GOOD VIBES ONLY
Close collaboration between architect, interior designer and client led to a joyful, harmonious result for this Edinburgh project
DETAILS
What An extension to a villa in a
conservation area
Where Edinburgh
Architect Craig Amy
Interior design Acanthus Interiors
Main contractor Inscape Joinery
Designers and architects might be reluctant to admit it, but some projects are a nightmare. Obstructive planners, indecisive clients, uncooperative neighbours and incompetent builders can all play a part in delaying or even derailing a job. For this extension, there was plenty of scope for things to go wrong. It is, after all, a 200-yearold villa in one of Edinburgh’s loveliest conservation areas. Happily, though, this was a project that was all about harmony – and it shows in what has been created here.
Talk to architect Craig Amy and interior designer Rebecca Currie about their combined input, and you get delighted smiles and repeated assertions of the joys of collaboration. There’s also a phrase that comes up again and again: “It just worked.” Their positivity is a breath of fresh air.
Rebecca, owner of the city’s Acanthus Interiors, had known the clients, Sarah and Phil, for years.
“They bought this amazing late-Georgian/early-Victorian house in Blacket Place a long time ago,” she recalls. “The first time I went round, though, I was quite shocked to find it had a terrible 1960s
Previous pages The extension forms a connection between the main house, the former coach house and the garden. The steel structure was made by Gordon Bow Engineering with stone panels (Dunedin Stone) and timber cladding (Russwood). Opposite The garden room is a lovely place to gather. The sofas are by Sits, covered in Casamance fabric with GP&J Baker cushions, and the pendants are from Vips & Friends. Above The glazed doors (by Uni Windows) open to allow the sofa to sit in fresh air. Clerestory windows (fitted by Mark Smith Glazing) let light into the upper levels
Left The dining area is encircled by a curved partition and overlooks the garden room. The table and chairs are by Versmissen and the pendant lights are by Vips & Friends. Centre Looking through the tiled hallway to the extension shows how the levels change. Right The shape of the extension roof is reminiscent of a pagoda
extension stuck on the back of it. Once they were in a position to do this building work, I told them I had the perfect architect for them. They met Craig and really liked him, and it all worked out from there.”
As for Craig, when he began thinking about how to design the extension, he realised there was a simplicity to it due to the limitations imposed by the existing house and available space.
“Sarah and Phil were clear about the old extension being torn down, but what they wanted for the new layout was actually very similar to what was there already,” he explains. “The kitchen would be in a similar position, as would the garden room, although they wanted it to feel much more connected to the garden.
“You can often get overloaded with options, but in this case
everything came together really quickly because there were only a couple of ways we could do it. My first idea, in fact, was the one we ran with.”
Getting planning approval from the council was a reassuringly smooth process, with the local residents’ group, the Blacket Association, which seeks to protect and maintain the area, getting behind the design.
Craig’s idea was to create a series of spaces on different levels, spread between new extension buildings and an existing coach house. A combination of floor-to-ceiling windows and doors as well as rooflights and clerestories would flood the rooms with light. “We went for split levels, keeping the kitchen up at the same level as the main house,” says the architect. “The main driver was
to get lots of light into the kitchen, so our contractor, Inscape Joinery, took the roof off and rebuilt it with three big rooflights in it. The garden room had a lower roof, but we stepped that up a little to let in more light through clerestories, giving sneaky little views out from the various levels. It evolved very easily from my point of view – it just worked.
“Rebecca often refers to the buildings as pagodas, which I like.” Externally, Craig went for a simple palette inspired by the existing house and by projects he’d worked on previously. “Creating that pagoda-style tiered roof can really only be done in steel,” he says. “Then you’re playing with a metal skeleton, and it’s how you fill in the gaps. For me it was a simple choice of nice stone panels complemented by timber cladding accents. As for the
“You can leave it up to the client to pick colours; half will do a nice job, and half will really struggle. Having an interior designer on board can transform a project”
Left The narrow staircase from the hallway opens out into the large, light-filled extension. The curtains are Designers Guild and Acanthus’s own linen, while the floor lamps are by Frezoli. Below The enormous doors on two walls in the garden room allow inside and outside to blend, with the planting reflected in the Sandberg wallpaper. Opposite The Howdens kitchen units are complemented by an oak worktop from a separate supplier
finishes internally, the majority of that is Rebecca’s vision.”
Appreciation of Rebecca’s role is something Craig repeatedly mentions throughout our conversation, and it’s clear both parties respect and value what the other brought to the project. Such a close collaborative approach between architect and interior designer from the outset of a build may not be common, but for Craig and Rebecca the whole was greater than the sum of the parts when it came to creating the best outcome for the clients.
“I’ve completed about 150 projects in the last 15 years – just five of those have been with an interior designer, and they’re my favourites,” smiles Craig. “You can leave it up to the client to pick colours; half will do a nice job, and half will really struggle. Having an interior designer on board can transform a project.”
Rebecca is equally enthusiastic about the benefits of collaborating. “It’s unusual for our studio to work this closely with an architect, although I think that’s starting to change,” she says. “Clients can find it difficult to visualise the end product and
often don’t understand what it takes to make a space work from day through to evening. Planning the lighting, the furniture layout and how you’re using colour can make a massive difference to how they live in the space.
“Often, a project will come to us once the building work is finished, and you can always do something lovely with it. But if you can be involved while the build is going on and solve any problems at the start, the finished space is much more sophisticated.”
Working so closely with Craig allowed her to ensure that the internal areas were exactly as needed for her to be able to create the perfect balance of light and shade, texture and colour, along with ‘zones’ which can be used in different ways throughout the day.
“The design actually started with a Sandberg wallpaper,” Rebecca recalls. “We’d used it in a different colourway in the bedroom and then Sarah saw the green-and-white version.
‘I have to have that,’ she said. I knew she was looking for a very comfortable sofa and a cosy feel in the evening. She also wanted the line between inside and outside to be blurred. One way to achieve that, on a project like this where there’s lots of glass, is to use natural colours – deep greens like this one by Graphenstone, for example.
“I like to use deep colours, and green seems to melt away and give people a feeling of space. The concept of biophilic living that has become popular in recent years is something we’re quite focused on. We’ve been using dark greens, very deep blues and bluey-greens a lot, and that worked really well here.”
What Craig and Rebecca have achieved working together, both technically and creatively, is a flowing series of beautifully lit, textured spaces that allow Sarah and Phil to live, relax and work at all times of the day.
From the stylish green-hued Howdens kitchen with its wall of brushed-brass lamps and the dark, cosy library area, to the bright, relaxing garden room, dominated by an L-shaped couch, and the clean white lines of the coach house interior, which contains a mezzanine study and a guest bedroom, the project is a triumph.
With such a straightforward, positive build and design, do Craig and Rebecca have a favourite area or feature? “I really love the light – and not just the brass lights we fitted,” says Rebecca immediately. “I love the way all the light works. You can be standing there, and there’s sunlight filtering through the trees and coming in the clerestories above the main windows. It’s just beautiful.”
Craig thinks for a few moments, trying to decide between the little staircase that opens out into the extension, the hidden ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ utility room, and the coach house. Ultimately, it’s too hard to choose, so instead he ends with a statement that sums it all up: “It just worked. Everyone’s happy.”
