With a few Arts and Crafts houses on the market catching my eye just now, I’m revisiting some of my favourite examples of the style and thinking about why they are so appealing and enduring. We have a great deal of experience and interest in working on Scottish Arts and Crafts residential buildings, helping to renovate them for 21st-century living without disrupting the integrity of their charm and style.
Perhaps one of the most interesting skills of the Arts and Crafts masters is their mastery of scale, which is key to their appeal. The examples I’ve picked out are some of my favourite buildings – Mackintosh’s House for an Art Lover, MacLaren’s Fortingall Hotel, Lutyens’ (and Lorimer’s) Greywalls Hotel, and Laird’s Carlung House (now rentable on Airbnb) – are all large buildings, over 1000m2, yet when one is inside, they feel intimate and welcoming rather that formal. I know this because I’ve spent time in all four. Their exterior persona, designed to impress, belies their intimate interior, designed to function, flow and feel comfortable, which I love. It’s what we always try to accomplish with our designs. Interior flow is never an afterthought but a primary consideration.
The clients that commissioned these beautiful big houses were often captains of industry or entrepreneurs. They were often also thoughtful social reformers, sensitive to the mood at the time, requesting large houses not in the form of classical grandeur or industrial repetition but more towards a model where scale served comfort, craft, and place. Achieving this balance was the skill of the Arts and Crafts architects, and I think the measured outcome is why Arts and Crafts buildings are so entrancing.
These Arts and Crafts architectural masters managed to create houses that looked impressive from afar, which satisfied their clients’ desires for impact but their scale was such that they enriched everyday living from within, which appeals to me as it chimes with my own design intentions.
House for an Art Lover
The Fortingall Hotel
How did Arts and Crafts architects achieve this design balance?
The answer is in the details. They had a keen eye and high skill for composing proportionally balanced facades – windows, gables and rooflines always look just right together, even without total symmetry in many examples. They look harmonious and pleasing to the eye. I love the restraint in the elevation of Greywalls Hotel, where the windows are the perfect size for the solid to void ratio to be perfectly balanced and pleasing to the eye.
Scottish Arts and Crafts houses’ chimneys are also one of the reasons that these buildings are appealing – and distinctive. They’re unapologetically bold and sculptural, playing a real part in the composition of the massing – often acting as a visual counterbalance to the large structure below. Their placing, the fact that they punctuate the skyline so dramatically, their height, and their detail are essential. If you half close your eyes and imagine they weren’t there, the buildings’ character, composition and harmonious aesthetic wouldn’t be the same – or half as effective.
Greywalls Hotel
Carlung House
How the interiors of successful Scottish Arts and Crafts homes flow
When you’re in these buildings they flow. There’s variation in room height and size, offering interest. There are also hidden rooms with bespoke aspects and often no two rooms the same – this works, and is part of the overall appeal. The skill of the Arts and Crafts architects here was to design to human scale. They were concerned about how their client felt in the spaces, so interiors were neither oppressive or overblown.
The use of materials is also key to creating appeal and these architects were masters of that too, using materials and textures to reinforce a sense of proportion. Rough stone, handmade brick, timber framing, and leaded glass help to break up large surfaces, reducing visual bulk. And the crucial craftsmanship of smaller details — hinges, joinery, mouldings — introduced fine-grained scale, creating a sense of richness and artistry without excess.
The Arts and Crafts architectural movement had a huge impact on Scottish architecture, and the following exemplary examples of its style can all be visited today, either as a hotel guest (Fortingall and Greywalls), Airbnb renter (Carlung), or as a paying visitor (House for an Art Lover). House for an Art Lover, complete with Mackintosh interior including furnishings, is also a fabulous wedding venue.
Of course, there are many less famous examples of Arts and Crafts homes in Scotland, and later houses influenced by the style. We have worked on several, either reinvigorating them for current living standards, sometimes carefully bringing in more light, while absolutely respecting the aspects that make them uniquely Arts and Crafts in style. We have also worked on several new houses built in the Arts and Crafts style.
Do you have an Arts and Crafts house that needs attention? Or do you dream of a Mackintosh or Lutyens influenced new dream home? Contact us today to start a conversation about your project.
Scottish Arts and Crafts Architecture Facts
House for An Art Lover, Glasgow
Architect: Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald entered a competition organized by a German design magazine to design a house for an art lover in 1901. Their design was admired, but actually disqualified due to lacking sufficient perspective drawings. However, the designs were later published and helped establish Mackintosh’s reputation.
The Fortingall Hotel, Fortingall, Aberfeldy
Architect: James M MacLaren
The Fortingall Hotel was built in 1890/91 by James M MacLaren, commissioned by Sir Donald Currie, a shipowner and Unionist MP, who bought the Glenlyon Estate, including the village, in 1885.
Greywalls Hotel, Gullane
Architect: Sir Edwin Lutyens (and Sir Robert Lorimer extension)
Greywalls was originally designed by the renowned British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1901. It was commissioned by keen golfer Hon. Alfred Lyttelton as a holiday retreat adjacent to the Muirfield Golf Course.
In 1911, Sir Robert Lorimer, a leading Scottish architect of the time, was hired to extend the property. Lorimer added a nursery wing, complementing Lutyens’ original design while introducing his own architectural detailing. Greywalls is the only house in Scotland that showcases the work of both Lutyens and Lorimer, two prominent British architects of the early 20th-century.
Carlung House, West Kilbride
Architect: J Austen Laird
Carlung House in West Kilbride was built in 1932 and designed by J Austen Laird. It’s not clear who commissioned the building, but it is described as an Elizabethan mansion. The house is built with Northumberland stone and sandstone dressings.
Scottish Arts and Crafts Architecture – A summary
The Scottish Arts and Crafts architectural movement (roughly 1880s to the 1920s) was rooted in the broader British Arts and Crafts movement initiated by figures like William Morris and John Ruskin, and was about a return to handcrafting and a celebration of local materials, vernacular styles, and harmony with the natural landscape, celebrating detailing and skilled labour. In Scotland, a unique iteration developed its own distinctive character.
Here, the Arts and Crafts movement often drew inspiration from castles, tower houses, baronial architecture, and rural farmhouses, infusing them with a romantic and nationalistic spirit.
Interesting features of the Scottish Arts and Crafts style include asymmetrical layouts, steep gables, harled (lime-rendered) walls, exposed timber framing, and unique decorative elements crafted by local artisans. Interiors often featured built-in furniture, leaded glass, and careful integration of design and function.
The Scottish Arts and Crafts movement left a lasting legacy, shaping modern Scottish design and influencing later architectural and decorative styles both in the UK and abroad.
Key architects of the Scottish Arts and Crafts movement
Charles Rennie Mackintosh – Perhaps the most iconic figure, known for synthesising Arts and Crafts principles with emerging Art Nouveau and modernist styles. His Glasgow School of Art (1897–1909) exemplified innovative design, attention to detail, and a striking blend of traditional and modern influences.
Robert Lorimer – A prolific architect whose work included country houses, war memorials, and restorations. His designs often emphasised craftsmanship and historical continuity.
James M MacLaren – An early pioneer of the movement, who influenced Mackintosh and others through his work combining vernacular Scottish architecture with Arts and Crafts ideals.
