MODERN FAMILY

A LIFELONG OBSESSION WITH DESIGNS HAS BLOSSOMED IN THIS HOUSE, TURNING IT INTO A QUIRKY AND CHARACTERFUL HOME.

- Gillian Welsh

A youthful obsession with the Laura Ashley home furnishings catalogue and the influence of a mother with a real flair for interior design were early clues that Karen Livingstone Welstead was always going to grow up to have a rather amazing house. And so it has proved: the six-bedroom Georgian country pile in Stirlingshire she shares with her partner Matt and their three children is refined without being stuffy, full of personality without being OTT – a modern family home that has been designed to be lived in.

But it has taken a lot of work to knock it into shape. “The same family had owned it for more than 30 years when we took it on – it was in need of some attention,” she says. The heating, plumbing, kitchen and bathrooms were ready to be updated and refreshed.

Welstead might initially have been hoping to concentrate only on the interior design, but with so much work needing doing, she took on the role of project manager when it came to remodelling and decorating the whole house.

Prior to this, the couple had lived not too far away, at the picturesque Tannoch Loch in Milngavie, and before that they’d both worked as bankers in London. That was eight years ago. “We moved north looking for a house exactly like this one, but there was nothing on the market. We ended up buying my parents’ house in Milngavie, which was fabulous for a young family. We had great friends and could walk the kids to school, but we always dreamt of living in a more rural location, with more space.” Now they have more than their fair share of countryside right on their doorstep – the house came with a large lawn at the back, a pond, 20 acres of fields and some wild woodland.