Look inside renovated and reimagined 1930s Dublin home
The garden living and TV room is designed for cosiness and relaxation, finished in calming blues, soft creams and wooden accents.
Let's try a little deprogramming when it comes to high expectations around buying a house, especially if it’s a first-time buy.
By shifting expectations down a notch, you might could end up with a delightful outcome to your house hunt, something PR consultant Hannah Saunders and husband Richie discovered when they bought their 1930s Dublin house last December.
After an intensive six-month search for a four-bed, they actually fell in love with a three-bed which in turn freed up extra budget for all the things they wanted to do to make the house a home reflecting their personal taste and practical needs.
“We were very lucky that the previous owners were builders,” Hannah says. “It was renovated and extended in 2020 and just needed a facelift to make it really special.”
After spending nine years living in London in what Hannah describes as “dinky apartments we kept growing out of”, storage was high on their list of priorities and implemented by John Kelly Carpentry in built-in wardrobes, living room storage, and an aesthetic addition of wall panelling in the hall the couple really wanted.
It’s a striking feature as you enter the house into an unusually wide hall to arrive at the foot of an elegant staircase, its soft neutral herringbone carpet edged in black leading upward to a bathroom and two bedrooms.
The master bedroom has been finished in warm cream and biscuit hues, with softest green on a papered feature wall, all bathed in natural light and grounded by dark plantation shutters.
Downstairs the creamy neutral theme continues in a sitting room to the front of the house. It’s airy, lightsome and invites relaxation away from the hubbub of the kitchen.
Beyond the sitting room is the third bedroom with an en-suite for overnight guests, and a home office, before entering the kitchen-cum-dining room, where again, neutrals prevail, balanced with woody accents in a chunky Cotwold-inspired dining table and bentwood rattan chairs.
It’s a convivial space for stylish and comfortable entertaining where Hannah and Richie can be part of the conversation as they cook.
But semi-screened by a striking wooden slatted structure is a surprise: A lower-level living room overlooking the garden and accessed by steps from the kitchen.
It’s spacious but with all the snug feels; designed for Sunday afternoon chilling, or movie night on the flat-screen TV integrated into a substantial wall unit finished in flat navy blue, all of which can be experienced from squishy sofas, one upholstered in blue and cream ticking stripe, the other plain cream. Centre is an outsize wooden coffee table for the necessities of relaxed living: Remote controls, drinks, newspapers, laptop, and placing feet tired after work.
The room completes the home’s relaxing colour palette of navy, soft green, white and cream with warm woody accents.
But what might be the biggest surprise of all is Hannah saying the "facelift" took a mere six weeks at a time when any tradesperson is hard to get.
“I booked people at ‘sale agreed’,” she explains, but stresses how having an interior designer meant jobs were done, “the way you need to do it; electrics first, paint, then carpets.”
Her choice of interior designer was Sarah Louise Dunne of Sandyford-based Sarah Louise Interiors who, according to Hannah, “got us from the get-go. We liked the Cotswold contemporary style and she really leaned into it.”
Hannah also maintains bringing in a professional saved them from making costly mistakes had they done it on their own, and it gave them access to tried and trusted suppliers and tradespeople.
To deliver in the timeframe, however, decisions had to be made quickly, and according to Sarah Louise, this was helped by Hannah’s decisiveness, with no structural work being required, plus Sarah Louise created mood boards for Hannah and Richie’s consideration in just two weeks to incorporate the brief.
“They wanted a welcoming space where they could have friends and family over,” says Sarah Louise, “and the house was a bit grey and cold and needed personality.”
This desired personality was injected with thoughtful lighting, warmer paint hues, exacting woodwork in panelling and cabinetry, and furniture and soft furnishings, a capsule example being the transformation of the chilly grey hall, now transformed with Shadow White paint from Farrow & Ball, herringbone stairs carpet from Matt Britton, and striking wall lights leading the eye through to the kitchen.
It’s also an example of the impact well-thought-out lighting has on a home and something Sarah Louise puts high on her list of priorities with any interior design project.
“Wall lights or picture lights should be planned in advance, ahead of selecting other things,” she explains. “The order should be layouts, followed by lighting, and then choosing things. Often people put choosing things first, but it should be third.”
Selecting finishes can also be a minefield littered with potential disasters, with Hannah citing colour as one. “There are a million and one paint colours out there. Being able to get sound advice from the designer saved us.”
The same goes for space planning. Sarah Louise explains: “So often people choose the wrong size furniture; the sofa that’s too big, and then they’re trying to make the room work around it, or the rug that’s too small.”
For Hannah, hiring a professional also means there’s a flow to the ‘facelift’, something Sarah Louise has achieved with a coherent palette of colours and textures.
“It’s easy to go too far and spend money in the wrong places,” Hannah says, and she also cites the wisdom of her elders in this regard. “My mum always says, if you buy cheap you buy twice, so my cushions are a bit of a splurge but I know they’ll last. We decided let’s do it right and it’s worked for us.”
But she reiterates how this was made possible by buying a smaller house than intended.
Her guide to other first-time buyers is: “Don’t get carried away. Buy a house within your means. Remember, you’re never going to get ten out of ten on your tick list. You’ll wreck your head looking for ten out of ten unless you have an infinite budget.”
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