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California meets Scotland in interior designer Lisa Guest's expertly layered Georgian townhouse in Stockbridge

- Natasha Radmehr

Some wee girls ask for Lego and Mr Frosty for Christmas. But when Lisa Guest was little, her letter to Santa looked quite different. “I would ask for furniture and rugs," laughs the interior designer, who grew up in Las Vegas. “My dad was a builder who built every house I grew up in. We'd make furniture together in the garage, or I'd sit in his office and design my own house plans for fun. I loved arranging things within a space!

Unsurprisingly, Guest's childhood passion blossomed into a vocation. She moved to northern California and interned for Erin Martin Design in St Helena – “She's incredible, and I learned so much," says Guest - and it wasn't long before she had her own business with a roster of clients. But then something, or rather someone, unexpectedly altered her life trajectory. She fell in love with a Scottish guy (hey, it happens to the best of us).

“I came here in 2016 to meet up with a friend and ended up at a Hogmanay party at Olly's new flat,” she recalls. "Seven months later, he and I were married and I was moving to Edinburgh."

Together, the couple renovated Olly's home on London Street. It was Guest's first time working on a Georgian property and she quickly became enamoured with a style of architecture completely different to the sprawling ranches and mid-century modern homes that dominate the west coast of America.

"I loved the high ceilings, the mouldings, the set-up. I was completely out of my depth, but I learned a lot," she says. "We then ended up renovating another flat on North Castle Street and I started to really enjoy working on Georgian properties. Maintaining and honouring their history is so important?