Celebrity Traitors is back, and Scotland is back in the spotlight. I’m cheering on Glasgow’s Sharon Rooney, whom I loved as Sophie in Two Doors Down. I’m looking forward to seeing how all that warmth and charm fares in a castle full of traitors.
The idea
As a proud Scot living south of the border, I’m always interested in what gets presented as ‘Scottish style’. I love the tartan, teacakes and Scottie dogs. But there’s so much more to look at.
The cameras may be trained on a Highland castle, but for interiors inspiration I’d head the other way: beyond the familiar Edinburgh-and-Highlands itinerary, to Glasgow and the west. There’s a wider design story here, from Arts and Crafts and the Glasgow Boys to bold textiles and contemporary architecture.
Music, fashion, theatre and art rub shoulders with one another, and that energy finds its way into the rooms. When I was studying art, I loved rummaging through the Barras for objects to draw and arrange into still lifes. It was where I began to work out what caught my eye.
Like Liverpool and Manchester, Glasgow has industrial muscle, magnificent buildings and a warm, irreverent personality. It can be flashy and rough round the edges at the same time. Edinburgh can keep the crowds. Give me a wander down Buchanan Street.
The architecture rewards a closer look. Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s carefully composed interiors; Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s inventive use of ancient forms; the bold post-war modernism of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia at St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross. Three very different approaches, with an appetite for doing something extraordinary.
That imagination is still at work. Here are five places I’d start looking.
Five design inspirations from Glasgow and the west
Studio Kumari
Sophie Mahandru’s Glasgow floral studio treats flowers as part of the design of a space. Unexpected combinations and a strong eye for shape make the arrangements feel sculptural. A reminder that flowers can do far more than fill a vase.
Explore Studio Kumari →Timorous Beasties
A long-time favourite. Glasgow Toile, splattered damasks and intricate flora and fauna bring wit and a little mischief to familiar decorative patterns. I love the combination of beauty and subversion. These are designs that reward a second look.
Explore Timorous Beasties →Homes & Interiors Scotland
A must-read for anyone curious about Scottish homes, architecture and makers. Its mix of interiors, art and design shows just how broad the picture is, with plenty to inspire you wherever you happen to live.
Read Homes & Interiors Scotland →Godshot
Speciality coffee, fine patisserie and carefully chosen functional objects, brought together by Sam Amdjadi and Lesley Tang in Glasgow’s Southside. It’s the combination that appeals: good design woven into the small pleasures of an ordinary day.
Explore Godshot →Dualchas
Working from Skye and Glasgow, Dualchas creates contemporary architecture shaped by landscape, climate and local building traditions. I’m drawn to that relationship between a house and its surroundings: how it sits, what it shelters and where it lets you look out.
Explore Dualchas →Worth keeping
Design runs through Glasgow’s story, from the engineering of the Clyde to its contemporary interiors. You see it in carved stone above a shopfront and the proportions of a tenement room: high ceilings, generous windows, space for strong colour and an unexpected piece of furniture. There is plenty to borrow without buying a thing.
The Mackintosh Building’s two fires still make me angry. It was one of the great buildings of the 20th century, and we failed to protect it. Glaswegians lost a building they were rightly proud of, a part of the city’s identity that had stood on Garnethill for more than a century. Future generations lost it too: every student who will never work in its studios and every visitor who will never stand in its library. We need to care for the heritage we have, and give today’s designers and makers the commissions, customers and opportunities to create something equally worth keeping.
People make Glasgow, and they give it its style. Go for the buildings, stay for the patter and leave with a few ideas.
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Questions
Where is The Traitors castle?
The Traitors is filmed at Ardross Castle in Ross-shire, in the Scottish Highlands. It’s a Victorian country house used as an events venue, so you can’t book a room, but its panelled, richly coloured interiors are some of the most-watched in Britain.
Who is Sharon Rooney?
Sharon Rooney is a Glasgow-born actress, best known as Sophie in Two Doors Down and Rae in My Mad Fat Diary. Her films include Barbie and Dumbo. She’s one of the contestants in the 2026 series of Celebrity Traitors.
What is Glasgow Style in interior design?
Glasgow Style is the city’s own take on Art Nouveau, developed around 1890 to 1910 by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret Macdonald and their circle. Look for elongated lines, stylised roses, high-backed chairs and white-painted rooms with small, jewel-like flashes of colour.
Where can you see Mackintosh interiors in Glasgow?
Start with The Hill House in Helensburgh, Mackintosh at the Willow on Sauchiehall Street and the reassembled Mackintosh House at the Hunterian. House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park was built later from his designs and is also worth a visit.
What happened to the Mackintosh Building?
The Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building was damaged by fire in 2014 and gutted by a second fire in 2018, just before restoration was due to finish. The school has said it will rebuild, but the building’s future remains a source of real anger and debate in the city.
How do you style a Glasgow tenement flat?
Almost any way you like, which is the joy of it. High ceilings, big bay windows and generous proportions give you a shell that can carry sleek and modern, mid-century or bold Victorian with equal ease. In Glasgow, anything goes, as long as you do it with confidence.
