms and a bathroom. "There was a big loft space with a ladder going up to it through a cupboard, and we knew neighbours had done a loft conversion, so it was possible in terms of the head height," Donald explains.

This in turn enabled the couple to reconsider the first floor, which originally had two doubles and a single bedroom. The latter was made into a generous en suite, transforming a three bedroom and one bathroom house into a four bedroom, two bathroom and one en suite house. Quite an improvement.

"Denise is better at visualising things than I am," Donald acknowledges. "We've been together 12 years, so I'm learning to see what she sees and how to make a space better."

Denise in turn credits her late father Billy Cook, who was a painter and decorator. As the bold turquoise hue in the sitting-room attests, Denise isn't afraid of colour; in fact she used this hue in the sitting-room of the couple's last property in Glasgow's West End and liked it so much, combined with the black leather furniture and graphic accessories, that she replicated the look here. Although the cornicing was existing, ceiling roses were added here and in the dining area, along with the limestone fireplace.

"My father used to love joking about magnolia, or maggy as he called it, so it's a colour that Donald and I completely shy away from," Denise says. Instead, she chose gentle tones such as Nutmeg White, White Chalk and Cookie Dough (from the Dulux colour range) and, other than in the sitting-room, she maintained this subtle palette throughout. "I think it's important to have that continuity, otherwise it can look a bit disjointed and become a cacophony of the senses," she says.

Neither is Denise afraid of wallpaper. "My dad used to come home with wallpapers, and while I don't like a whole room done in wallpaper, I like it on one wall." Feature walls abound, from the flock-effect paper by Graham & Brown that hangs in the guest bedroom to Romo's minty green Saiuri Alpine paper from Dekors in the master bedroom, which Denise combined with black accessories (there is a touch of black in the wallpaper) so the space did not feel too feminine. "Usually I'll see one thing I like and create a room around it," she says.

Just to add to the stresses of the renovation – as the couple were sharing project management duties – Denise was pregnant at the time with their son Gregor, now four months old. Because of this, Donald moved into the house first in April last year while things were being finished off (they got the keys in March 2008 and work started in October), while Denise remained in Glasgow until July.

The couple employed architect Robert Potter of Robert Potter & Partners, who drew up the plans for the changes, and it was his idea to insert the new staircase accessing the attic level directly above the existing staircase, just as you would find in a classic townhouse. "I had a hard time with this at first as I thought it might be too dark," Denise recalls, "but walking upstairs you get this feeling of a big family house."

One of Donald's tasks was balancing the budget, and while the timing of the project went against the couple in some ways – the price of steel shot up, impacting on the structural steel required for the attic level – it also proved fortuitous as build costs came down.

For buyers who are looking for a fantastic kitchen and bathrooms, this house has both. Denise took her cue for this kitchen from a previous project. "It was a learning curve as I'd installed a white gloss kitchen with black worktops and a grey floor, but it was so contemporary it felt cold," she explains. Here Denise chose cream panelled doors to add warmth, with brick-style ceramic wall tiles and a black Rangemaster cooker as the centrepiece.

Polished porcelain floor tiles enhance the daylight while reflecting the low-level lighting at night, creating a cosy atmosphere. As Denise got a good deal on the tiles, they appear again in the bathrooms, combined with large-profile matt wall tiling and dark timber finishes, including mahogany in the family bathroom and walnut in the en suite. The latter has been a luxury as the scale allowed for a large walk-in shower area behind a glazed screen, with twin wall-mounted basins. As Denise says: "We had the space to go to town here, and everybody likes somewhere nice to go at the end of the day."

Asked what has exceeded expectations in this house, Denise credits the dining-kitchen. "We hummed and hawed about taking that wall out," she admits, "but without that, I don't think this whole family space would have hung together as well as it has."

Offers over 350,000 should be made to Corum (01292 310 010, www.corumproperty.co.uk)

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