Watch: Look inside renovated Cork home with rooftop terrace to get tiny-house storage ideas

'My friends said I was crazy to take on the renovation. I said: Just wait till I'm on Home of the Year,' says finalist on this year's show

Sinead Murphy relaxes on her rooftop terrace. Pictures: Larry Cummins 

Isn't it lovely to see decaying city-centre houses getting a new lease of life?

A perfect example and one to inspire is the Cork City home of digital marketer Sinead Murphy.

Located near the ruins of the 14th-century Augustinian Red Abbey, it’s an area steeped in history and minutes' walking distance from the city centre with its retail bustle, bars and restaurants.

But renovating a dilapidated house was a huge undertaking that Sinead’s friends said she was crazy to take on.

“I used to say to them, ‘just wait till I’m on Home of the Year’”, she says.

It was a self-fulfilling prophecy that not only saw the house picked to appear on the show’s 2022 edition but won a place in the final after an 18-month project stretching from purchase to completion in March 2020.

“I actually moved in the week lockdown restrictions were announced,” Sinead says.

But it gave her time to really settle in and put the finishing touches to her new three-storey home, inspired by her time spent living in New York.

“I lived in eight different apartments and got a sense of what I liked,” she explains. 

“I was used to small living and actually spent my 20s living in shoe boxes. I had access to great shops but nowhere to put anything so closet space and storage were really important to me.”

She now has pull-out clothes rails worked into the stairwell and under sloping ceilings in the top floor bedroom which she occupies and where a compact shower room has also been slotted in.

But it’s the rooftop terrace which leads from the bedroom that is an unexpected delight and it’s where Sinead and friends gather for drinks and chats, enjoying views across neighbouring rooftops and the gently looming sandstone structure of the Nano Nagle Centre, standing like a protector from the harsher weather elements. 

Suddenly, you forget it’s Cork and imagine it’s a Parisian pied-à-terre.

One floor below is Sinead’s guest room with a surprisingly spacious ensuite shower and even a little laundry room. Despite scant square meterage in the property, space has been found for everything.

Wending down to the ground floor, gutting the original layout now accommodates open-plan living, dining and kitchen areas. It’s compact but lightsome and airy, something Sinead’s furniture choices enhance.

“I gravitate towards low-level furniture and loved the couches my parents had all my life,” she says. “I saw a velvet set on eBay — a two-seater sofa, a chair and a pouffe.”

They’re the Pogo collection from Ligne Roset, designed in the ‘70s by Michel Ducaroy and finished in soft pink upholstery.

“They’re my favourite things,” she says. “They’re so liveable and adaptable.”

They’re also surprisingly lightweight, so Sinead would have no difficulty carrying them upstairs if she fancied ringing the changes.

Star buy, though, is her Roundette extendable dining table with three-legged chairs which slot into the tabletop rim. 

Designed in 1952 by Hans Olsen, and sourced online from Germany by Sinead, it’s the perfect size for her limited dining area and adds a pop of woody warmth to the all-white walls, floors and kitchen units as does a round, low-level coffee table which cites Ray and Charles Eames’ design in its styling.

Lighting choices throughout the house from Made.com give a Scandinavian design vibe, but there’s also vintage lighting sourced at Cork’s Salvagem and on eBay.

But it’s storage solutions which vie for star buy with the Roundette table. A bookcase built beneath the stairs opens like the entrance to a secret hidey-hole revealing dedicated shoe storage. It’s bliss, ladies, bliss.

Thrilled though Sinead is by the finish, she admits there were challenges. One disappointment was a flooring choice.

“I had micro-cement downstairs,” she explains. “It looked gorgeous for two weeks and then it cracked.”

Now replaced by white-painted wood, it actually contributes to the light feeling in the space.

So, what would be her guiding principles for anyone cautious about taking on an old property?

“It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done but it’s going to take longer than you think,” she says. 

“But all the challenges and frustrations will be worth it. Remember, you’re not going to be good at everything. It’s emotional and it can be hard because it’s your house. Beware of expectations and timelines. It will get done.”