Kirnan Estate Design Influences
Welcome to the second edition of our blog series, in which we take you on our journey from arriving in Scotland, renovating and opening our three holiday cottages, to the adventure that awaits us as we embark on a life as Estate owners.
Following the official opening of our holiday cottages this month, we thought we would take you behind the scenes and share details of the renovation work, as well as the design influences and considerations that helped us bring our interior design vision to life. If you haven’t had the chance to look at the pictures we posted recently of the finished cottages and cabin on Instagram and Facebook, please do have a look so you get a sense of our design aesthetic and the overall look and feel we were aiming for.
My Mum and I are really passionate about interior design and how the layout of a room can have an impact on how you feel when you first enter a space. For example, the layout of a lounge can instantly make me feel calm and relaxed if positioned correctly or could easily feel quite cold and uninviting. Likewise, design can evoke emotions, so it was important that our cottages make our guests feel instantly at ease with a relaxed, and chic country-house style interior.
Self-catering facilities were important amenities we wanted to offer so the cottages feel practical, particularly for guests staying with dogs or children, and guests have all the home comforts they would expect from a luxury experience. During lockdown, I realised the importance of my home and design, and Rob and I wanted to make sure that the cottages and cabin at Kirnan Estate were to the same high standard. In addition, self-catering facilities give those who love to try fresh local products the opportunity to shop, handle, and cook items fresh from the market themselves.
Our overall design influences come from some of the great UK-based interior designers, such as Ben Pentreath, Salvesen Graham, Jessica Buckley, Louise Roe Home and Vanrenen GW Designs. At the same time, we wanted the design to reflect the local landscape, scenery, and colour palette with which we are lucky enough to be surrounded in Argyll, as well as the history and period of the main house. Luckily none of the cottages required major structural works, so our focus was really on the fixtures, fittings, and overall design schemes.
Let’s take a closer look at the individual cottages and cabin.
Chapel Cottage is our largest accommodation, and we spent a lot of time coming up with a cohesive interior scheme to reflect both its size and its history as the old chapel of the original estate. We started with the stunning living room, its open fireplace, and the dual aspect windows onto the gardens. Because it is such a large room, we had several considerations to factor in. For example, how do we make sure we utilise the space correctly to seat the 8 guests that the cottage can accommodate while making sure it still feels cosy? As the main communal room in the cottage, I wanted to ensure guests can curl up with a book in front of the fireplace or all come together in the evening and relax. With those factors in mind, we settled on a beautiful Linwood fabric for the curtains which has stunning autumn shades, such as amber, rich red, and burnt orange as its main colours, and light blue as its contrasting accent. We feel the red tones of the fabric add warmth to the room, and also pick up the colours of the Cornus Alba Sibirica - or dogwood - that grows in the estate gardens in abundance. Once we selected a range of coordinating fabrics for the upholstery and settled on Portland Stone by Little Greene as the wall colour, we had to source a large enough coffee table so that guests could gather round it for drinks, board games and so on. There is a similarly large dining table in the kitchen with plenty of seating, and a highchair available on request.
The colour scheme from the living room formed the main influence for the fabrics and furnishings for the other rooms in the cottage. We enjoy mixing vintage pieces with coordinating lamps and shades from the likes of Pooky and Jim Lawrence and complemented those with white linens from The White Company in the bedrooms. We installed a boot room, so that guests can take off their boots comfortably after a muddy walk in the rain (yes, unfortunately it is known to rain a bit up here in Argyll!), dry off their four-legged friends on a hard-wearing floor, and keep any mess contained to one area. We also installed a utility room so guests can do any washing or tumble drying as needed. In the bathrooms, we chose a neutral palette as a backdrop for the pictures that reflect the nearby coastline.
Torrnalaich Cottage, which is next door to Chapel Cottage, is a smaller, cosier space which sleeps one couple or a solo traveller. As such, the design considerations for this cottage were quite different to that of Chapel Cottage. Our aim was to create a similar country-house style, but to also make sure it was light and bright enough for a smaller cottage. With that in mind, we chose a bold floral Jean Monro print for the sofa to add interest to the living area, and kept the walls plain, also in Portland Stone by Little Greene. The print on the sofa also brings in the warm red of the tiles on the working fireplace in the living room. We used a blue in the interconnecting kitchen to add freshness to the space and complemented this with neutral gingham fabrics from Ian Mankin for the window dressing. This fabric is carried through into the bedroom blind, where we used a patchwork quilt on the bed and cottage-core style hand printed cushions from Huddle Collection.
Kirnan Beg is our unique wooden cabin surrounded by the Estate’s woodland, so it’s no surprise that we turned to nature for our inspiration. We used a range of natural materials, including marble, wool, and linen to create the cabin’s Scandinavian vibe, and to complement its beautiful wooden interiors. Outside you’ll find wooden loungers with comfy cotton seating and a covered porch area with storage for walking boots and wellies. We painted the outside of the cabin green to blend with the surrounding woodland. The trees around the cabin are covered in a rare lichen that only grows in the cleanest air, and the shade of green we picked is the perfect match. The BBQ hut near Kirnan Beg is furnished with tartan cushions and cosy hides to keep guests warm on those chilly evenings.
We’ve absolutely loved renovating and designing the interiors of our cottages, and hope our passion comes through in what we have created.
Please follow us on Instagram or Facebook for more cottage updates. If you have any thoughts or questions about the fixtures, fittings, and of course booking our cottages, please get in touch as we would love to hear from you.
