It’s strange how properties can grow on you.
When Emily and Robert Hairstans first saw their home in Mortonhall - a suburb of Edinburgh - she was not a fan of this mid-century building.
“It was so dated and dark, and the sunroom moved in the wind. It wasn’t in great repair,” says Emily, who is originally from California. “Also we had no idea what a good part of town it was”.
However, Robert saw the potential and they went for it anyway. Since then, they’ve put their stamp on it, and now it’s a contender for Scotland’s Home of the Year.
Emily loves it these days. “We really lucked out,” she says.
It’ll be appearing on episode one of the BBC Scotland series, themed East, and going up against an Art Deco property in Edinburgh’s Craiglockhart and a terraced house in Fife.
They’ll be judged by the usual squad of Anna Campbell Jones, Banjo Beale and Danny Campbell, who will be looking for the elusive je ne sais quoi.
As Campbell Jones says, “I’m fascinated by the idea of people forming their own folklore, telling tales and creating uniquely personal narratives, through a perfect mixture of memory, meaning and materiality”.
Although Emily will be in California when the programme is being aired, the family, who include two children, Jackson and Ada, are excited for their moment of fame.
“We've watched the series since season one, and we've loved it. And everyone has always said to us, ‘When will you apply?’ It was always the plan to do so after we’d done the kitchen extension. After that, I updated all of the spaces. I don't think my daughter's room was done when they filmed the show but I’d done the master bedroom, all the family spaces and my son's room,” Emily says. “And, while the kids and I were in California last year, my husband secretly painted the hallway a colour that we picked together. I was really excited not to have to do the work”.
Their house probably made the cut as it is totally unique and completely aligned to the couple’s creative sensibilities and skills. Robert is a professor of timber engineering, and Emily is a horticulturist.
“I'm a gardener, so that certainly explains the billion plants everywhere,” she says.
Indeed, there is greenery dotted on every available stand or shelf, and Emily feels that those additions inspire the calm feel of the property.
“The chickens are getting an extension this summer, because we like to give them outside as much as possible, but we have so many foxes in the area,” she says.
Also, they’ve brought the outdoors in, as the nature-inspired colour palette is down to Emily.
Across the walls, there are oceanic blues, and bright nasturtium oranges. The bathroom features sage green tiles, and the main bedroom has duck egg blue walls.
Even the wood-burning stove is a bright umber shade.
There is no wallpaper in the house, just block colours, and they’ve used prints judiciously, on soft furnishings including the occasional cushion and an Orla Kiely stem pattern tablecloth. These tones contrast beautifully against the exposed wood in the kitchen, with its floor-for-ceiling windows, and the brickwork round the fireplace.
There are also two beautiful staircases, which they installed. One is made of tulip wood - a North American hardwood known for its straight grain and unusual pale olive colour.
“My husband is a timber engineer and his research is kind of what we're putting into practice in the house,” says Emily. “The extension itself is homegrown Scottish timber. And so as far as I'm aware, and I'm reasonably certain this is true, this is the first homegrown cross laminated timber extension”.
As far as the furniture goes, the couple have equally sustainable tastes.
“I love secondhand and charity shop furniture. The cheaper, the better. I love it. And I like painting furniture, and to upgrade things,” Emily says. “I really don't have a style or a specific direction to go with things, I just like what I like, I put it together and I think it works”.
Their kitchen is Ikea. Emily assembled that herself,
“We went and bought all the units, then I sat every night in front of the telly building kitchen units while I watched shows,” she says. “The cabinet fronts are a different company and the worktop was a different company as well. So having all of that come together and be the one to build the units and everything, that was pretty cool”.
Making the house work for them has been, as Emily says, “a ride”.
“We were ripping up carpets before the moving van even arrived. And then we moved on to steaming off many layers of wallpaper. After we'd originally viewed the house, and I didn't like it, I ended up taking a look at the floor plan just to see how we might be able to make some of the spaces work a bit better. Fortunately, an architect was able to take my ideas absolutely to the next level and then it was just a slow process. We didn't do it all at once. If we had, it would be a completely different house”.
Scotland’s Home of the Year, Ep1/7: East, is on Monday April 6 on BBC iPlayer and BBC One Scotland from 8.30pm to 9pm, and on Wednesday April 8 on BBC Scotland from 8 to 8.30pm.
