There’s one essential item that you won’t find in Melanie Jeeves’ residence.
This former nurse must be the first ever Scotland’s Home of the Year contestant who doesn’t own a television.
Thus, she is not that familiar with the show. “I’d never heard of it,” she says. However, a friend is a fan and told her that she MUST apply to be on the programme.
If not, she would do it for her. Jeeves semi-willingly capitulated and the production team have told her they’ll send her a “video” of the show once it’s aired.
So, we’ll most likely pip Jeeves to the post when it comes to seeing the cameo of her whitewashed Isle of Whithorn cottage. This place is appearing on episode five of the series, South, which will be screened on Monday May 4 on BBC One Scotland at 8.30pm. It will be going up against an extended house near Gatehouse of Fleet, and a refurbished family home in Thornhill, with Anna Campbell-Jones, Danny Campbell and Banjo Beale deciding who will go through to the swiftly impending finale at Glasgow's House for an Art Lover.
Although Jeeves’ tarot cards didn’t predict that she’d appear on the show, they did indicate that she’d find this cottage, back in 2020.
Previously, she was living in a Victorian property on the Isle of Wight. She thought this was her “forever home”, though she had a hankering to be somewhere that looked over fields (and, even better and more specifically, a bowling green). That is, until the arcana told her that her life would be turned upside down.
“I put the cards all away and took my cup of tea and opened The Lady magazine, and in the back of it was this advert for a cottage in a historic harbour village that looked across the Galloway Hills. And I thought, oh, it's got views,” she says.
Even better, they were over fields and a bowling green. “How great it is that when you can't do anything, you can just watch people bowl?”
She went to see it, and was smitten. Even the rather boring interior didn’t put her off. Before she took it over, it had been a holiday let, so it was “very bland”.
Also, the wooden windowsills and doors were rotten. However, the 17th-century property did boast many original features, including the pathway, beams and hearths.
When Jeeves moved in, it was October, and very chilly. She has spent the last few years insulating the building, as she suffers from multiple sclerosis, which was diagnosed in 2005, and wants her home to be as comfortable as possible. The temperature is sorted but, as far as warm vibes go, she feels as if it’s absorbed them from previous residents.
“It's a really healing home. It's got a lovely energy, which is a nice thing to think about when people buy properties. Think about the history and the people who have occupied the home before, because it absorbs everything,” Jeeves says. “That's why sometimes you walk in somewhere and say you don’t like a place. That’s your intuition”.
Although this home owner loves her cottage, she knows she probably won't live there forever, as her condition means that she will eventually need somewhere without stairs.
However, she wants to really savour and celebrate the space now. This has resulted in a maximalist look that’s layered with rich colours, like dark blue, lilac, mauve and purple, with stacks of atmosphere from couthy lampshades, acres of fairy lights, a quirky handrail made from a twig, Victorian furniture, iron stoves, ornate screens and quilts.
This unique style has definitely not been inspired by SHOTY.
However, she does have previous experience in overhauling her own properties, and she’s always relied on a 1982 book called Affordable Splendour: An Ingenious Guide to Decorating Elegantly, Inexpensively and Doing Most of It Yourself by Diana Phillips. She also loves Art Nouveau, because, “I think it looks good in a cottage”, she says, though just one wall is upholstered in William Morris paper, as it’s “£90 a roll”.
“I have always done properties up, and this is way before any of those makeover programs, because I'm old,” she says. “It was back in the Eighties when I was doing this. I was staple gunning fabric onto walls, tensing ceilings and doing all sorts of things”.
There are also interesting objects scattered throughout this house. Everything is sentimental and has meaning.
These include pictures in the snug of Jeeves’ mother, when she used to work as a telephonist for the queen at Clarence House in the Forties. In the kitchen with its Belfast sink and midnight blue colour scheme, there are also three great Alice in Wonderland prints, which were bought in an Isle of Wight bookshop. The dodo picture in the triptych reminds her of her grandchildren, when they were small and would give her treasures.
In another room, there’s that copy of The Lady in a frame, along with a snap of the very Isle of Whithorn house that she found in its pages.
That was its first moment of fame, but let’s hope she also gets to see its television debut at some point.
Otherwise, we’ll all be watching, while she’s glued to the bowling outside.
Scotland’s Home of the Year, Ep5/7, South, is on Monday May 4 on BBC iPlayer and BBC One Scotland, from 8.30-9.00pm, and on Wednesday May 6, BBC Scotland, 8.00-8.30pm
Read more: “Inside the plush and welcoming Fife house that's appearing on Scotland's Home of the Year”
