The Inverurie farmhouse that brings Latin America to Aberdeenshire

Dr Maria Rocha Nunez and turkey farmer Craig Michie live in a self-built home in Inverurie with their children Violeta, 9, and Matias, 5.

The four-bed farmhouse is on the site of the Michie family’s turkey farm at Lochend of Barra.

Here, Maria takes us inside for a look around…

Colombian inspiration for Inverurie home

Craig and I met in Colombia, while he was travelling. We ended up travelling together for four months and then lived in Bogota, Columbia’s capital, before moving to Scotland 12 years ago.

When we returned to Scotland, we moved into a two-bed croft house in Oldmeldrum. Craig’s family has run their farm on Lochend of Barra in Inverurie for several generations. It made sense for us to move to the farm to help run it. We now operate our Barra Bronzes Turkey farm from here.

As Craig’s parents stay in the farmhouse, we decided to build our own home. We started in 2020 but due to the pandemic, we moved in August 2021. The garden is still a work in progress!

Our home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a large open plan kitchen, dining and living area. We also have a home office, gym and a snug room upstairs that opens on to a balcony with amazing views.

I wanted a contemporary rural family home with a barn shape to mirror the farm. We used external materials that were sympathetic to the area such as slate roof, slate slabs, stone cladding from a local quarry and wood cladding.

Interiors of the stylish Inverurie home

For the interiors, I went for a mix of styles to reflect our bilingual, mixed family. I love some traditional British style like the rich velvet Chesterfield sofas and the shaker style kitchen but I also wanted to inject a very Latin American feel to the interior, with lots of hand-made accessories, and natural materials such as cane, rattan, bamboo, wood and linen.

The colour palette has a bright and neutral background to create a calming effect.

I used Farrow & Ball’s Ammonite, Wevet and Skimming Stone throughout. I use pops of colour to add interest and personality to the space through furniture, accessories and tiles.

I love bold tiles, which we sourced from the Inverurie Tile centre, Ca’pietra and Claybrook Studio. My ultimate accessories are plants and lots of them! The staghorn fern that sits proudly in the middle of the open plan area reminds me of home.

Our big furniture items mostly come from our local furniture shop, Anderson’s of Inverurie. Our Pierre Jeanneret style chairs are definitely my favourite items.

Our accessories are little finds from our trips. Some favourites are my Moroccan rug and maracas from Colombia.

The views

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of Aberdeenshire, so wanted a lot of glass to allow for beautiful views. Most rooms face west, as this maximises the best view and gives us lovely evening sun.

The best feature is all the glazing that offers large, panoramic uninterrupted views of the beautiful site. They fill the house with light throughout the day. I have my morning coffee in the kitchen getting all the east morning light, and I get the lovely sunset and evening light.

We also gain a lot of solar heat, so the rooms are cosy and bright. There is no wasted space. We use every room every day. This house definitely enhances our lives.

See more of Maria’s Inverurie home on Instagram @casa.barra.interior