Lorraine Keane on why her kitchen makes her happy
Lorraine Keane at home in Monkstown, Dublin. Picture: Ruth Medjber
The kitchen: It’s in an open-plan space also featuring the living area. We’re very lucky. We have an old house with high ceilings. I created an open floor plan and we have a real fire in the original marble fireplace. The kitchen is just the place where the whole family congregates. We have dinner every night at 7pm. My daughters are 13 and 17 so we’ll try to keep that going as long as we can!
It’s also the go-to place when friends call, I like to be beside the kettle and coffee maker!
We live in Monkstown in Dublin, so we’re lucky as we’re beside the sea. I and my husband Peter have taken up sea swimming — probably like half of Ireland! Previously, I would have been a fair-weather swimmer and would only have gone swimming a handful of times but now I’m doing it every day — sometimes twice a day.
I am not a strong swimmer, but I still love it. It is so good for your mental health. I completely understand how you can get addicted to doing it — and it’s not a bad addiction.
My dressing room. It’s just a very girly space full of memories, a treasure chest of special pieces I‘ve collected over the years, as well as shoes and accessories and notebooks — I collect notebooks.
When the girls were small and had playdates that was the first place they would all go to — and I would let them.
This is the fourth house I’ve had since I was 20. They were all doer-uppers. I’m from Rathfarnham, and I just kept edging closer to the sea, and it wasn’t until I moved into my final house, here in Monkstown, that I got to have my own walk-in wardrobe. Peter will smirk at this but it actually makes me buy and shop less because I can see everything.
Eclectic, like my wardrobe. It’s an old house, built in the 1850s. I did all the décor myself. We renovated and refurbished it the traditional way, as it’s a listed building, with beautiful damask wallpaper and the original wooden floors, but I introduced a more contemporary feel in some rooms, like the breakfast room/kitchen.
I also love soft furnishings: They make a home more luxurious, but also more cosy and liveable.
My style changes daily. Some mornings, when I wake up, I want to do “rock chick”, other days I fancy a more vintage look and other days I’ll go relaxed and boho. My house is the same. It’s a bit of a mix: contemporary, art deco and traditional.
These houses are very easy to decorate because the bone structure is already there, with the extra trimmings like cornices and other period features.
I remember going into a shop in town about 15 years ago that was having a liquidation sale. I had seen a jacket in the window. When I arrived, I noticed this incredible six-tier brass chandelier hanging from the ceiling, with about 30 lights in it. I asked the lady behind the counter, “Is everything for sale?” She said yes and called the owner who was delighted it was going to a good home. I phoned Peter and he came with a ladder. I had visions of the chandelier scene in Only Fools and Horses. I didn’t get the jacket but I came home with a beautiful brass chandelier.
Renovating the house: When we bought our house, it was divided into eight flats. We had to renovate it and bring it back to its original form. The things that you spend the biggest part of your budget on are the things you don’t see —plumbing, electrics, new roof.
I did buy a suite of furniture for my first house, 25 years ago, in Brown Thomas. I remember getting advice from my parents and family: Make sure it will last. I still have it and it’s still absolutely perfect. It’s in our TV room. It has loose covers that I can wash.
Cooking. We’re all foodies. The girls eat everything, they’re so easy to feed. I think of my poor mother. She was not a foodie and had seven children to cook for and there were always people complaining! My girls are full of compliments about the food I prepare and it makes for a nicer experience. I also love food shopping for the same reason.
Tuna poke. It’s really easy because George’s Fish Shop is located down in the village. There’s no cooking involved, it’s mostly just preparation. We all also love Asian food.
Ballymaloe Relish is something I can’t run out of. I always buy the jars in fours. I also have to have Kerrygold Butter. My mother always says I put bread on my butter.
I would love to have Oprah Winfrey, Gay Byrne, who was always the best company and always such an amazing support to me, and his wife Kathleen. Bono is always interesting, so cool and so kind. I have interviewed him lots of times so him and Ali.
Tommy Tiernan— to shake things up — and his wife Yvonne, who is a school friend, and Christy Moore and his wife Valerie. It would be a big dinner party but when you are making the effort I always say: The more the merrier.
I think it’s lovely that people are making home improvements and enjoying their space more and just rethinking their space.
We have a guest room we hardly ever use so maybe it could become our office because Peter and I are working from home more. Our home was on the market a couple of years ago. We had seen another home close by, another doer-upper. But we took our home off the market. We realised we’re very lucky to have the extra bit of space we have here.
- Broadcaster, philanthropist and businesswoman Lorraine Keane will host The Finished.ie Virtual Homeshow on Saturday, November 21, from 11am to 4pm; see finished.ie
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