this life LAURA MAY WILSON

Interior designer, guesthouse host, and now cafe owner: meet the woman weaving style and soul into the heart of Culross

- Words Natasha Radmehr

Laura May Wilson has an eye for improvement. Take her into a house, or a restaurant, or a hotel, or any environment where aesthetic decisions have been made for the delight of others and she will determine what, if anything, she would change. Not in a judgy way, you understand. That's not her vibe. It’s just the interior designer in her that never seems to switch off; the way she has viewed the world for as long as she can remember, even when she was a young girl growing up in West Fife. “And there's part of me that doesn't like being that way, you know,” she says, laughing. “Because sometimes I'd like to just be able to enjoy things for what they are.”

The rest of us can be grateful, perhaps selfishly, that she’s built this way, because we're the ones who get to bask in the fruits of her discerning taste. Laura is the person who transformed an 1850s coaching inn in Culross (pronounced ‘coo-riss’) into The Dundonald, a boutique guesthouse with Scandinavian-inflected interiors. When we meet, she is putting the final flourishes on her soon-to-open venture, The Mercat, a cafe, provisions and homeware store just along the cobblestone road at the Mercat Cross. Originally a butcher's shop, over the years it has had stints as a cafe, gallery and gift shop. “It’s funny — we used to come in here and Paul, my husband, would ask, ‘So, what would you do with this place?’” says Laura. The idea for the business was prompted by guests of The Dundonald regularly asking where she had bought the various knick-knacks dotted around the house. “I thought, I could source things for them, then have a cafe serving toasties, soup, ham-and-cornichon baguettes, great scones. Nothing fancy - just a real focus on good quality.”