Her Indoors

Kate Samphier is a contemporary textile designer, who specialises in the design and creation of knitted accessories for babies and the home. Her work can be found at Scottish Crafts and Design Specialists, Papa Stour

She shares her home, in the pretty Borders town of Melrose, with husband, Hamish and their three sons, William, Percy and Archie. Hamish is a landscaper and they own a shop in the town, Hendersons of Melrose, supplying beautiful vintage finds and garden antiques and accessories.

It connects beautifully to the garden, thanks to a light filled extension…

And is pleasingly dotted with Kate’s beautiful designs…

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I know, I know, summer is definitely not here yet, but surely it is time to do a bit of planning? North Berwick has to be the prettiest seaside town I have ever been to, friendly and welcoming, with a little bit of buzz, but without the addition of horrendous crowds and impossible traffic…it just does not get that busy.

Gone to the Beach is a bespoke collection of extremely stylish holiday homes in the area. Douglas photographed one for Coast magazine. The owner has a really strong sense of style and a good grounding in design, resulting in a stunning property that would be a joy to stay in.

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Bye bye….rather horrible old garage in the middle of our back garden that we have been wondering what to do with for 8 years – yes, 8 years – we are very indecisive. We have, in the meantime, built another garage at the front of our house and our dilemma has been – Do we knock it down? Do we line and insulate it and use it as it is?? Well, in for a penny, in for a pound: we have committed to knocking it down and replacing it with a beautiful timber garden building, using the existing foundation and concrete slab as a base…we have building warrant in place and have even booked a builder, actually, he started on Monday.

This is what he’s done!

Ooh…errr…drastic…all worried now!! Two days into the job Doug and I’s chronic indecisiveness reared it’s ugly head again. I am having sleepless nights wondering if we are doing the right thing…Should we be doing an extension rather? Or placing it elsewhere in the garden? I actually said to our lovely builder: ‘Robert, would it be a real pain to you if we just left it for a while, while we thought about it a bit longer?’ He smiled very nicely, and said ‘Yes Alison, it would be a bit of a pain…’ Oh dear…a little bit of professional counselling from my friend Fran and even Doug himself, and, I think I am able to carry on…

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A unique design, involving tremendous attention to detail

Acknowledging and incorporating the Scottish, east coast setting perfectly

The hall has the feel of an upmarket cruise liner

You would never have to go away if you lived here!

A state of the art kitchen

A cosy spot to watch TV

when you are not mesmerised by the sea and the sense of space all around you.

Beautiful, imaginative landscaping all around the house completes this beautiful seaside home.

Find out more about the designers at The Voigt Partnership

If you are interested in the stonework for a project of your own go to Denfind Stone

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Thrilled to have been nominated by three fellow bloggers for the Liebster Blog award!

Jasmin from The Cosy White Cottage, Heather from My Ocean Bliss and Trinske from Nordic Rose all nominated me, thank you!

As a nominee, you are asked to post 11 random facts about yourself, so, here goes:

11 things you might not know about me yet,

I love tennis

I get bad migraines
I do not watch a lot, but, I love quality TV – I cannot miss Homeland or The Apprentice, and I love Mad Men, 24, Damages…yes, you guessed it – I do buy DVD Boxed Sets!
I have a Hot tub (feel a bit embarrassed by this – Doug’s idea, not mine, but surprisingly pleasant)

I am very family orientated, most of our immediate and wider family all live within an hour of each other and I love that.
I live in a small village beside the sea in Scotland, but I was bought up in Central London, Paddington to be precise.
Although I do not ‘believe’ in star signs, I am a completely typical Cancerian! Weird…
I am half Hungarian and yes, I can speak it a bit…not perfectly, but a bit
I started my blog with the intention of turning it into a book…still working on that!
We are literally just about to start building a beautiful larch clad office in our garden…cannot wait…(this is just a pic that we are basing our design on by the way, a bit like one of those lovely hotels in Spain – it is not actually built yet!)

I love the idea of House Swapping, need to finish our house first, but when we do…watch this space.

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