Hiring a design professional might seem daunting, even excessive, but achieving the outcome of your dreams can be worth the investment and ensure costly mistakes are avoided, writes Carol O’Callaghan

There's hardly a row of homes in Cork city’s older southside suburbs with as much ‘kerb appeal’ as those on one side of Ardfoyle Crescent: even their entrance pillars set quite a tone of grandeur, in red brick and crowned with large terracotta globes.

Two-storey 1970s home opened up for views of garden and pond, says Tommy Barker