Siobhán Lam: 'It's hard to talk about Hugh Wallace in the past — he was so full of life'
Siobhan Lam home of the year
“He was exactly what you saw on TV.
Incredibly funny, cheeky. Very bold sometimes, but always tongue-in-cheek. Incredibly smart. In terms of architecture and interiors, he knew absolutely everything.”
Siobhán Lam is, of course, talking about the late Hugh Wallace, her fellow judge on the much-loved interiors show , who died unexpectedly at his home on December 1 last year, aged just 68.
Wallace, a celebrated architect, had been a judge on the show since it first hit TV screens in 2015. His singular personality both contributed to its success and raised him to the status of national treasure.
The upcoming season, the show’s 12th, was Lam’s second judging alongside Wallace (architect Amanda Bone, who joined in 2021, completed the trio).
Making the series involves long hours travelling the length and breadth of the country, and Lam came to realise Wallace “knew Ireland like the back of his hand”, witnessing first-hand his love of its places and people. When the trio would stop for coffee, and Wallace would emerge from the van, “people were just drawn to him,” Lam recalls. “Obviously, they’d hear his voice, but there was this kind of magnetic energy with Hugh, you could see on people’s faces that they were so happy just to have five minutes in his company.
“I remember one time we were in Tipperary and all of a sudden there’s a farmer there. He was slapping Hugh on the back and they were shaking hands and had the most intense talk. When the farmer walked away, I said, ‘Hugh, how do you know him?’ and he said, ‘I’ve never met him before!’ There was something magical in those kinds of moments. He just loved talking to people. He loved it so much.” Lam pauses. “I’m still finding it hard to talk about him in the past because he was so full of life,” she says. “He was so full of passion.”
Passion was certainly a key element of Wallace’s judging style. Enthusiastic, opinionated and deeply knowledgeable, the Dublin native brought an exuberant energy to the show — both in his commentary and his colourful personal style. Being a judge on is not for shy and retiring types: strong opinions and having the courage of one’s convictions are intrinsic parts of the brief, as is being comfortable judging someone else’s taste with the nation watching on.
Kildare-born Lam is unique on the show in that she’s a judge who has been judged — her Dublin home appeared in the very first episode of the first season back in 2015 (alas, it didn’t make the final). That experience influenced her own judging “for about 20 minutes on the first day,” she recalls now. “I was like, ‘who am I to judge anybody’ kind of thing, and, ‘I’m sure this took a lot of work to do. It’s not necessarily my taste, but let’s think about these homeowners’. Then I realised: this is not going to work. I am there for a reason. Amanda’s there, Hugh’s there for a reason. We’re there to assess a space and give our genuine opinion.”
Lam quickly understood that being wishy-washy or staying on the fence wasn’t an option. It wasn’t honest, nor did it make for good TV. Plus, she says, “the reality is, you go on because you want to show the nation your home and the amount of work you’ve put into it. But, with that, also comes critique.”
A former fashion buyer, Lam’s colour-centric, maximalist aesthetic frequently butts heads with architect Bone’s low-key, minimalist sensibility (Wallace and Lam tended to have fewer opposing views), and the inevitable, frequent clashes make for wildly entertaining viewing.
“It’s funny because when you meet Amanda, you couldn’t meet a sweeter, kinder, lovelier person,” Lam says. “But as soon as you’re talking about her passion, which is homes, interiors, architecture, she is not going to hold her tongue. She’s going to tell you exactly what she thinks. It’s brilliant. I don’t think that we’ve ever agreed on anything in terms of homes and what works andinteriors and colours.”
The judges’ willingness to stand firm in their views — often in the face of dismissiveness or disagreement from the others — combined with the voyeuristic pleasure of seeing inside extraordinary Irish homes, is what makes compelling on so many levels. “You’re going to be absolutely entertained by the fights!” agrees Lam, laughing. “But more so, I think, by the fabulous homes. Irish people in general, we love a little nosy. We love a little peek past the curtain to go, ‘oh look what they’ve done there, I like that’.”
More recently, people came into the store to talk to her about Wallace and pass on their condolences. “They felt the loss, even though they’d never met him. Just from watching they felt like they had a relationship with him.”
Lam’s interiors business was an organic follow-on from the renovation of her and her now-husband Jamie Hughes’s period home in Portobello. April and the Bear started online as a homewares brand, but has evolved into a bricks-and-mortar interiors and lifestyle store with an adjacent design studio. Since launching the business in 2013, Lam has noticed a shift in what people want from their interiors.
Previously, Instagram-style aesthetics were to the forefront, but now, “people are thinking more about how the space is going to work for them, not about how it’s going to look. The aesthetics are obviously incredibly important, but people are also thinking about, is it going to work for me to work from home in this space? It’s great to have an open-plan ground floor, but what happens when the kids want to do their homework?” says the mum of two.
“I think homeowners are getting much more savvy, too. It’s not that they are being sold a lie by Instagram, but they are realising it’s a look, it’s not a home.”
Lam herself is inspired by someone who isn’t an interior designer, but Jenna Lyons, a former whose styling nous gave us “shrobing” and the high-low juxtaposition of casual with couture. Lyons’s stunning SoHo loft will be familiar to RHONY viewers, but her former home, a Brooklyn brownstone that was “so eclectic and different and colourful and cool”, has Lam’s heart. She loves that Lyons is “unapologetically herself” and has an ability to bring different styles together “in the most incredible way”.
“The thing I admire about her and certain interiors and some of the homes we’ve visited in this series is that they are just trying to impress themselves. They are just creating space for them. They’re not thinking about anybody else.”
Following your gut and embracing what brings you joy is key to creating a home that’s authentically you, Lam says. “If you are surrounding yourself with things — armchairs, cushions, art — that you’re mad about and genuinely make you smile when you see them, you’re going to have an absolutely beautiful home that brings you happiness every moment that you’re in it. Sometimes our clients are like, ‘Ooh, I really like this, but it’s a bit mad. Will I just go for the beige option?’
“I say, ‘no. Go for the thing you are absolutely mad about’. Because why not? Life is short. You might as well buy the leopard-print sofa.”
- will return Tuesday, March 3 at 7pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
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