On a dark, wet February day, Selfridges’ managing director Andrew Keith and his architect partner Roderick Murray saw their Highlands home for the first time. ‘There had been a power cut,’ recalls Roderick, ‘and this little old lady showed us around with a candle!’
Having lived in Hong Kong for 20 years, the couple dreamed of a base in their native Scotland and, despite viewing the house at its worst, its romance and the wild beauty of its remote location on the shores of Loch Rannoch captivated them. It was even near a tiny station on the sleeper line to London, meaning Andrew could commute overnight to his job.
The traditional stone-built house (‘in Scotland, we call it a “but and ben”,’ says Roderick) had been extended over 200 years, and even spent some time as a transcendental-meditation retreat before a retired gentleman took it on, dividing the property into the main lodge and three cottages.
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When the couple bought it in 2018 it was, as Andrew says dryly, ‘in need of a bit of a zhuzh’. Initially thinking they could simply put up some wallpaper, they soon realised the house was going to be a more demanding mistress. ‘There was rot and no damp proofing – we had to strip the whole thing back to bare walls,’ says Roderick, who moved from Hong Kong to oversee everything.
Unfortunately, he arrived just before the first Covid lockdown. ‘That was very difficult,’ he says. ‘I was by myself in the middle of the countryside with no workers.’
This enforced pause, although inconvenient, allowed time for him and Andrew to work out what the house needed and adapt plans. A big part of this was rationalising the layout – previously a jumble of corridors and doors in unexpected places that connected the lodge and the cottages beneath one roof.
The decision was made to keep as many original features as possible, often to the contractors’ confusion. ‘We had to explain that we wanted to reuse the knackered old doors and the stairs, which were a bit worn,’ says Roderick.
The decorating, meanwhile, involved many moodboards, he recalls with a smile, ‘a million and one bits of William Morris – I didn’t know there were so many prints!’
Indeed, pattern can be found everywhere, but perhaps the most striking design choice is the sunshine shade of the morning room (Little Greene’s ‘Giallo’). Roderick loves the contrast with the mossy-green space next door: ‘It’s very dark, rich and all-encompassing, so the yellow room is this burst of light.’
This house has taken Andrew and Roderick on a journey of discovery, both into themselves and what they’re capable of, but also deep into the very structure of the home itself. Far from giving it the ‘zhuzh’ they’d originally planned, the couple became intimately acquainted with every inch of their property.
When asked what their favourite spots are, though, both turn back to the landscape. For Andrew, watching the ever-changing Scottish countryside through the living room’s Crittall windows is a treat, while Roderick is never happier than when he’s sat in the Ercol chair in his new kitchen, ‘with the door open, the cat on my knee, looking out at the loch with a cup of tea’.
