For Janie and Michael Homer, appearing on Scotland’s Home of the Year has been a long time coming.
They initially applied to be on the BBC Scotland programme two years ago. The pair got a speedy reply and their Ayr property - where they live with daughter Daisy, dogs Poppy and Bertie, and cats Fred and Elvis - was accepted for the West episode of the series. However, Janie couldn’t get the time off work and they didn’t feel quite ready.
“We hadn't done all the rooms and painted the outside of the building, and it was just going to be too hectic trying to get it ready within a fortnight,” she says. “So I just put it on hold for a year, and then the next year we went through the full application process from the beginning”.
At last, they’ve made it on, and they’ll be appearing on Monday April 27, at 8.30pm, in episode four of the seven part series.
“We’re excited, but also a bit apprehensive”, says Janie, who works in healthcare. “It feels like waiting for exam results”.
They’re going up against a semi-detached house in Dumbreck and a Victorian villa in Kilmacolm, with the usual trio - Danny Campbell, Anna Campbell-Jones and Banjo Beale, judging them on architectural merit, distinctive design and personal style.
We think that the Homer house is in with a good chance of making it to the grand finale.
This very stylish home features a tasteful palette, and the decor looks natural, rather than too staged or trendy. However, each room still retains a distinctive personality, from the huge drawing room, with triple aspect windows and sunshine yellow walls, to the creamy kitchen with marble island, and the green bedroom with its illustrations of palm trees.
They intuitively chose the shades to suit these spaces.
“The colours we wanted changed after we've lived here for a while. We did each room, one at a time, and worked our way around,” Janie says. “After a whole year, seeing the light and feeling the temperature over the seasons, that changed our mind as to what colours we wanted to use in different rooms. In the north of the building we've used warmer shades. The yellow drawing room is probably the brightest room we have. It's just a sunny room and feels lovely to be there at any time of day”.
As far as furniture goes, the couple describe their style as “mix and match”, and most pieces have been collected, or inherited. There are big comfortable sofas upholstered with plump cushions, a white chaise longue in a bedroom, and pieces that range in date from the 1900s to mid-century.
“Everything we have in the house has got a story behind it,” Janie says. “We've collected items on holidays or places we've lived or places we've travelled to, or they’ve been passed down from relatives or as gifts from people”.
According to the couple, the 200-year-old building had a checkered history before they took it over in July 2021. When they moved in, it was in dire need of some TLC.
“We understand it was a care home from the Sixties onwards. Then a family bought it in 2000 and turned it into a home, and they knocked down the big extension at the back that had the care home rooms in it,” Janie says. “Then at a later date, it was sold again, and was bought by the hospice across the road. They originally intended to use it as accommodation for relatives, but instead, they changed it into offices and it had nylon carpets, self-closing doors and strip lights”.
Thankfully, all of the original Georgian features weren’t ripped out. That is, apart from the old doors, though they had been stashed in the garage, and were relinquished to the Homers when they took ownership. They’ve been reinstalled now.
The house has the typical grand proportions of its period, and I wonder what Janie’s secret is, when it comes to decorating a potentially intimidating space.
“My secret is my husband, truly, he pretty much does it all,” she says. “Although, he was a bit unwell with problems with dizziness and balance, and couldn’t go up ladders for a while, so we had to get a professional in to do some of the rooms upstairs, because the ceilings upstairs are higher”.
Apparently, Michael is the creative one. He comes up with the ideas, and Janey sometimes talks him down, if she thinks his plans are a bit too “wacky”.
I suppose he might be described as the Laurence Lewellyn-Bowen of Ayr, as he tried to persuade Janie to let him paint the dining room a very bright pink. In the end, they compromised with a muted mauve instead.
However, his idea to paint the bathroom ceiling gold was okayed by the family.
“He told me to trust him and that we could paint over it, if I didn’t like it,” says Janie.
The finished result looks incredible, as does the gold leaf that he applied around the dining room fireplace. That was an idea he got from a bar that the couple visited when they were on holiday in Paris twenty years ago. As Janie says; “He's got an eye for design and style, and he makes amazing things”.
Scotland’s Home of the Year, Ep4/7: West, is on Monday April 27, BBC iPlayer & BBC One Scotland, 8.30-9.00pm, and on Wednesday April 29, BBC Scotland, 8.00-8.30pm
Read more: “Inside the plush and welcoming Fife house that's appearing on Scotland's Home of the Year”
