For Roy Lyon, appearing on the new series of Scotland’s Home of the Year will be bittersweet.
It’s something that he always hoped to do with his late wife, Julie, but sadly she passed away from cancer back in 2023.
She was always keen to get on BBC One Scotland’s SHOTY, as they loved the show.
“It was the only programme we’d always watch. We never missed it,” says Lyon, 61, whose favourite presenter is the newcomer, Banjo Beale.
Thus, getting on the shortlist, when they will go up against a modern build in Orkney and a steading in Pitmedden in the North East & Northern Isles episode, was something of a tribute.
Lyon’s Victorian home, Richmond House, in Peterhead, is testament to the couple’s design skills. They were a wonder team, thanks to Julie’s keen eye for design and Roy’s style and practical skills as a painter and decorator.
The duo took on the property in 2021, and had an awful lot of work on their hands.
However, if anyone could do it, they could.
After all, this was a couple that had moved house 21 times in their lifetime. They’d buy somewhere, fix it up beautifully, then get itchy feet and want to move onto the next project.
That must have been stressful. “Nope, because we had it down pat,” Lyon says.
“It was an obsession. When we bought a house, we’d always buy rundown places with the intention of staying in them, really. But, once it was ready, Julie would be back on the property register online and then it’d have gone up in the market and we’d move on”.
Much of the work at Richmond House, before they could get into the nitty gritty of the design aspects, involved undoing botched DIY jobs from previous residents.
According to Lyon, this included fixing the damage that someone had done using a belt sander on the ground floor woodwork. The building had also been neglected for some years, as it was originally built as a farmhouse and the family who owned it were understandably more focused on the upkeep of the surrounding land.
There weren’t many original features left in their new home, so the couple would drive around Scotland to collect fireplaces and radiators. It was a labour of love.
“This is my passion - doing up old houses,” says Lyon.
They have heavily leant into their decadent theme of Art Deco and Art Nouveau.
Though the property was built in 1839, the Lyon’s prefered epoch suits the building’s symmetrical build and elongated windows. It’s a style that the couple favoured before they decided to take the house on.
As Lyon says, he spends much of his time as a decorator painting newbuild houses in neutral shades of white and grey.
The couple’s joyously celebratory home is an antidote to that. Every room is a feast for the eyes.
“The style of our house reflects two lifetimes of style, tastes and both our characters. Each room was designed so that each time we enter any room, we would be blown away,” Lyon says. “ It was also designed without family in mind - our three daughters and nine grandchildren”.
Obviously the behind-the-scenes team from Scotland’s Home of the Year were instantly smitten by the look.
When Lyon applied to go on the show, encouraged by a couple of friends and buoyed and supported by his daughter, who said she would do it with him after he started to get cold feet, the production people advised him against getting his hopes up.
“They said, we’re only here for a look. Lots of people apply, so don’t be offended if you don’t get on the programme,” says Lyon, who now lives at Richmond House with his dogs, Arthur, Audrey and Ruby.
However, after seeing just four rooms of the property, they booked him in for filming immediately.
That’s no surprise, as there are various distinctive features throughout the house.
These include a dining room that features tall-backed Mackintosh-esque chairs and a Tiffany-style lamp, plus a parlour with fan wall mirror above the fireplace and a pair of velvety saffron-coloured sofas. It’s just as well that Lyon’s dogs aren’t allowed in this room.
There’s also some great wallpaper throughout, including a geometric gold and green print in the bedroom, a pattern with birds on it in the parlour - Lyon’s favourite space - and some very cool monochrome paper, called Miami by George Cole, across the coombed ceiling in the bathroom.
At a few hundred quid for a roll, that was an unusually expensive buy for the couple. In contrast, the house also features wallpaper that they bought for a snip.
“It wasn’t the price of them that made us buy them, it was the look,” says Lyon. “Julie would go online searching, and she would say to me, come on, and she would send away for it”.
There’s also lots of very cool furniture, including a polished wood drinks cabinet in the living room, which is mirrored inside and full of era-appropriate Martini glasses. It was a canny buy, as it’s appreciated in value.
“We bought that about 15 years ago for £350, but now the price is through the roof”, says Lyon, who is also passionate about his garden, especially when it comes to roses.
He is looking forward to seeing the house that he and his wife transformed, when their favourite programme airs.
No doubt Julie would be extremely proud.
Scotland’s Home of the Year, North East & Northern Isles, is on Monday 28 April, BBC One Scotland, 8.30-9.00pm, see. www.bbc.co.uk
Read more: Inside Scotland’s Home of the Year judge Anna Campbell-Jones’s house and it’s a world of colour
