The advice to live in a house before making big decisions about fixtures and fittings has been enthusiastically embraced by one couple in Wexford.
They moved into their two-storey home in the Wexford countryside, near New Ross, 11 years ago and finished the rooms in stages. The latest project involved moving their sleeping quarters upstairs, where they now have three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
“We’ve always taken the approach to develop our home on a phased basis as our family grows,” they explain.
When they moved in, they had no children, so they had ample space downstairs. When their second child was on the way, they decided to develop the first floor.
READ MORE
“We realised, having lived in the house, that we needed more ventilation upstairs. We decided to vault all the ceilings upstairs and put in Velux windows.”
They did not have to look far when it came to interior design advice. They had been living in the house for a short time when they asked Hélène Broderick Interiors to help them to plan their home.
“And we’ve been working with Hélène since.”
An earlier project involved a playroom, home gym and a spacious utility, which the homeowners describe as the workhorse of the house.
“It’s a really practical space with plenty of storage. It’s located at the back door so when we come in from a day out, we can leave everything there and are not dragging things through the house.”
In the playroom, a hanging egg chair and large Fat Boy bean bags have been well tested by their six-year-old and have come through with flying colours.
“The bean bags are more flexible than a couch. They can be a den, a seat or whatever the children want.”
The playroom was one of those projects that emerged as a priority after the couple had lived in the house.
“When we were designing the house 12 or 13 years ago, we had an idealised version of how we were going to use the house but having lived in it, we’ve had to make tweaks to fit with our family life.
“So, with the playroom, we realised we wanted the children to have the scope to be free and to play on their own, but we also wanted them to be in line of sight of the kitchen. As the girls get older, the joinery and the other elements will transition really well.”
When it came to designing the bedrooms upstairs, they wanted to create a calm and peaceful space. Stepping from the bright and airy landing, it’s clear that the brief was well met. The Serpentine green paint from Zoffany on the wall panels combines with the golden glow from the wall lights to give a tranquil feeling to this area.
“It’s lovely at night, particularly in the autumn and winter months. You feel like you are entering into a soothing space.”
The importance of lighting was something that Hélène Broderick encouraged the couple to think about. The interior designer says lighting is a consideration that’s often overlooked by people when they plan their homes.
“You can design a beautiful room, fabulous furniture, lovely artwork and window treatments but if the lighting isn’t correct, it just will not elevate the room to the correct level,” she says.
For the nursery, they created an arch around the bed and installed warm LED lighting inside the arch.
“LED lighting is fantastic for interior design because it allows you to give that subtle accent. We also used it in the bathroom in all the niches,” she says. Broderick recommends putting it under bathroom vanity units on sensors so that a soft and low light is triggered when you walk into the room at night.
She also introduced the homeowners to fabrics and soft furnishings that they wouldn’t have thought about before.
“With an interior designer, you are working with someone who has so much experience knowing where to source really good quality fabrics, fittings and finishes,” they say.
“To fully decorate a home takes an extraordinary amount of time, knowing where to source fabrics and materials to get those final finishes really brings the home together.”
Broderick sourced materials for their home from Paris, Italy and the UK, while the homeowners put their own stamp on the project with their family photographs and abundant plants. “I absolutely love bringing greenery into the home. Our home really reflects who we are.”
Broderick says taking this phased approach to finishing a home makes the project more manageable from a financial point of view.
“When you are doing the whole house, it is expensive, so this is why we phase projects with clients. Do certain areas right and then move on to the next area when budget permits.”
She likes to be involved in the process at the earliest stage, so that her designers can collaborate with the architects, builders and tradespeople. Clients often underestimate the lead time in getting key pieces and this can lead to frustration.
“All the joiners are incredibly busy at the moment so depending on the project, you could be talking about six months from the time you begin preparing the brief.”
Despite the current global uncertainty, she says the demand for her services is strong. She has just opened a new studio and showroom in Foxrock village, complementing her original studio in Kilkenny.
“I think people see the value in making a long-term investment in their homes and in bringing in a design team to help with that,” she says. Producing timeless designs rather than chasing trends is her priority.
“Clients are investing a large amount of money so they need longevity. I want to be able to go back into a home in five or ten years’ time and see that the home is still functioning really well, even though their family’s needs might have changed.”
For this house, she used a lot of performance fabrics – those durable materials designed to resist stains, fading, and wear-and-tear.
“There are amazing products for flooring, carpets, fabric upholstery that can be bleach cleaned,” she says. “So we are able to use lighter colours than we would have had in the past with young families.”
She also opted for more muted colours in the big-ticket items, while introducing colour in cushions and throws which are cheaper to replace if the homeowner wants a change.
Reupholstering is another way of getting a longer life out of furniture.
“I have sofas in my home and they are 29 years old and I reupholstered them once and they are fabulous,” she says.
While it has taken 11 years, the homeowners are very happy with their decision to finish their house in stages. “Doing it this way gave us time to think about each space, rather than approaching a full house, trying to design every single room at the same time, particularly when you might not need all those rooms at the start,” they say.
“And it meant we always had something to look forward to.”
Biggest win
“It’s seeing how much our daughter loves her pink bedroom,” the homeowners say. “She gets so much fun from playing up there and bringing her little friends up. That’s very gratifying.”
Biggest mistake
“I can’t honestly think of one. There are learnings from each project, and perhaps because we developed our home on this phased basis, we really considered what we wanted from each room.”
