The trophy head motif beloved of baronial hunting lodges the world over has its origins in Scotland, a perceived backwater in design terms, yet when you scratch that surface you see that its Victorian motif has left the splendid isolation of the Highlands for hipster hangouts, penthouse apartments and cool cafes around the globe. It’s not a new trend but it continues to resurface Lazarus-style season after season because it is a defining element of modern interiors. (Left: Peebles-based luxurious mill Holland and Sherry supplies high fashion houses including Chanel and Alexander Wang)
“It’s a wry way of adding humour to even the smallest of spaces and that is its ongoing appeal,” interior designer Roisin Lafferty of Lafferty Design explains. “They now fit in lots of different settings.”
The baronial style was popularised by Queen Victoria who reigned over an era of excessive furnishings that have fallen out of favour. A fresh sort of thinking in interiors is visible in former sporting lodges across the Highlands. Previously fusty rundown estates have been revitalised. Alladale Lodge, built in 1877 by Sir Charles Ross is one such example. It is of that era but is bereft of the brown furniture beloved by Queen Vic. That traditional look has been replaced by more pared back thinking designed by Laura Ashley. It features some of that design house’s signature florals and Victorian-inspired panelling but the former are discreet rather than dowageresque and the latter is tongue-and- groove painted a fashionable grey rather than revealing the woodgrain.
The 19th century glorified Scotland’s natural landscapes. Tartan is as much part of Scotland’s fabric and heather and malt whisky. Anta is a Scottish design company that has given the traditional highlands look a modern make-under, as George Goldsmith, who runs the namesake castle and big house rental website, explains. “They’ve taken the tartan motif and scaled it up for bedding and carpets and down as a motif for tableware. They’ve also taken the keeper and stalker concepts but contemporarised them by using soft Scottish shades that feel fresh. It’s a look that appeals to those looking for atmospheric places to stay for parties and family get-togethers rather than the more traditional hunting or fishing crowd.” Everything from the woollen yarn used in its carpets and tweeds to the oak furniture is made in Scotland. The lifestyle brand even allows you to sample the interiors for real. You can stay at designer Lachlan Stewart’s family home, a house that sleeps 14, on Scotland’s West Coast, for Sterling £6,000 per week.
Another integral Scottish fabric is tweed. Some 8,000 metres of hand-woven Harris Tweed, made on the west coast of Scotland on the Isle of Lewis, was used to upholster furniture in Glasgow-based Blythswood Square Hotel, a late Georgian facaded five-star building once home to the Royal Scottish Automobile Club. Graven Images, the team behind Edinburgh’s Missoni hotel interior, Scotified its smart screening room seating by covering each chair in a different check. A more muted grey and purple colour palette was used in the lounge and in the bedrooms. Holland and Sherry, favoured by Chanel and Alexander McQueen is another upscale fabric favourite.
Decoratively speaking Timorous Beasties is Scotland’s firebrand brand. A decade ago it unveiled its critically acclaimed Glasgow toile, an urban take on the pastoral context of toiles de Jouy. The design house, which takes its name from a line in poet Robert Burns’ agri-ode, To A Mouse, continues to reimagine its native flaura and fauna, in particular the thistle, the emblem of Scotland and launches a new collection of deep pile velvets inspired by chewing gum at London Design Festival and next week at Decorex.
How do you bring a wee slice of Scotland into your home? Soft accents are a safe starting point. A pheasant cushion adds a colourful hint of hunting while a tartan stag head makes the statement that you believe your home is your castle.
Sheepskins in all formats will soften spaces and evoke the highlands. Welsh-based Baa makes cool sheepskin-covered footstools that will bring the outdoors in. Corgis add humour. Iconic native foodstuffs like Irn-Bru and Tunnock’s caramel wafers now feature in soft furnishings and doff an ironic cap at Caledonian cool.
(R-L) Holland and Sherry cloth, see hollandandsherry.com. Freestanding corgi map, €31.50, bombus.co.uk. Tartan stag, about €126, arthouse.com
