A labour of love
Image: Douglas Gibb Photography
Image: Douglas Gibb Photography
Picture an eyewateringly clear summer sunrise in Perthshire. The air is very, very still. On these mornings Lorna McCallum occasionally notices little dots of hot air balloons softly emerge on the skyline, floating across uninterrupted countryside.
“It makes it look like it’s fake, the view out of the window, because you see nothing but rolling green and there are little hot air balloons floating by,” says Lorna. “We’re really quite blessed.”
It was enough to make an army kid stay put. Born in Helensburgh but with a father in the forces, Lorna had never lived anywhere longer than 18 months. The past eight years in Meikle Obney House, the McCallum’s Victorian farmhouse near Bankfoot, have been a considerable stretch indeed.
She and her husband, Kevin, and children, Lewis and Beth, packed up from the outskirts of Glasgow to what was then a dilapidated farmhouse. It was the perfect project for a perpetual decorator.
Image: Douglas Gibb Photography
“We fancied a little bit of rural living,” Lorna recalls. “We just wanted to raise our children somewhere the air was clean and where we could walk our dog. It’s the dream, isn’t it? To escape from the city.”
The house was passed down generations of farmers and had been neglected for the last seven years. While rain poured into the bedrooms through the roof, there was no running water. Luckily, Kevin and Lorna were in the market for a “fixer-upper”.
“We both wanted something we could start afresh and renovate to our tastes,” Lorna explains. “I didn’t want to buy a house and rip out a perfectly nice kitchen.”
They reworked the four bedroom, three and a half bathroom house from the inside out for the next six months.
“We rewired it, replumbed it, did all the usual things when you come across a house that’s over a 100 years old and needs a little bit of life breathing back into it. We did all the essentials and gave it a heartbeat again.”
After the remedial work, the real work began – and still continues.
Without question, interior design is a passion for Lorna, a film and makeup artist and former real estate agent. Each room in the house has since been redecorated four or five times over.
The McCallums have completed most of the refurb themselves, from painting rooms to laying floors. A massive eBay, Gumtree and Pinterest fan, Lorna is a keen DIY-er.
Kevin and the kids generally leave Lorna to her devices.
“I’m forever dragging rubbish home and Kevin’s saying, ‘What the hell are you going to do with that?’ and I’m saying, ‘Just you wait. It will look nice eventually’.”
“It’s very rare that something comes in to the house and I leave it as it is.”
A factory-table-turned-kitchen-island is one of her most notable creations. It was originally used to stretch and cut leather, which they then cut down just so it could enter the kitchen. Then it was converted and powered up for kitchen use.
“If there’s something I want and it’s a vintage piece and I can’t find it, I’ll get the next best thing and convert it,” she says.
“It’s very rare that something comes in to the house and I leave it as it is.”
Other projects include a tea crate turned hallway table, a reproduction of a vintage spoon rack (inspired by Pinterest, naturally) and soft furnishings. Lorna has made the entire home’s blinds and cushions.
For all the DIY, the home takes a cue from its farmhouse roots. The family kept all of its original doors and some original sash windows. The drawing room and living room also have traditional press cupboards.
While the latest iteration of the farmhouse décor is modern country, Lorna’s style is fashion-led and braver than in the past. Six years ago, for instance, the house wasn’t far from a Laura Ashley showroom – “All twee and everything symmetrical,” as Lorna says.
“I’m a lot freer now with what I choose to do and I’m not as scared as I used to be decorating,” she adds. “If I want to paint a room dark grey, I’ll paint a bloody room dark grey and we’ll see how it turns out!”
The grey room in question is the family’s atmospheric formal dining room. Flashes of colour and bold décor, including a mounted geometric white stag’s head and a sunshine yellow vintage sideboard, complement its moody dark colouring.
Beyond design, location is an unmistakable part of the home’s appeal. The property encompasses 4.77 acres of land sat in the midst of a 600-acre farm. Their nearest neighbour is half a mile away. The community, although spread out, is still friendly.
Meikle Obney is a respite from relentless modern life. Fields of peas, wheat, barley and potatoes encircle it.
Mountains and pine trees stand in the distance. Cooper, the family’s Great Dane, is spoilt for walks.
“We’ll very happily don our wellies on a Sunday and find a nice place to walk after lunch,” Lorna says. “Everybody’s got busy lives and it’s nice to just breathe it in at the weekend.”
You need not wander far. A paved terrace can be found off the kitchen extension.
Perennials were a key choice to keeping the garden low maintenance. Box hedges, rhododendrons and the odd bit of honeysuckle decorate the space. It’s a suntrap for fleeting yet glorious summer days.
The McCallum’s impending move signals that the house is finished at last. Their son, Lewis, is a third year student at St Andrews, while Beth starts at the University of Dundee this year. With a soon to be empty nest, Kevin and Lorna are setting their sights closer to Edinburgh.
The chapter is closing on Meikle Obney. It’s a relief, Lorna admits, to finally be done. That said, the couple are aiming to buy another project . . .