Catherine Carton: Upcycling transformed my life and my home

The Dublin founder of the Dainty Dress Diaries reveals how DIY and sewing led to her career as a social media influencer and author

Fri, 24 May, 2024 - 08:25

Carol O’Callaghan

Are we being tricked into thinking everyone who buys a pre-loved home has a renovation budget? Social media and especially home improvement shows would have us convinced, when homeowners can always come up with an extra €10,000 to finish a project already gone over budget.

The fact is, most people are skint by the time they get their keys you’ll be relieved to know, and they tackle interiors projects over time.

As someone whose life revolves around interiors, not just as a job but the simple pleasure of playing house, I know the value of the home evolving rather than buying the current trends, as does author and online DIYer Catherine Carton.

She extols the virtue of this approach which has led her to acquire crafty skills along the way, from which she now earns her living through her online presence Dainty Dress Diaries. Over 310,000 follow her on YouTube, tuning in every Thursday for her latest DIY video, and 118,000 on Instagram chart her home improvements and gardening projects.

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Her story is a testament to the value of slow interiors, even if it started by necessity rather than choice but it has transformed her home over ten years.

It began when she bought her house in 2013, aged 25, in suburban west Dublin. “I really wanted a cute country cottage but budget didn’t allow,” she says, necessitating opting for a three-bedroom bungalow. “It was just at the turn in the house prices, and all my money was spent on the deposit and legal fees and I only had €1,000 left to do everything.”

Using the quickfire makeover method she got to work painting the walls to rid herself of reminders of previous occupants. “I painted it magnolia to clean it up,” she adds.

Taking woodwork classes has helped develop Catherine's skills into the use of power tools.

“All my furniture was hand-me-downs except for my mattress, the kettle and the toaster. I had a piece of furniture I wanted to paint so I did upcycling workshops and started sharing what I was doing on Instagram.”

This led to the start of her Dainty Dress Diaries blog in 2014, the name a nod to her love of vintage-style flowery frocks. But recognising that a blog can only go so far to explain things, she turned to YouTube in 2017. “A blog can tell, a video can show,” she says.

But it was mid-pandemic that brought a development in her working life which changed everything. “I was made redundant in January 2021,” she says.

Catherine seized the opportunity to take her writing further. “I would have always been writing but I really wanted to do a book. I feel there’s so much distraction but with a book and a cup of tea you’re in a different headspace. I had the time off after redundancy so it maintained my routine to start writing the book.”

Catherine's glasshouse has a DIY interior.

Published in 2022, she’s now followed it with a second, Heart & Home (The O’Brien Press) launched this month with, she says, a change of focus. “The first one was about different crafts; this one takes it room by room,” she says.

“There are bigger projects like wall panelling, small projects like diffusers. I wanted the reader to see a mix of projects and start with something small, practice and get confident. I started wanting to paint a piece of furniture, that led to sewing and then led to woodworking and then gardening and now beekeeping.”

Author and DIYer Catherine Carton in the garden of her Dublin home.

An unexpected development for Catherine is how she’s taken to gardening in what she says was just a rectangle of grass when she moved in. “I don’t mind feeling like a beginner. I’m like a kid figuring things out. You learn from the doing, you learn from your mistakes. When I sit in it now, I feel the garden belongs to the wildlife. Before there wasn’t a sound, now I can hear the birds and bugs.”

Her enthusiasm makes me ask if it’s her favourite place where she’d put the red dot if she was on Home of the Year.

“My favourite place outdoors is the raised bed. There’s a bit of sun, bit of shade. Indoors it’s at the kitchen sink overlooking the garden, with the kettle and the cup of tea.”