TO HAVE AN D TO HOME
Couple postpone their wedding & use funds to revamp house instead Design inspired by travel passion & work carried out with family help
HOME of the Year winners Shane Murray and Marty Campbell have revealed they used the money they were supposed to spend on a wedding to renovate their pad.
The couple were crowned this year’s winners of the RTE series by judges Hugh Wallace, Amanda Bone and Sara Cosgrove for their stunning Dublin home, dubbed “The Boutique Abode”.
Opening up about the win, Marty told us: “We were we were meant to get married back in 2020 but Covid happened, obviously.
“So we postponed the wedding to 2021 and then obviously still Covid. So we actually used the money that we had saved for the wedding on the home.
“We’re going to plan the wedding again. I think this took a couple of years out of us getting this home designed so I think yeah, I think for us it is just saving again.”
The couple declined to say how much they spent on renovating their home but Shane said he called in favours from family members to help with the process.
He said: “We had money to kind of start it and then we just kind of went and did it bit by bit as we had the money.
“I suppose, having my dad and having access to people to help with things is a huge reduction in costs. Like we didn’t have somebody come in with a contract or come in with a price and we have to have that money.
“I suppose we didn’t go over budget because we didn’t really have a budget.
“We kind of just took it one thing at a time. And if we couldn’t afford to do something that month or that we just waited until we could so that wasn’t something talked about at all in the show.”
Renovating the home was a big project which involved upgrading the heating system, replacing windows and knocking down a wall. They also repositioned the kitchen and gutted the interior and exterior of the home and even changed the front garden layout to allow for an electric car charging station.
Shane and Marty’s style was inspired by their passion for hotels and travel, and they love how their home represents their personalities and lives together.
But Marty said: “We did do big purchases, like putting in new windows and things like that, you know, that would have taken a big, big chunk of our budget.
“But as Shane said, you know, a lot of work was done by ourselves and our family members so obviously that meant you know, we were really able to kind of economically you know, manage there as
We knew the judges would have their own opinions and tastes MARTY ON HOME OF THE YEAR FEEDBACK
well.” Shane revealed it was his idea to apply for Home of the Year after being a fan of the show for years.
He said: “I always kind of wanted to do when I’ve been watching in previous years. I’ve always wanted to do it when we had our own house, so I suppose it was 100% my idea but I kind of said at the beginning once we bought a house, I said I want to go on Home of the Year.
“Now I probably didn’t think it was going to be this year. I didn’t think it was going to happen so fast. I suppose it just kind of snowballed.”
Marty added: “We’re both big fans of the show so we watch it religiously every year it comes out. When we bought the home, it was Shane’s wildest dreams that you know, as we got further with the house renovations, why not see if we can actually get on the show. And it kind of snowballed from there.”
Shane joked: “It is also a great way to get stuff done really quickly for everybody.”
Marty added: “There’s no better deadline to get things done than a film crew coming into your house.”
Speaking about the judge’s criticism on what they now call “TV gate”, the pair weren’t offended by the judges’ comments and instead took on board their suggestions. Marty said: “We knew what we were signing up for, we knew that the judges would have their own opinions and their own personal tastes and preferences.
“We thought the feedback was fair and we actually took the points on board, particularly what we call “TV gate” where Hugh referenced the TV being hung too high so we actually had many conversations ourselves around where to place the TV in the living room.
“We landed on that decision, based on you know, our own personal preference, and how the room would work for us as well. Sara picked up that we’re not big TV watchers so hence really that’s why we placed it there so but to be fair, it was fair feedback.
“And then yeah, Amanda when she talked about upstairs, we agree. I think upstairs you know, it’s us, it’s our tastes, we wanted to stick to the colour palette. We wanted to stick to those tones.”
Crowning Shane and Marty the winners, Hugh said on the show last night: “Our winner is special because of the attention to detail, bold colour schemes and really every single inch was used in this home.” Sara added: “This winner is exceptional.”