A 150-year-old property near Kinross, restored by a couple from Edinburgh, has appeared on Channel 4’s Grand Designs, but viewers had mixed reactions to their plan.
Iain Shillady and his wife Jenny bought the property at Briglands for £225,000, building an extension to a bothy in the property’s walled garden.
But the design, intended to create a family home, wasn’t universally popular, with the show’s presenter taken aback whilst some on social media branded it an “eyesore”.
Iain, 38 and Jenny, 37, linked a single-storey black timber-clad extension on to the existing grade two listed bothy.
Presenter Kevin McCloud voiced his concern during the building phase, telling the couple they had “trashed” the garden.
“Well you’ve trashed the garden and put a great black lump in it,” he said.
Jenny admitted the structure was “bigger than she thought” after Kevin shared his concern.
“Obviously it’s impacting it. It’s bigger than I thought,” she said.
The property sits on the site of a former Georgian farmhouse, originally designed by architect Sir Robert Lorimer in 1898.
Iain said he wanted to capture the “tardis element” in his redesign of the bothy, which had never been lived in before.
“On this side of the wall, it’s going to be a new build bit which is a single storey, timber clad box tucked away behind the wall which you won’t see as you approach the building from the other side,” he said on the Channel 4 show.
The work in the walled garden was complex and the process was complicated further by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Neighbours were also concerned about how to new property would blend in with the historic surrounding.
One of the couple’s new neighbours, Fred, told the Grand Designs team: “I was hoping they would keep most of the planting and shape of the garden.
“My wife, who is an expert, is a bit disappointed with the state of it at the moment.
“I hope they will get to grips with it and put it back to somewhat what it was before.”
Iain said the design meant they would have to make the garden “worse” before making it look better again.
He said on the show: “We’re taking a really mature garden and making it a building site.
“We have to make it a lot worse before we start to put it back together.”
After multiple setbacks in 2020, the couple then discovered the roof on the existing bothy was rotten, complicating their plans further.
It took 18 months for the design to be completed, with the couple going £50,000 over their £350,000 budget.
Not everyone watching the show was a fan.
One person on Twitter said: “Can’t disagree with Kevin at all so far.
“Look at this, lovely engineered beautiful buildings…next to a lump.
“Still didn’t ask how the planners agreed to it.”
A second person said: “Not a fan of tonight’s build. The black cladding is quite the eye sore.
“It’s nice but it’s lost its heritage and original features, especially the garden.”
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