His children have told how they would race around the house to see what their father had created when they returned from holidays with their mother in her native France.
The extraordinary craftsmanship by world-renowned wood sculptor Tim Stead in the interiors of his Scottish farmhouse led to it being awarded a category A listing, twenty years after his death at the age of 48 from leukemia.
Even those who are familiar with his most famous works, including the National Museum of Scotland’s Millennium Clock and the interior of Glasgow’s Cafe Gandolfi – may not know his masterpiece was actually the home he made for his family in the Borders village of Blainslie.
A new film, created by Beatrix Wood, explores his life and legacy and the 30-year project to create the 'remarkable' family home between commissions, which is now a living legacy of his work.
Nichola Fletcher MBE, chair of the Tim Stead Trust, has said she believes that the interiors equal that of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's famous Willow Tearooms.
He created a fireplace for his wife Maggy one Valentine's Day, his daughter slept in a wooden four-poster bed and an oak cradle was created for their son Sam. Even the toilet seats and light-pulls were hand-made in wood.
Originally from Cheshire, Stead studied at Nottingham Trent University and then at Glasgow School of Art, making his early sculptures from wood he found in skips as former industrial buildings were demolished.
Tim himself was really a magical person, a magician, in fact - Iain MacKenzie, founder of Cafe Gandolfi in Glasgow.
He pioneered the use of locally sourced native hardwoods rather than imported timber, eschewing trends and helped to establish the first community woodland in the UK, at Wooplaw near Lauder, kickstarting the community land ownership movement.
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His most famous commission is the Papal Chair he made for the visit of John Paul II to Scotland in 1982.
The Pope celebrated mass at Murrayfield Stadium in July and Stead's chair was the centrepiece at the ceremony.
"The house itself is not remarkable," says his wife Maggy in the film. "But what is inside it, is extraordinary." She is later seen winding up a spectacular grandfather clock made out of oak.
"It took me fifteen years to sell the house, to have the courage," she says, on her decision to move back to her native France after his death in April 2000.
"I had four estate agents and one had never heard of Tim Stead. There was a fine moment where the man stood looking at the kitchen going 'oh my God, oh my God."
The Tim Stead Trust was formed to try to raise enough money to buy The Steading from her to ensure it would remain preserved for the public.
"Probably since I was about ten, I slept in this four-poster bed," says his daughter Emma Stead, as the camera pans to the Broch crafted on the canopy above.
"I'll never forget the moment I walked through the door and my jaw just dropped open," says Julian Spalding, who commissioned a piece for Kelvingrove Art Gallery when he was director of Glasgow museums.
"I suddenly realised that on my doorstep in Scotland was a really creative artist at work."
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Iain MacKenzie, founder of Glasgow's Cafe Gandolfi, was working in the photographic office at Glasgow School of Art when he met the sculptor.
"I decided to leave art school with this little plan to open a cafe in Glasgow," he said.
"The Merchant City [in the 1970s] was a derelict place, it was just rat-infested. It took me two years to get the place open, I had no money and had to do everything myself.
"I was thinking of art school and that it would be really lovely if that guy Tim Stead did the furniture.
"As I had that thought I turned the corner at Rose Street and there was Tim and Maggy.
"The deal was that I wouldn't pay him anything until I started making money. Could you ever imagine someone doing that now?
"Tim himself was really a magical person, a magician, in fact."
The journey to the Trust's purchase of The Steading is captured in a new film by Beatrix Wood entitled Tim Stead: Magician with Wood.
She is hoping the public will get behind a Crowdfunder, which aims to raise just under £20,000 by New Year's Eve to finish post-production work for her "passion project."
She said: "I tried to get funding and it was just out of time, or not what they were looking for but I knew that this was a really strong story.
"I self-funded the project until I exhausted my own resources. We need to do the Crowdfunder to get the film completed and then it can go out to festivals and cinemas.
"Tim lived by what he believed in and created something truly original and truly extraordinary and that's the inspiration to other people not to conform to what is fashionable or trendy and not to get cut down if your creativity doesn't fit with what others are doing.
"It's not just an artist's biopic, it goes far beyond that. It's a human interest story because there is the environment story. He pioneered with another group of people the first community woodland which kickstarted the community land ownership movement.
"At a time when we are quite disempowered by headline news and debt crisis, I think Tim's story is fresh air, to just go and create something, collaborate with others and live your dreams."
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