VISION QUEST

Can’t find the perfect artwork for your home? Do as these owners did and commission exactly what you want

- Gillian Welsh

When Sachin and Aikta Amin got in touch with Habitus Design, they were thinking about adding an extension to their Edwardian villa in Glasgow’s Jordanhill. Their discussions with designer Anna Campbell-Jones, however, showed them that it would make more sense to reconfigure what they already had, freeing up their budget to be spent on enhancing the interiors.

The plan they settled on was to fill the place with colour and give each room its own distinct ambience, connecting the various spaces through the use of a cheerful, broad palette of dark blue, pale pink, mustard, copper, turquoise and black, along with stripes and floral patterns, all reflecting the owners’ lifestyle and culture.

The hallway was a key part of the scheme. The owners thought they’d have to get rid of the old Anaglypta panelling, but Campbell-Jones instead painted it in Farrow & Ball’s Stiffkey Blue, instantly taking it from dated to contemporary. “Everyone who visits thinks it’s new,” she says. If the owners’ feared moody grey-blue walls would make the hall feel cheerless, the designer’s reasoning reassured them: “Painting it dark really enhances the sense of airiness in the rooms off it, which are light.” Dorset Marron tiles from Wickes add a traditional note, and look as if they could be the original floor.