TICKLED PINK

Clever design is paired with boldly personal decor in this smart update to one of Glasgow’s classic Victorian villas.

- Caroline Ednie

DETAILS

What A reorganised Victorian villa

Where Pollokshields, Glasgow

Architect Studio SJM Architects

Main contractor Sitka Projects

When Wendy Killin and John McGonagle decided the time had come to give up apartment living, they did so in some style, swapping their flat in Glasgow’s west end for a grand two-storey sandstone villa on the city’s southside, replete with original Victorian features and mature gardens. Even the driveway had pillars.

Having so much space for the couple’s two young sons to run around in was a real bonus, but it wasn’t long before the traditional layout of the interior began to present the family with some practical challenges. “The rooms are so far apart that if the boys were playing in the living room at the front of the house and I was in the kitchen right at the back, I’d be constantly running back and forth between them,” recalls Wendy. “The dining area was problematic too – it was round a corner from the kitchen. It felt very separate from the rest of the rooms, and small too, as the ceiling had been lowered. The whole set-up was bizarre. So we began to think it would be good to have a space in which we could all hang out together as a family.”

A recommendation from a friend of a friend led them to architect Sarah Jane Storrie of Glasgow-based Studio SJM. “I liked the idea that Sarah Jane was a woman who had just gone out on her own, and that she was experienced,” says Wendy. “We clicked immediately, and she didn’t think my ideas were mental!”