Member Article

North East designer in running for major award

Leading North East interior designer Melanie Brown has been shortlisted in the prestigious Northern Design Awards for her landmark restoration of one of the UK’s finest historic castles.

Melanie, the founder of Sunderland-based Design Direction, is shortlisted in the Hotel Interior Design category for her multi-million pound revamp of 15th Century Borthwick Castle, for a short time the home of Mary Queen of Scots, who fled the castle disguised as a pageboy as it was surrounded by an insurgent army.

Melanie dedicated 18 months to the restoration of the castle, one of the finest and best-preserved 15th Century keeps in Scotland, creating a 10-bedroom luxury retreat available for private hire.

She managed the interior design, project management and all procurement during the project and worked alongside Historic Scotland to create an exclusive luxury destination which combines the castle’s newly revealed historic grandeur with the finest in contemporary luxury.

Melanie said: “This was a highly complex, multi-million pound refurbishment brought in on time and on budget, despite the inevitable challenges of creating a high-end luxury finish within a medieval setting.

“The castle presented a raft of logistical problems, not least in moving furniture and fittings into a 15th Century castle with only spiral staircases. We had to hoist furniture in through balcony windows and a bed in Mary Queen of Scots’ bedroom was a jigsaw puzzle of 18 pieces.

“Despite the challenges, there were no compromises; we simply found a way around problems, so it’s thrilling to have the project recognised in such a significant way by the Northern Design Awards judges.”

The completion of the project is the culmination of a rich 600-year history beginning with the castle’s creator, Sir William de Borthwick, who built it in 1430, and continuing through some of the most dramatic episodes in Scotland’s past.

An imposing fortress comprising a huge double tower surrounded by an embattled wall, the castle, which is Category A registered by Historic Scotland, was built of finest ashlar with walls 100ft high and 20ft thick at the base.

Mary Queen of Scots stayed there in June 1567, shortly after her marriage to the Earl of Bothwell; her husband Lord Darnley having been murdered in February of that year. The couple had been there a short time when word reached them that insurgent lords were advancing on the castle with 1,000 men, intending to take Bothwell to be tried for Darnley’s murder.

Bothwell left for Dunbar to raise an army, leaving Mary to face the lords. She told the army surrounding the castle that he had left and then escaped through a narrow window in the castle’s Great Hall disguised as a pageboy, riding off to join Bothwell. She was imprisoned later that year.

Borthwick Castle is now transformed, but its history remains to the fore, its Red Room said to have its own resident ghosts, including the spirit of a maid murdered by one of the Borthwick lords and that of a family chancellor, killed for embezzlement.

Melanie relocated to the nearby Arniston Estate for the duration of the project, calling on her worldwide network of craftspeople to complete the furnishings and finishes which have won international acclaim.

Melanie, who founded Design Direction in 1999, added: “I poured a lot of love, care and attention into this project and it’s wonderful that all that work is receiving fantastic feedback from the castle’s owners and guests, from discerning critics and the Northern Design Awards.”

Melanie is now working on further refurbishment at the castle, including its outer buildings, riverbanks and listed walled garden.

The Northern Design Awards are at the Royal Armouries and New Dock Hall, Leeds on November 11.

Design Direction was founded by Melanie Brown in 1999 to provide an interior design service for private clients, property developers and hoteliers. Melanie has previously worked with De Vere resorts on a number of projects as well as on private holiday properties and residential homes across the country.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Fiona Brook .