Jackie McKenzie and Paul Durrant consider themselves custodians of their beautiful Modernist house.
This Broughty Ferry residence, The Tree House, was designed in the Sixties, and will be going up against a farm steading conversion near Doune and a detached Victorian home in Auchterarder on the Central and Tayside episode of Scotland’s Home of the Year.
It’s unusual in that it only had one previous owner - architect, Dr Bruce Walker, who lectured at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and brought his family up in the house.
Despite its sleek and distinctive vernacular design, after Walker died and his family moved abroad, the building wasn’t immediately snapped up by buyers.
When McKenzie and Durrant took on the property, five years ago, it had become rather dilapidated.
“I think his family tried to sell it a couple of times, but didn't manage, and nobody had taken the bite. Then Covid struck and in 2021 the house came up again, and it was literally around the corner from our old place, when we were thinking we needed to downsize,” says McKenzie. “But you couldn't spot the house because it was surrounded by trees. We went along to the viewing. And my husband said, ‘this is amazing’”.
The couple could see past the rather oppressive black painted walls, and retro decor, to the bare bones of the beautiful open plan L-shaped building.
“We bid for it and got it. I was amazed,” says Jackie. “We understood its quirkiness and that it was somewhere that's been loved a lot and through the years, but just needed to have love injected back into it”.
The couple moved into the property while they were renovating it.
The first job was to remove some of the surrounding trees, since there was no working toilet as the drains were blocked with roots. They had to replace the glass in the windows, while retaining the original frames, plus put in two new bathrooms, a new kitchen and extend into the attic.
Although they wanted to preserve many of the Sixties features, some things had to go, or be disguised at the very least.
At that point, McKenzie thought they might have bitten off more than they could chew.
“We kept the original pine doors and the stainless steel door handles, but I found the pine ceilings just a little bit claustrophobic, so we plasterboarded over them,” she says. “While we had a plasterer in, we went away for two nights. When we came back, I remember bursting into tears because it looked like he’d taken a bag of flour and scattered it over the entire property. It took us a whole night and a whole day before we could even get into our bed. It was awful”.
While they cleared up the mess, their two cats, Mirren and Kaja, had to go in an outdoor pen, and made their indignation clear by ‘howling’.
Thankfully, it was all worth it in the end, for all four of them.
The building still retains its essence, but they’ve breathed new life into it.
“We didn’t want to rip the heart out and make it become a 2025 house,” says McKenzie, whose favourite space is the bedroom, with its views across the treetops.
Their beautiful property is all clean lines and restful views out to the garden. Still, the vibe, as Jackie says, remains “comfy, cosy and relaxed”.
When it comes to the interior, the couple have referenced a few garden colours, like the reds of their acer tree, and brought them indoors.
“It’s very much an inside-outside house,” McKenzie says.
They’re fans of mid-century design, and the living room features a pea green sofa, a classic Eames chair, as well as statement lamps and light fittings. McKenzie has picked up some of their secondhand pieces of furniture from one of her favourite shops, the Tayside Upcycling and Craft Centre at Carse of Gowrie.
The pair don’t tend to spend lots of money on these pieces, since the cats like to make themselves very comfortable.
The walls are white, to suit the architectural period, but also to show off some of their precious artworks.
These include four pieces from local landscape painter Morag Muir, who studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and a huge pastel-hued abstract canvas called Spring, which was bought from a friend’s artist husband, and is near one of the windows.
“It's deliberately positioned there, because when you sit outside in the courtyard, you can look in and see that painting,” says McKenzie, who got the piece for her 40th birthday.
When buying the property, the couple also inherited one of Walker’s own garden sculptures, and the architect’s family left some of the original drawings he made for the house design.
“We've framed some of them, and they're up on the walls,” McKenzie says. “There are even little pen and ink drawings of the trees that were planted”.
They see their home’s appearance on the much-loved programme as an opportunity for others to appreciate their handicraft, but also that of the original owner.
Although they’re getting back from holiday on the screening day, they will be glued to the television in the evening. So far, they’ve been very impressed by all the contestants, though that makes them slightly nervous.
“There’s a bit of trepidation, because there's some really lovely properties, and people have put a lot of effort into their homes,” says McKenzie.
After hearing about the plastering incident, we doubt that anyone has put as much work in as this couple.
In common with Walker, their vision has resulted in a forever home. As McKenzie says, “There's no reason for us to move”.
Scotland’s Home of the Year, Central & Tayside, Monday 12 May on BBC One Scotland, 8.30-9.00pm, www.bbc.co.uk
Read More: “Look inside chic Art Deco property appearing on Scotland’s Home of the Year as tribute to late wife”.
