Better by design: Creative owners make Blarney homes a site to behold

Tommy Barker reports on a Blarney detached home which had a fantastic makeover by designer owners

Sat, 29 Sep, 2018 - 01:00

Tommy Barker reports on a Blarney detached home which had a fantastic makeover by designer owners

The family living at this Blarney, detached home at 33 Bracken Wood had a couple of advantages on their side when it came to acting on their wish to extend a few years ago.

They knew the design business, backwards, forwards and, were keen to apply their skills and knowledge, and in no less measure their budget-savvy cop-on, on their very own hearth and doorstep, when they chose to add on some extra floor area, and to let in the light.

A young couple, with two daughters Aoibhe and Lauren, Paddy and Karen Hickey are steeped in design and visual appreciation and aptitude.

Karen is an executive planner and urban designer with Cork County Council, while Paddy Hickey is a design technician with strong IT and visualisation skills, back working with Hogan Architecture in Cork, after a spell in the likes of Apple and other industry sectors for a career-broadening period.

They bought their first home together 11 years ago, a new-build by Cumnor Construction at Bracken Wood, just above the Waterloo Road within a short walk of Blarney village’s amenities. After their two daughters began to grow, they expanded their home accordingly, knowing its strengths and weaknesses well after so many years happily living in the elevated, cul-de-sac estate.

Day one, they had chosen No 33 as it was in at the very far end of the development, second last in along, by a side sloping green, with long, distant valley views, and, critically, it had a south facing rear garden, for day long light.

That southerly aspect is now even more enhanced after the ground floor extension, which includes a low (eight degrees) glass roof panel over a dining table, and their considerable makeover also included moving internal walls, and creating that all-serving ‘open plan’ kitchen/living/dining family hub.

As well as adding on at the back, they added to the side, over two levels with a brick-faced wing, for a larger utility, a home office and better flow, while overhead it allowed the creation of a swish new family bathroom/wetroom, and a reconfiguration of the back bedrooms, now both very good doubles and much appreciated by their youthful occupants.

As a result of the work, done over a 24-week period by veteran builder John Cronin, No 33 has swollen to be just shy of 1,600 sq ft, each and every one of them reworked or represented or refreshed.

And, now, they are selling.

The family has its eye on a new build just a short bit further out into a rural community, in a niche development of six or seven detacheds, and it’s probable the folks have the ‘bit between their teeth’ as they can make alterations and specification-tweaks they’d like, at a fairly early build stage.

They’ve just listed No 33 Bracken Wood with estate agent Humphrey Hogan at a guide price of €420,000, first viewings have just started and it’s a walk-in job, with any new occupants going to benefit from the knowledgeable input of its departing residents, who more than got their bang for their buck.

For those in the market for extensions, design pro Paddy Hickey kindly reveals that they spent about €100,000 in their extension and upgrades. Asked the direct question as to how much more others could expect similar work to cost with their very extensive hands-on input and professional knowledge, he reckons a very similar project would come in at €125,000, or even more.

He puts it down to their enormous amount of time on research, hunting for value, striking deals, mixing the likes of IKEA and bespoke and even artist-created works, and some simple frugality, driven by a desire not to waste money, or materials.

Cases in point?

Well, when taking up the original timber decking at the back of the house, Paddy used the removed decking as uprights to build a magical, fort-like hideaway for the couple’s girls, close in age (10 and seven years old) and good buddies, and he fashioned it into a sleek, split level garden room and play house, insulated, with power supply, lighting and even a TV monitor screen for DVDs. It’s almost a small version of No 33’s own extension, complete with low pitch roof light/window, and fake grass flooring: neat.

When putting in new windows for the extensions and removing some old frames and patio doors, they also stayed true to ‘green’ principles. They asked a willing Pat Enright of Mallow Glass to find new homes for what was being taken out: it netted them about €200, and someone else got a bargain.

Similarly, when their builder was taking out their well-kept Shaker cedar kitchen units, the insisted they be removed carefully, and they were able to sell them on Done Deal, for a €1,500 fillip: another win-win, with their old kitchen’s buyer getting value for money, and there was no waste of perfectly good product.

Patrick designed the new kitchen and wall units’ irregular layout by the family seating area, and sourced the wall, floor and island units from IKEA, and the same Swedish monolith also provided the large wall of wardrobe and sliding doors in the en suite master bedroom.

Also proving to be value for money were wall-mounted radiators and a circular wood-burning stove among other items found from online retailers, but local tradespeople and suppliers weren’t eschewed or shunned.

The high-gloss and extensive kitchen units and island (with undermounted sink) are topped in a pale, white granite, done by Hickeys Cork, and Paddy insisted on a more slender 30mm stone be used for a lightening effect (rather than the usual 50mm thickness, mitred at the island joins), and it’s a well-judged adjustment.

Also to the discerning eye is the colour match between the burnt orange colour of the kitchen’s glass splash-back, and the same shade in the four white and orange kitchen stools. Of note too is the amount of original art and craft work on the wall, and display shelving, including ceramics, framed glass work by the likes of Cork’s Eoin Turner, and large, calming worked fabrics and paintings by artist Gráinne Buckley.

Keeping it all lit and in focus is lighting, a mix of IKEA, and fitting from Cork’s Lightplan, while new joinery plus the over-height connecting glazed doors between the main rear family kitchen/living/dining area and the more private front family room were made up just down the road, by Waterloo Joinery: having the extra height really connects the spaces and allows extra light penetration when the sliding pocket doors are drawn back, approves Paddy.

Elsewhere, new glazed doors in spots like the main family bathroom and connecting the utility to the home office have a translucent

privacy effect, thanks to a film applied by local man Mick Cremin of Wilton-based Solar Gard, and it has the same effect as using sandblasted glass, but at a fraction of the cost.

More subtle is the choice of colours and balances in the decor, with a favourite of Hogan Architecture, Colourtend’s Salter Stone, used for door architraves and in contrast to skirting in Ivory White.

Another handy touch was the expedience of painting the French porcelain-tiled hall’s existing panel radiators a dark grey, to match the colour of the more trendy wall-mounted vertical rads in the kitchen and elsewhere: why waste money, and perfectly good items already well fixed and performing well in place and at home, when there’s no need to? Not every major makeover has to be a total gut job.

The couple dug into the renovations with clear gusto, outside as well as inside, and Paddy redesigned the bright back garden and stone paved al fresco dining patio to have a sort of ‘Diarmuid Gavin’ purple painted feature retained wall with feature stainless steel water spout. It utilises the steep back boundary to fields on high, behind where local builders O’ Leary & O’Sullivan are currently developing their new €25 million, 78-unit Cluain Ard scheme (also reached via Castleheights/Monacnappa Estate, as is Cumnor’s Bracken Wood) to meet escalating demand in the greater Blarney hinterland.

Launching the immaculate No 33 Bracken Wood, auctioneer Humphrey Hogan describes the sizeable c 1,600 sq ft detached four-bed as “a contemporary home that is full of surprises,” and “just one of those special homes that comes around once in a lifetime.”

VERDICT: Surprise? Paddy and Karen got their own when they got to scrutinise their handiwork’s images No 33 went online.

A certain daughter, who’ll remain nameless, decided to rearrange the frees-standing letters of the word SMILE on her pretty-in-pink bedrooms wall. It now read SLIME.

What can you do, only Keep Clam, and Carry On.