Out And Proud

Round the back of an 18th-century cottage in one of Perthshire’s most picturesque villages is heaven in garden form. Shaded by tall Scots pines and surrounded by fields of barley and wheat, it’s an oasis of tranquillity and beauty, both inside and out.

- Gillian Welsh

The cottage and garden, and the elegant new room that links the two together, belong to Alison Vance and Jeff Laing, the couple behind Edinburgh and Dunkeld design studio Jeffreys Interiors. Their long experience in the business means they know only too well what it takes to create great design and have firsthand knowledge of how to transform the ordinary into something truly special.

Their new garden room came from a need to maximise space and feel closer to nature in their everyday life. “Our initial desire was for an orangery,” says Jeff Laing. “But we quickly realised that such an addition would be out of proportion for our cottage, which dates from 1750. So Alison decided to design a scaled-down version.”