A bit about me

I didn’t become aware of my passion for design until my late teens, but it was always there.

As a young boy I couldn’t get enough of the sharp, wedged lines of 90’s sports cars, and loved the luxurious leather and chrome filled interiors just as much. In my teenage years, automotive design took the ‘back seat’ as I developed an appreciation of Interiors and architecture. I studied Accounting and Finance at University and like most students, would lock myself away in the library for long study sessions. However, most of the time spent in the library was used creating 3D models of buildings I loved instead of studying for my degree.

Somehow I graduated with Honours in 2008, and I bought my first property with help from my parents. It was a small cottage which had been empty for three years. It was a wreck - Damp, rotten, draughty, and hadn’t been upgraded in decades. Everyone thought I was crazy, but I was in my element; it was perfect. I stripped it right back to the brick and made it my dream home. I loved the process so much, I sold the cottage and continued to buy unloved properties throughout my twenties, turning them back into inviting homes.

Meanwhile I was also building a career in Hospitality, having the pleasure of working in and managing some of Scotland’s finest hotels. Spending the better part of two decades in luxury hotels gave me another level of appreciation for great design, both aesthetically and ergonomically. Whenever it came time to refurbish of an area of the hotel, I made sure I was in the thick of it. At this point, my career was keeping me too busy to do my own refurbs, so this was my fix.

Come 2020, I decide to open my own “mini hotels” in the form of design-led short term rentals, creating Fairgray Property. On the back of their success and press coverage of their interiors, I’ve been asked to design interiors for private and commercial clients across Scotland.

It was from here that Fairgray Design was born and we continue to work with residential and commercial clients offering Design, Sourcing, Procurement & Project Management.

Drop me a line if you’d like to discuss your own upcoming project.

Gordon Fairgray Shaw