Architect advises on designing to sell

TRENDS:ARCHITECT CLODAGH Nolan can't help herself, whenever she visits someone's house, she mentally rearranges the furniture and before long she has mapped out a whole new layout in her head - and consigned much of the contents to storage. "Shed it," is one of her favourite phrases.

"It's second nature to me. I've done it all my life," she says of the habit she is now hoping to turn into a consultancy business.

The Buyer's Eye is how she describes the service she's offering to would-be sellers who want to give their home a face-lift before putting it on the market but who haven't got a clue about where to start.

"It's not staging," Nolan insists, referring to the boom-time business of blitzing empty homes with sofas and chandeliers to help them sell.

Instead, she advises people on how to transform a room by being prepared to move things around and letting things go.

"People build up ways of living in a house over time, and it helps for them to have an outsider taking a new look at things," she says. "I can walk in and see things that are glaringly obvious, but which might not have occurred to the owners."

It's a skill she developed early on in her architectural career when she opted for renovation projects over new build.

"I've always been an improver," she says. "Nothing gives me more pleasure than taking an existing space and making something of it."

During her 12 years of running her own architectural firm she designed scores of extensions and worked on large-scale renovation projects.

She also bought and sold a handful of houses extremely well: her first home in Blackrock - a pretty Georgian house with a dramatic vaulted extension - attracted a record number of viewers and a record price when it sold in the 1990s.

Since then she has moved between houses in Dublin and Kilkenny and has also renovated an apartment in Paris which she rents out as a holiday let.

Her style is clean, fresh and unfussy, with a colour palette that doesn't stray too far from white. She describes her houses as "user-friendly" with lots of storage space and solid, good-looking surfaces like oak and stone.

Clients so far have included friends who just couldn't sell - and subsequently did - and others not in the market, but just wanting a new look for their home.

"It can be valuable for people who have just gotten bogged down with their surroundings. Quite often because they have become attached to pieces of furniture and can't see beyond them."

Nolan charges a €250 fee for a two-hour consultation that involves giving advice on how to arrange rooms, reorganise or store furniture or fittings, refresh decoration and add or subtract accessories.

Further services include drawing up plans for storage solutions, buying accessories, preparation for photography and brochures, and liaising with estate agents.

Phone 087 2885557 or e-mail thebuyerseye@me.com