SET IN STONE

New owners had big plans to shake up this Victorian house. But living in it throughout the pandemic made them realise it was already giving them all the home they needed

- Words Malcolm Jack

This modest granite mansion on the western fringes of Aberdeen already had a feeling of timeless grandeur, elegance and family-friendliness when its new owners moved in with their two young children back in 2018. But they could see it needed work — and not just of the cosmetic variety. “They had lots of visions for the place,” recalls Christina Bull, partner and studio lead at Sims Hilditch, the London and Cotswolds-based interior design studio who were brought in to advise on the transformation. The owners were long-standing clients from a previous project and had a strong relationship with the practice.

“One thing we discussed was adding an extension on the side, which would have created quite a juxtaposition with the house. There was a lot of back and forth on ideas and plans.”

They were almost ready to go ahead when the lockdowns of the Covid pandemic happened, and everything suddenly stopped. Fast forward a couple of years and, having lived in the house a while and gotten to know and love it, the family decided it was already all the home they needed. Extension plans were shelved in favour of accentuating the abundance of character already in the three-bedroom Victorian property, in everything from tall slim windows and high corniced ceilings to a wonderful orangery off the kitchen, overlooking a garden that sweeps down to a tennis court. Sims Hilditch’s install finally got underway in 2023, by which point the clients were more than ready for it. “They'd completely left the house as it was when they moved in,” says Christina. “It was quite glitzy — there were mirrored panels inside some of the windows, crushed velvet everywhere, LED lighting in the ceiling in one of the loos. It was very modern.”