Dee Coleman: 'As an interior designer, it helps if you are nosy'
Interiors of a Dublin project created by Dee Coleman and Jenny Coughlan of Co/Lab Studio. Picture: Therese Aherne
Interior designer Dee Coleman doesn’t hesitate when recalling a favourite job.
I’m asking generally.
She replies in specifics — straight away: “The Algiers Inn in Baltimore. That’s the job I feel so much connection to.”
After getting the keys to the west Cork property in 2020, the inn’s new owners, Californian couple William and Ann Hillyard, enlisted Dee and her business partner Jenny Coughlan to help them transform the space, giving the business the Moorish look that reflects its name.
“They sent snaps to us, because this was all taking place during the pandemic, so while we did have one face-to-face meeting, we were doing the design remotely and did all the sourcing remotely and the owners did much of the work themselves,” she says.
Dee and Jenny’s paths had first crossed while they were lecturing at the Dublin Institute of Design in 2016. Realising their common goals, they joined forces and Co/Lab Design Studio emerged three years later, in Malahide, Dublin, where Dee is based.
“Between us, we have nearly 30 years of experience in residential and commercial design in Dublin, London, France and Switzerland,” adds Dee.
But it’s the “Moroccan vibe” of The Algiers Inn’s interiors that Dee loves. “My favourite place I’ve travelled to is Marrakech and I got to channel that in The Algiers Inn,” she says.
The pair were further gratified when the project won a design award and when it featured in Irish Examiner Property & Home, she adds. “And to top it all off — there we were in the Examiner. Life couldn’t get any better,” she says.
Dee has also become well-known on the small screen in recent weeks since she succeeded architect Róisín Murphy as builder Peter Finn’s co-host of RTÉ’s Home Rescue: The Big Fix.
Working on the Baltimore property was “not unlike ‘Home Rescue’ — we were up against it and in it together as a team,” she adds. The TV series is a blend of human interest and makeover, a bit like Dee’s own career route.
Tralee-born Dee grew up in Castleknock in Dublin.
“I ran for the hills as soon as I could get out,” she jokes.
Based in London for 22 years, she was working as a management consultant when she had an epiphany at a boardroom table as it dawned on her that her work “didn’t give me joy”. “I was sitting in a meeting. Everyone else was so excited and I realised I was so disinterested. I thought, I can’t actually fake this much longer — I have to do something that turns me on.
“I never in my entire life got a balance sheet to balance,” says Dee. “At the time, I had a flat and I had just knocked down a wall in it with a sledgehammer.
"My friends would come to me to ask me for home DIY and design advice. And I loved that type of work. Also, living in London meant I had access to great courses. I was newly married and I said to my husband: ‘Look, I’d love to do this [interior design]’— kind of hoping he would talk me out of it, but he said, ‘You’d be great at that!’
Dee enrolled at KLC School of Design, Chelsea Harbour and, on graduating, worked at a high-end Notting Hill studio, before setting up her own successful interior architecture practice in London. “Everything worked out the way it was meant to work out. Nothing I did before was wasted; when you get to reflect on it it’s all good.
“I think design is about understanding your client and understanding their needs. That is really what design is at its starting point.
"To be a good designer is to understand people. Now and in the future. It helps if you are quite nosy as a designer.”
And now, at almost 50, Dee has opened a new chapter as a television star. “This is my first time on TV. I just fell into it — like all of the big things in life. It’s been really invigorating and for a designer, it’s heaven to work with such a high-performing team and one with such single-minded focus — and obviously Pete and his crew are amazing.”
Dee met her partner in life, her Swedish husband Staffan Bergdahl in London. “I had no intention of coming home [to Ireland],” she adds. But when their twin girls, Nancy and Alva, now 10, were born, that changed.
“I really wanted my mammy, and I wanted the girls to become Irish, to grow up with what I had had,” she says. “And I’ve away had a real grá for the sea and having grown up in Dublin I missed it enormously in London.”
So, the family relocated to Malahide. “We moved back in 2013, so property prices were low enough,” adds Dee.
They bought a 1960s house that needed work. Soaring costs have pushed prices ever upwards. “We’ve scaled back on plans significantly to afford it — same as anyone else,” she says. “But if I wait much longer my kids will have grown up — and now is when we need the space, so I just have to accept it.”
Dee’s top advice? “Get the bones of the building right,” she says. “Why spend money on sofas or rugs if you don’t have the heating right? What stays is what you spend the money on — getting the space for your joinery, power points in the right space, future-proofing your house.
“If you go into interior designers’ houses, most will not be finished — we’ll always have notions.
“And particularly now in these times of sustainability, buy responsibly; avoid fashion, use what you have currently. I don’t always manage to persuade my clients, though!
“All the budget’s been spent on the stuff you don’t see — underfloor heating and triple glazing.”
That said, Dee confesses to the odd visible extravaganza. “I bought a Murano chandelier years ago,” she says. “I remember my mum (the late Suzette Coleman) at the time giving me a few quid for it; I couldn’t really afford it — but it just gives me such joy.”
Further delights await when the family move back into their revamped forever home in July and Dee will get to sit in a very special space there.
“I’ve always wanted a window seat in my kitchen. It’s right beside a camellia tree which blooms magnificently around the time of my children’s birthday. It’s like a piece of magic.
"I took it out of the scope of work because I thought it would cost too much. But this is my chandelier moment. If I end up eating baked beans, if I’m eating baked beans in that window seat, I will be happy.”
Looking at the property as it was being renovated wasn’t easy, she adds. “I’ve never done a renovation like this before — frightening is too strong a word. You’re walking into a bombsite and still paying a mortgage. I’ve done it with clients all the time, but this is the first time I’m doing it myself.”
- collabstudio.ie
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- Home Rescue: The Big Fix, Thursdays, 9.30pm, RTÉ2
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