Love this recent feature from the October 2023 issue of Good Homes Magazine.

Owners, Alex and Esme Seymour bought a dated bungalow in the seaside town of North Berwick and with the help of architects, Somner Macdonald, and Copper Grey Developments, who specialise in bespoke renovations, they have radically altered it to create a contemporary home with a wonderful, family friendly layout.

Alex and Esme jettisoned a fireplace and the accompanying bulky chimney stack, to enjoy 360 views of the garden and the surrounding landscape.

The living space is open to the kitchen dining area, all of which benefit from the newly created dual aspect of large picture windows front and back.

Although they knew what they wanted from their home, in discussion with their architect, Alex and Esme realized they had to reign their ambitions in a little bit due to budget. ‘Overall though we’re very pleased with the result and our restrictions enabled us to come up with some more creative solutions’ Esme explains, ‘the location of staircase was definitely a compromise, for instance, but we are very happy with the resulting layout.’ Alex created a virtual walkthrough of the plans using a tool called 3D Floor Planner, ‘it’s very simple to use’ he says, ‘and really helped us make some tricky decisions.’

The family did move out for six months while the messiest of the work was done. This is an additional expense and it can be quite tricky finding rental accommodation locally of course, an important consideration. Towards the end of the project they spent every weekend at the house decorating, which saved a lot of money they recall.

There is a cosy snug which doubles as the TV room...

The kitchen was designed and installed by Edinburgh based Kitchens by Nick McNally.

Removing the chimney stack created more space upstairs, in the loft, where the master bedroom suite and a useful home office space is located.

The results prove how dramatically you can improve a property with bold decisions and carefully thought through colour choices. Esme has committed to a monochrome backdrop with fabulous punchy accent colours. She carried her subtle, but nuanced Farrow & Ball colour palette around with her at all times and then then checked that furniture and accessories that she picked up all over the place would work with it.

Fun, contemporary choices are no more expensive than safe traditional ones, but the results are always going to be much more individual.

The bathroom is an absolute dream – I love the colourful terrazzo tiles from Casa Ceramic, such a cool collection. Bath products from Laura Thomas add another gorgeous pop of colour.

I hope you found this story inspiring and helpful, please get in touch if you would like to share your home renovation story. We would love to see it.