BARN AGAIN

Until very recently, this was a derelict cow byre. Now, resurrected and renovated, it has a new life as an elegant but welcoming room for entertaining

- Gillian Welsh

East Kilbride, you might have heard, isn’t the most scenic corner of Scotland. But beyond the concrete, the shopping centres and the car parks, are pockets of genuine loveliness. On the outskirts, a wee bit away from the whiz of the Whirlies (the spherical sculptures that adorn the most famous of the town’s many roundabouts) is this property, a former farmhouse overlooking vast swathes of South Lanarkshire’s lush green fields.

The house glows now, following a thorough makeover, but it has taken time, effort and a lot of ingenuity to get it looking this good. Interior designer Pat Renson is responsible for much of the improvement. She was commissioned to turn the semi-derelict cow byre adjoining the house into a spacious contemporary room for entertaining. But her task soon escalated into the refurbishment of the entire house, and with that came plenty of challenges.

“The farmhouse had been altered many times over the years and some of the workmanship was of pretty poor quality,” she recalls. “It made sense for the builders to fix it all at the same time as the byre was being worked on.”

The house’s elevated position leaves it exposed to the elements, so the idea was to create a sheltered central courtyard, with the byre – newly attached to the house as part of an L-shaped extension – opening into it. The owners, a family with whom Renson had worked before, wanted the space to be arranged around a generous dining table and comfortable sofas. “The man of the house also requested a bar area where he and his pals could relax watching football,” she says. The main space was to be used all year round, and, with its new bifold doors open wide, it would be particularly good for summer parties.