No, not Charles and Camilla, but Charles and Margaret – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a Scottish architect and artist, and his wife Helen Macdonald Mackintosh, also an accomplished artist.
We took at day trip to Helensburgh (pronounced Helens-borough, not burg like Pittsburgh), which is on the western coast of Scotland – about a 40 minute train ride from Glasgow. One of the main attractions there is Hill House, a historic home built by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (I’ll call him CRM for short from here on) for publisher Walter Blackie in 1902-04.
I love Art Noveau styles of that era and his vision for Hill House was amazingly beautiful and, at the same time, thoughtfully practical. Sadly, exposure to the coastal, salty winds and not the best selection of materials has Hill House, as one person described it, dissolving like an aspirin in water.
The National Trust for Scotland (thanks again Food Export for the membership!) has taken extraordinary efforts to try to preserve it until they can figure out how to save it. It’s a bit like Chernobyl – they’ve built a box around it to protect it from the elements. Cleverly, they’ve built walkways that the public can take atop the building to see the house from all angles.
The inside is also in need of a lot of conservation as moisture has seeped in, but there are so many wonderful things to see. Every detail is elegant, but also functional – he went to observe the family in their everyday life before designing the house with their interests and everyday routines in mind.
A beautiful bright sitting room – notice the clever bookshelves built in next to the seat 
A lovely CRM design 
All the window handles had this lovely design 
Love this book nook 
You’ll notice bookshelves in many photos – the house was built for a publishing family 
The light fixtures are very beautiful 
These panels next to the bed are done by Margaret 
More book nooks above fireplace 
Another Margaret work above fireplace
Expect more posts about CRM and MMM in the future as I venture to see their other works. Hope you enjoy them too!
Great Suzanne! How wonderful to experience Mackintosh first hand.