A new, sixth series, of the popular property show, made by IWC Media (a Banijay UK company), is currently filming in locations around Scotland.

Home to Christina and Ben Blundell, their daughter Vesper and Watson the dog, The Old Train House was boarded up and laid empty for 10 years before the couple lovingly transformed it into a welcoming family home. Inside, Christina and Ben’s eclectic tastes can be seen as well as their desire to be sustainable with second-hand furnishing adorning the three levels.

In addition to extensive renovations, there are nods to the building’s past including graffiti on the exterior garden walls, giving The Old Train House a unique style.

The SHOTY judges – interior designers Anna Campbell-Jones and Banjo Beale and architect and lecturer Michael Angus - crowned the winner of Scotland’s Home of the Year 2023 from a shortlist of six finalists from across Scotland. From Edinburgh to Aberdeenshire, Auchterarder to Peebles, the Isle of Skye to Glasgow, this year’s search showcased a variety of home styles including quirky conversions to grand designs self-build homes to period renovations, environmentally-friendly homes to bijou pads.

Homeowner Christina Blundell is delighted The Old Train House won the coveted title, she said: “Winning was a genuine shock and we’re bursting with pride. Ben and I entered with no expectations other than going along for the ride - we did not anticipate in any way that we’d be taking the trophy home that day, particularly when we got to see all the other fabulous finalists’ homes.

“As the final was filmed last summer, the SHOTY trophy has been sadly tucked away while we’ve kept the secret of winning to ourselves. I think it’ll either go in the hallway or perhaps outside somewhere. All of the finalists are a lovely bunch and I couldn’t pick a favourite home among them. They each have an individual and special quality - I’m glad the judging wasn’t up to me!

For Christina and Ben, being part of SHOTY opened up surprising doors. They added: “Something particularly special happened after our episode was on - we were contacted by a gentleman from whom we’d bought some of our favourite items of furniture. He’d seen the show and wrote to us telling us how these pieces belonged to his late mother and how happy it had made him and his family to see these pieces, which were so special to his mother, showcased on SHOTY. We are delighted that we get to be the guardians of these pieces now.”

SHOTY Judge and interior designer, Anna Campbell Jones believes the Edinburgh home is a very worthy winner of the prestigious title. She said: “The Old Train House expresses the ultimate in adaptation and reuse, themes that are so important these days - the whole building was upcycled, transformed from a sad ruined train station to a very real home. I loved the balance of respect for the history of the building, clever use of bargain vintage finds and appropriate materials both for the age of the building and for its function as warm, fun family home.

“I thought the upside-down living worked so well, keeping the light spaces for daytime (and nebbing!) and the darker quiet more private spaces for sleeping in, but the scene stealer was the old railway platform transformed into a magical plant filled, tree canopied terrace.”

Interior Designer Banjo Beale agreed, stating: “This home has been a journey for its owners, from abandoned train station to beloved home. You could feel the love that had been poured into this building. The Old Train House feels like a sanctuary in the city, full of plants, light and life.

“It’s hard to pick one thing about Old Train House which made it unique because it had that elusive, hard to define and harder to create feeling of home. I felt right at home in the platform bedroom, a moody, inky blue cocoon.

“From grand manse’s to quirky cottages, the homes we visited this series were as colourful as the characters that made them. That’s what makes SHOTY great - the people that make these homes.”

Architect and lecturer Michael Angus, commented: “It was that indefinable thing, that lifted the Old Train up above the rest. Some curious blend of components, of building, fabric, place, time, that come together somehow, to imbue a home with a certain overall quality that is truly, home.

“The echoes of its previous service so pervaded, the many brief ghosts that once passed through doubtless would linger comfortably in a place transformed. The building too, might have been threatened by a similar fate: redundancy, had vision and ambition for some extended future not taken root here.”

Resorting The Old Train House was a real labour of love for Christina and Ben and winning SHOTY is validation for all their hard work, they continued: “We are so immensely proud of what we’ve achieved. Neither of us are designers or builders or architects or had a large budget, we just had a vision for what this building could be for us. I feel like it’s all the more meaningful because we got the building warrant through for all the alterations the day before lockdown in 2020, so for months we were in this, quite honestly, awful and depressing house at a time when you couldn’t leave your house and it felt a world away from being a home. It made us determined to see it through and make this building into a home.”

“We were absolutely blown away by the judges’ comments about The Old Train House. The fact that each judge, independently of each other, considered our home was worthy of a ‘10’ was very humbling. Anna, Banjo and Michael picked up on things in our home in a way that we hadn’t considered ourselves and that made us even more proud of what we’ve achieved. There was one word in particular that really stuck with me from Anna’s comments and she said our home was ‘accessible’ from which I take it to mean that it’s homely, inviting and achievable. Oh, and all the train puns have been choo-choo-riffic!”

Christina is delighted to have been part of the SHOTY experience. She said: “We’ve been taken aback by all the kindness and interest in our home since it aired. I hesitated in applying because I didn’t think our home was grand enough or ‘designed’ enough or colourful enough. What I’ve come to realise is that SHOTY is truly about that feeling, comfort and sense of ‘home’ and that’s what the judges were looking for.”