'Do you want a bit of sugar?' Four times Home of the Year caused bitter debates
Amanda Bone was not afraid to share her opinion with Hugh Wallace and Suzie McAdam this season.
While many of us tuned in to Home of the Year see some spectacular designs, we’ve also been captivated by the judge’s disagreements as well as seeing our own personal tastes reflected or rejected on screen.
Ahead of next week's final, here are four divisive design moments that really stood out so far this season.
Those of us with wicker garden furniture felt uncomfortable when the judges were discussing the garden of a renovated cottage in Co Dublin. The common style was debated hotly by Amanda Bone and Hugh Wallace in particular, with Bone lamenting the popularity of the “lumpy” design of most offerings. “What is this obsession with Irish people and wicker outdoor furniture?” she wondered, while Wallace thought he was too harsh in her criticism. He retorted: “Do you not want a bit of sugar or something, you need something to sweeten you up?” Seeing how many people invested in such outdoor furniture at the start of the pandemic, will be see some of them turn up on second-hand selling sites this summer after the concept was dragged through the mud by Bone on national TV?
It’s not just static items that are on Bone’s list of pet peeves: she also hates seeing too many objects at once, decrying them as clutter. A living room that McAdam describes as cosy and that is praised by Wallace for showing personality is criticised by Bone for having too much going on: “it all feels a bit cluttered,” she says. This was all said in the very same house that boasted a wicker patio set in its garden, so although the Dublin cottage found its way to tonight’s final, it ruffled some feathers along the way.
Bone also clashed with Suzie McAdam about another favourite of Irish homes: a kitchen island. In a restored 1800s schoolhouse in Co Down, Bone was thrilled to see the spacious kitchen and said she was glad the owners avoided adding a kitchen island. “At last, someone hasn’t given into the craze of an island.” She said she doesn’t have one and it gives her space to move and dance around her kitchen. McAdam, however, thought the schoolhouse needed an island. “The elephant in the room is the missing island.” Controversial.
From missing islands to unusual ones, the first home through to the final this year divided viewers with its striking kitchen island, made from a baby grand piano. David O'Brien designed his kitchen around the 1850s rosewood piano he bought at auction for €500, and his Cork home wowed the judges and viewers, although the kitchen itself didn’t have everyone singing from the same hymn sheet. While Bone said it was “one of the most creative kitchens I have ever seen,” some viewers weren’t convinced. One viewer pronounced the antique piano as “genius as a kitchen island”, another tweeted: “The piano in the kitchen — hell, no!”
