A place of our own

Bold, brave choices paid off handsomely when the owners of this Edinburgh flat decided to put their stamp on the place

- Judy Diamond

DETAILS

What A renovated apartment in a townhouse

Where Edinburgh

Architect David Blaikie

Contractor Bann

As they gazed down at their neighbour’s lovely west-facing back garden, Tom and Susie Crowe were making plans. The property had just gone up for sale and the couple had their hearts set on it. They already loved living in this street – a quiet corner between Edinburgh’s west end and Stockbridge – and they felt that with some upgrading, a few tweaks to the layout and, crucially, the addition of a glass-box extension at the back, the flat two doors down could be their dream home. Just a few months later it was theirs, and within a fortnight of moving in they’d invited an architect round for a chat. It was all going so well…

Today, two and a half years on, there’s no sign of any extension and the floorplan has been radically redrawn. Yet there’s no doubting that this really has become their dream home – just not the way they imagined it. “We were really upset when we realised our plans weren’t going to work out,” Tom admits. “But, actually, it was a blessing in disguise. What we’ve ended up with is far superior. We had to spend time in the house, seeing how the light comes in, getting to know how each space feels, before we could work out how we wanted to live here and what had to change to make that happen.”