SURPRISE PACKAGE

Brave choices and a willingness to push the boundaries have produced a thrilling home that belies its unremarkable exterior

- Malcolm Jack

plain white pebbledash 1930s bungalow probably wouldn't hold your attention for very long if you walked past it on your way into Chatelherault Country Park in Hamilton - other than to envy its location, perhaps. The 500-acre former hunting grounds of the Dukes of Hamilton are now one of central Scotland's finest and most historic public green spaces, and the bungalow, on the banks of the Avon Water, is on the doorstep.

But step inside Miller's Cottage and you're in for a big surprise. "I think people would be stunned, says owner David Cadzow proudly. "You just don't expect what you find here."

Refreshed and revitalised by David, a photographer specialising in architectural interiors, and his wife Frances, in close collaboration with Ross McNally from Glasgow design studio Scarinish, the once dilapidated and poky home has been transformed into a superb open-plan three-bedroom sanctuary that soothes and delights with its high-spec minimalist interiors.

From walls finished throughout in tactile Venetian plaster to a bold scalloped statement fireplace clad in concave orange pencil tiles, every detail has been finely tuned to the couple's tastes and needs. Bi-fold doors off the dining area and picture windows in the bedrooms upstairs (the extra floor has been claimed from a roof void boxed out with zinc-clad dormers) frame views of ancient parkland greenery wrapping comfortingly around the house in every direction.