Cabinet-maker Charles Taylor has brought his woodworking skills to the fore in designing the family home

Father of two Charles Taylor makes a beeline for church every morning. Not, you understand, for spiritual refreshment - for that he takes the family to Rosslyn Chapel where his grandfather once served as chaplain.

No, in 1994, Charles bought Old West Church in Dalkeith (along with five-bedroom manse and church hall) as a cavernous workshop for the architectural joinery and design business he established eight years earlier. The building’s 185 ft spire can be seen for miles around but it was the 40 ft high interior with 6000 sq ft of floor space, that clinched it. Compared with what he was used to, it represented for the new owner” a different planet in terms of quality of working environment.”

It’s one that Charles Taylor’s skilled, 10-strong workforce capitalises on: for instance, the space facilitated,  construction of the oak staircase and bowed balustrade in the new Queen’s Gallery at Holyroodhouse. For the National Trust for Scotland, the firm is currently working on Chippendale-inspired chairs for Hugh Miller’s cottage in Cromarty, while earlier in the year Simpson & Brown Architects ordered a carved fretwork panel and door for Rosslyn Chapel.

But for its bread and butter,  Charles Taylor Woodwork relies mainly on private commissions. Be it a secret door masquerading as a bookcase (one antiquarian volume acts as open sesame); a teak and bronze library ladder, which folds into a single pole; a hardwood blanket chest which yields up a remote controlled TV, Charles is a worthy successor to Q, James Bond's gadget man.

 Above all, he derives satisfaction from projects which reorganise a client’s lifestyle.” I’m a designer. I like to find solutions about how best to operate  a house, making fixtures and fittings to realise those aims. Sometimes an architect will be master-planning a house with us, sometimes not.”

Charles’ talents began to blossom when he spent school holidays and weekends working for a small building company in the Borders.” I renovated houses, felled trees, drove tractors. It was fun!

Interior design is first and foremost a personal affair where individual ideas about comfort and style reign supreme.

Charles’ ideas are very definite. Take those external double doors.” Some cheap modern houses have a ghastly threshold. These are substantial and made of quality hardwood”.

And as for the flooring ”Carpet on ground floors is gruesome. It closes a space up. I’d rather have concrete.” Chez Taylor, the ground floor is awash with honeyed oak. Equally hotly debated is the elliptical kitchen table with chipboard surface.  But, excuse me? chipboard? “ It has taken a year to order the oak for the top,” explains Charles apologetically.

The relevant two planks are finally on stand-by in the workshop.  Soon their burnished patina will be set aglow by stylish track lighting already in situ

HOUSE DETAILS

Edinburgh-born and educated, he is the sole male member of his family to eschew a career in the Army: his mother, rather dauntingly, was a major and his father a lieutenant colonel. While a student at the former London College of Furniture, he landed a job at Wandsworth Woodworks, owned by a relative of the Duke of Westminster, and discovered that – for some, anyway- the capital’s streets really are paved with gold.” I worked 40 hours a week plus college. I had thousands in my account and no time to spend it.”

(Artemide from Tangram); the commodious pine dresser was purchased from a client for whom the company made a superior model in Arts & Crafts style.

Harmonious customer relations are in evidence also in the airy living-room where an extensive oak toy cabinet was donated to the family by an eminent judge who decided, after all, not to have it restored. Above, hangs a quartet of pastels by Joan Gillespie and, centre stage, an amoeba-shaped over mantel made by Charles in burr elm. dominates the fireplace specially crafted to set it off.

Which is how the ecclesiastical’ job lot’ in Dalkeith came into play.  Two years ago, with the support of his wife Jackie(a chartered accountant), Charles sold off the draughty manse and designed the house of their dreams on the site of the kirk hall.  Five year old Ainslie and seven-year-old Anna took a close interest in developments through a working model.”

Were there any must-have items? “ We wanted an open-plan ground floor with large kitchen (it is 25 ft long), and living-room off a central hallway. We wanted light to flood into these rooms at key times of the day plus we wanted double French doors to the garden.”

Above, hangs a quartet of pastels by Joan Gillespie and, centre stage, an amoeba-shaped over mantel made by Charles in burr elm. dominates the fireplace specially crafted to set it off.

The richly toned hues of creations by other makers (a console table by Chris Holmes and an outsize ball by Ralph Curry) all contribute to a room, which works as a sensual retreat. Wood, after all, is a human material.”

It has warmth and scale,” confirms Charles.” It works on different levels, close-up for grain and texture and from a distance for overall effect.