Page 211 - Homes & Interiors Scotland

he enduring popularity of plain, neutral The pink sandstone property, with its traditional red
interiors is proof that most of us are terrified pantile roof, was originally two cottages. They were built
when it comes to decorating. The fear is of around 1830 for estate workers, and knocked together into a
making a mistake with pattern, choosing one-bedroom house after the war. She found it by chance:
a colour we’ll go off, or looking daft when having driven through the village often, and thought how
our friends come to visit because our taste much she would like to live there, one day her former boss
T is ‘wrong’. But when Lizzie Bell was putting spotted a For Sale sign in the garden. “I thought the house was
together her own home, there were no such issues. As an very pretty and I loved its charm,” she recalls. “Within five days
interior designer of many years’ experience, who’d trained the cottage was mine and the rest is history.”
under the expert guidance of Jimmy Thomson and Angus The interior, however, was less than charming. Lizzie
Williamson of AF Drysdale, she knew instinctively that her moved in and set to work on a top-to-toe makeover, fitting a
bijou East Lothian cottage was crying out for bold fabrics and sitting room, study, dining room and TV room into the small
strong colours. And she went for it. space. She remained in residence while the build was going

HOMES & INTERIORS SCOTLAND