|
Scotland on Sunday
- at Home
Clean Living
There
was a time when one small flat in Glasgow's
south side was too much for the young Stephen
McKechnie, but now he has 150 of them spread
all over the city. Thirteen years ago the
young apprentice electrician moved into
his dream flat, but after six months he
was back with his parents. "I was desperate
for my own place and got all my contacts
to do it up, but then I realised that I
really missed my family. I couldn't cook
or wash either, so I went home again."
When the flat was sold,
it brought in two years' salary for six
months' work, so Stephen saw the potential
in property development. Around the same
time he was made redundant, so he began
renovating flats, at the rate of two or
three a year. Work snowballed with the proprty
boom, and now he makes a very healthy spotting
flats with potential, refurbishing and renting
them out through his company, Kelvin Properties.
"Being made redundant si the best thing
that's ever hapened to me," he says
. "If it wasn't for that, I would still
be an electrician."
Spending his working
life around properties, Stephen knew what
to look for in his own place, a flat in
a four storey house in Glasgow's west end.
"There were several things I liked
about it. The location for a start - Dowanhill
is leafy yet only two minutes from Byres
Road with all the nightlife. It's on the
first floor, which is secure, the building
was sound, and most of all I like the layout
and proportions of the rooms. Also, it's
a good address - in this street there are
only nine houses and there are four footballers
here, including Neil Lennon of Celtic and
Rangers' Mikel Arteta. I don't think I'd
get in the street five-a-side team,"
he says.
With a budget of £50,000
Stephen spent five months converting the
three bedroom apartment. He restored the
cornicing, put in an en suite, refitted
the kitchen and existing bathroom, and added
chrome radiators and underfloor heating.
A big fan of minimalism, he used a palette
limited to creams and whites, and introduced
texture and colour with the brown leather,
suede and wenge wood furniture, plus a few
carefully chosen accessories.
"I can't bear clutter.
The flat is minimalist, sharp, clinical.
That's what I like. I think a pure white
room is perfect. Then you can introduce
a bit of colour with the furniture. I like
straight lines too, in the furniture and
the chrome handles and radiators."
Stephen has stuck to
this theme throughout and each room blends
seamlessly into the next. Clean, simple
and pristine, there is a remarkable absence
of stuff, save for a stack of CDs. Where
are all the newspapers, umbrellas, bits
and bobs that the rest of us have cluttering
our cupboards and stuffing our shelves?
"I have a butler's pantry half way
down the stairs, which is filled with things,"
he admits. In one of the bedrooms there
is also an entire wall of 9ft-high cupboards.
"but the good thing about being in
property is that I can put my old stuff
in flats I rent out. I don't have to get
rid of it completely." Ingenious.
His favourite room is
the stunning bay-windowed drawing-room with
its new black walnut floor. A big room at
28ft by 22ft by 15ft, Stephen resisted the
temptation to partition it off and lets
the space speak for itself. "Why spoil
it by splitting it up? I love the proportions
and don't want a lot of pictures or things
that would ruin this room." What does
break it up is a section of exposed sandstone
and a large textured artwork on one wall.
As the original fireplaces had all been
removed, Stephen set about putting in a
focal point. "I saw this fireplace
selling at £9,000 which is a disgrace,
so I got a shop fitter to build a similar
surround for £300, and the fire cost
£1,000. I'm really pleased with it,"
he says.
"I started off doing
the drawing room in a very grand style,
and with the rest of the flat I just thought
'go for it'. You get back what you spend
and property is an investment. It's one
of the only things where you an earn money
when you're sleeping. This flat has dobled
in value in a year," he says. Part
of the reason for that is Stephen's refusal
to compromise. In the kitchen he used black
granite for the worktops to match the glossy
black cupboards, and in the bedroom en suite,
heavy opaque glass. "It helps to know
the tradesmen and where to get the products.
Day to day, I do up flats to a high specification,
but here I've gone to a higher level because
it's my own home. To be honhest, that's
the part I find easy. The challenge is to
find all the other odds and sods!"
By this he means the
accessories, the spice jars, candleholders
and vases that soften the hard clinical
lines of the flat. "A firend with a
good eye for detail helps with those. She
suggested the flowers too." Huge architectural
statement plants give the rooms a splash
of colour: red painter's palettes, lillies
and willow stems. We started off with real
ones, but they were messy with their pollen
and kept needing watered, so I put in plastic
ones instead," he laughs.
Always to accept advice
on accessories, he welcomes suggestions.
I had a blank space on the kitchen wall
and a friend suggested putting the letters
to spell 'cafe'. They came from Habitat.
I'm really pleased with them - I would never
have thought of that," he says. However
Stephen did come up with the the idea of
framing the menu from the Oyster Bar in
New York's Grand Central Station, where
he too his mother for her 60th birthday.
In five small black frames, it sits above
the granite kitchen table, which Stephen
had made from an offcut of the worktops.
In the hall is another
of his simple-yet-effective ideas: a huge
eye-catching canvas commissioned from Glasgow
School of Art. "I stole the idea from
the flyer for the mvie Heat, with Al Pacino
and Robert De Niro. The original was black
and white, but I went for some striking
colours. I just described what I wanted,
and it came back rolled up for £300.
I stretched it round a frame and there it
is. I love it.," he says.
Perhaps what really makes
the flat is not the elegant proportions
of stark minimalist perfections, or even
the soft-as-butter expensive leather sofas,
but something as simple as the lighting.
As a former sparky, Stephen has gone to
town on this. There are uplighters, downlighters,
spotlights, lamps, light-boxes, candles
- all carefully chosen to give a different
effect. "I like it not too bright,
not too dark and cosy at night. You don't
want to go over the top and have the Blackpool
Illuminations," he says. "Or chendeliers:
I hate them." Tasteful chrome and white
shades hang down from the ornate ceiling
roses and ultimately sum up the style of
this apartment: uber-modern in a traditional
setting. Let there be light.
<back
|
