Interiors: Simon Barrett has turned a ‘cold and empty’ Georgian farmhouse into a light and inviting home

ALTHOUGH Simon Barrett had never tackled a renovation project until he came to Kilpunt House four years ago, he had gained experience in how to visualise an interior coming together having previously built a house while living in Stockholm.

“When building in Sweden you hear the phrase ‘nyckelfärdig’, which means the house is ‘key ready’, finished with walls painted and floors laid, so when you get the keys all you have to do is furnish it,” Simon explains. “This means you have to go through every room in your mind’s eye and design and plan it in advance.”

Simon and his former wife built the Swedish lakeside house to be contemporary and sustainable, but after relocating to Scotland eight years ago for work, he was ready for a change. He initially lived in a flat in Leith before spotting Kilpunt House, on the outskirts of Broxburn in West Lothian. “I’ve gone from one extreme to another, from an eco-friendly new house to a Georgian farmhouse,” says Simon, who works for a financial services company, “and having done both, I love both.

“The house had been on the market for a while when I saw it and there was nothing here. It was cold and empty.” Although the property had been partially renovated, the décor was uninviting. “There were white walls and pink carpet,” he says. “It needed quite a lot of work, but I fell in love with the place. It’s a beautiful house in the Georgian style, but it’s not like the Georgian houses you see in town; it has a country style and is a bit higgledy-piggledy, with lots of exposed wood and loads of character.” Once Simon started decorating, the house began to come alive, but he had bigger plans for improving the property. “As soon as I walked in, I thought this would be a great living space,” he says of today’s open-plan kitchen-dining and family area, which was previously two rooms – the former kitchen and a utility room, with a long corridor along the side leading to the kitchen. With six bedrooms and five public rooms, Kilpunt has ample space but, Simon says: “It didn’t have one room that was really, really big.”

Having considered combining two rooms at the rear of the ground level – a dining room that Simon uses as a gym and a living room his ten-year-old daughter Felicia uses as a play room – he realised that opening up the existing kitchen was a better plan. This space already had French doors on to the patio area at the front of the house, which in turns leads into the walled garden, with a paddock beyond.

The utility room was removed, along with the corridor, and today’s generous kitchen-dining-family space was created. The anthracite grey kitchen from Magnet was the starting point for the rich palette as Simon picked up the same colour on a feature wall in the seating area. Large-profile black floor tiles define the dining-kitchen area, while dark timber floorboards soften the effect in the seating area – and continue throughout the ground level. Red and purple accents offset the anthracite. “The grey is a very sophisticated colour,” says Simon. “Once I saw the units, the rest of the ideas came into play.”

This rich colour scheme continues into the bay-windowed drawing room where the walls are French Gray, with one feature wall in textured charcoal Muraspec wallpaper offset by pink accents in the cushions and rug. The second largest bedroom directly above this space blends a luxurious grey and silver palette, and this room is drenched in light from the windows on three elevations. “This is where I sleep in summer,” says Simon. “On a nice day you get views from here to the Pentland Hills.”

Simon has combined contemporary elements with more traditional pieces, as seen in the drawing room where the Regency-style Andrew Martin armchairs are mixed with polished chrome and glass coffee and side tables and a contemporary sofa from Lombok. “I was travelling a lot when I was doing this and was inspired by hotels, bars and restaurants,” he explains. Inspiration for the grey palette came from closer to home after visiting Cameron House on the banks of Loch Lomond. “I like that Cameron House is in keeping with its surroundings and a Scottish hotel, while being modern.”

Although Simon didn’t have to upgrade the bathrooms, he transformed the master bedroom with fresh décor and with statement pendant lighting framing the bed as a cool alternative to bedside lamps. The mock croc console and bedside tables add to the understated and elegant aesthetic and Simon acknowledges that the scale of these rooms enabled him to be bigger and bolder with pieces, like the striking oriental four-poster bed in the summer bedroom, which he spotted in the Lombok store on London’s King’s Road. “I’ve always liked that slightly Japanese approach of simplicity, of no clutter – where even if you have space, it’s not just about filling it up,” he says.

“I didn’t even have knives and forks when I moved in. It was a huge amount of work sourcing everything and having a full-time job,” he admits. Ninety per cent of the interior was completed within six months, beginning with the kitchen-dining-family space before moving on to the master bedroom and Felicia’s bedroom, where the grown-up palette elsewhere gives way to a pink, green and white combo, including bright pink wallpaper from Laura Ashley.

There is one space in Kilpunt House that Simon never got round to completing: the bay-windowed sun room at the front. “The light is beautiful here. It could be the nicest room in the house because of the light,” he reflects.

Now with plans to downsize, Simon admits the experience of this house will encourage him to be even bolder next time round. “The one thing I would look for again is this big open kitchen space,” he says. “Having had this for the first time in my life, it works so well. I’ll miss the space here. I like having a big old house with bags of character. And it’s been a project. When you take on something and change it, it becomes part of you.” k

Fixed price of £649,000; contact Simpson & Marwick (0131-525 8600, www.edinburghprimeproperty.com)