On the phone she sounded lovely, she was enthusiastic and excited and I thought how lucky was I to have that energy greeting my first foray into blogging.
Kathleen had just finished a stint on a film set and so the cares of work taken care of Kathleen was now 100% into her project, the building of a replica Famine Cottage in the middle of the Wicklow Mountains. This was a little different from the original of the species and was big enough to hold a guest apartment.
And that’s where we started. She had invested huge creativity into the building and when we met it was 8 weeks from scheduled completion, just needing all the touches that make the difference between a house and a home.
Kathleen had made some great decisions. The floors were a ‘limewashed timber wore by age’ the ceilings had just enough structural timber exposed and critical spaces were well sized. I particularly liked the large entrance hall. A hall gives a house its signature and this would act as a perfect gallery with an open stairs tucked nicely to one side leading to an upstairs with a minstrel’s gallery, two home offices and a bathroom.
Downstairs from the hall we had the master bedroom with a bathroom, a large kitchen, sitting room, utility room and a cloakroom.
With Kathleen, we started in the guest apartment, reviewing her planned layouts for the kitchen, shower and bedroom. No real changes to the downstairs but a fresh eye on the bedroom turned the setting of the clothes storage onto another wall to give better use of the room and moving the bed out from the wall with clever storage behind leaving improved headroom and so onto the main house…
Again, the use of a fresh eye helped. Kathleen had made most of the key decisions including plug and light points.
These are required very early in the process and are difficult to get right. Budget is a key issue and Kathleen had sought out amazing bargains in flooring and tiles. The issue around furniture though is a really good layout and we were able to improve things in this area and giving her a range of options while keeping within her budget.
Julianne kept a cool eye on colours suggesting some change and using tones to enhance key areas. Her expertise on window dressings was also evident and so we look forward to visiting Kathleen in a few weeks as she processes to a happy ending.
By the way, did I mention ‘ THE POT‘? No, oh well lets keep that one for the next blog and if anyone has seen Kathleen’s missing Love Bird, maybe they would give us a call.
Clayre Roche
