WHAT THE INTERIOR DESIGNER SAYS

Roisin Lafferty is founder and director of Kingston Lafferty Design (KLD) and a well-known television presenter.

ON A BUDGET OF €10,000

For this amount, you will get a quick revamp. Look at what you have and maximise it. It’s about thinking creatively to make the most of your money.

Paint your rooms, update your soft furnishings, reupholster sofas and chairs, upgrade pieces of furniture or your ironmongery or sand and repair your flooring. Don’t invest in buying too much because a new sofa and a couple of chairs will eat that budget up. Painting is a cost effective way to make a big impact and can add value, especially if you’re considering selling your home. Painting and just clearing out the clutter will give the impression of space. It’s also one of the best ways to be brave and make a change. You can take a lot more risks with a strong shade and it’s not too expensive if it turns out to be a mistake.

In the kitchen, painting your existing units and joinery is a very dramatic way to make a change. If you put in a new kitchen, you could pay anywhere from €10,000-30,000, but paint it, change all the door knobs, perhaps revamp the counters and it will look and feel like a new kitchen but at a fraction of the price.

Watch the cost of details though: the material you use — whether it is hardwood or has real timber fillers — the drawer mechanisms and hinges can all add to the cost. Zara Home is a lovely place for knobs and accessories that will allow you to personalise a standard kitchen. You can get a gloss paint finish in a colour that is very much on trend for a few hundred euros. But it’s important that it’s done correctly – sanded down well with a really good primer so that it doesn’t start chipping a month later. If you’re good at DIY, Ikea are great, they’ve got a wide range, that’s good quality, and a guarantee.

Look at your floors. Replacing a floor can be expensive – a lot of homes have good quality pitch pine but it has that yellowy orangey tone that people don’t like. Sand it down and re-stain it and it can feel very different and improved for not that much money — depending on the size, €1,000 or so. In terms of what’s in vogue, I like both really dark and really light tones but always add a grey tone to take out the orange or yellow. For example, opt for walnut rather than mahogany because mahogany has a reddish tinge and can look cheap if not stained properly whereas walnut has a nice charcoal base to it.

Artwork is a good way to add colour and personality, particularly oversized artwork. Art can be expensive but prints are generally cost effective. One of my design secrets is shutterstock.com which sells really high-res images that make the perfect artwork. Add a frame you’ve found in a market or jumble sale and you have a great way of adding personality. Oversized prints give the drama of colour but are portable — so you can take them with you if you sell.

Invest in soft decorative items like rugs. Ikea has amazing, big rugs that are cost effective and can transform a space.

ON A BUDGET OF €50,000

First, make sure the space is working for you because you don’t want to spend €50,000 on making it look pretty when the space is still not functional.

Storage is key. Ask if you have enough, where are the problem areas for your family — where does clutter build up? Organise customised storage under the stairs or in a cloakroom in the hallway or wherever there can be a clutter build up – and let’s face it, if you have small children, there can be a lot of clutter zones. Spending on getting a carpenter in and designing to suit you is a very good use of your money.

You could also upgrade your kitchen which adds value to the house. We tend to work with our own joiners to design our kitchens which are custom made so they fit the space properly. But if you want to stretch your money as far as possible, stick to a standard kitchen and personalise it as much as you can so it doesn’t look like you went to one shop and bought everything there. That’s why I’d apply the same rules from the €10,000 budget and personalise with different doorknobs and a different splashback.

You can think long term and spend a bit more to have really good quality countertops that will stand the test of time, won’t mark and are heat resistant. Stone countertops are money well spent but quite expensive. Another option is Silestone, which we use a lot. It is manmade so comes in repeated patterns rather than natural variations but you can get different finishes. Corian is also good but it is very, very plain and more like a pored finish. I absolutely love concrete.

Look at your bathroom layout. A lot of people prefer double showers or a walk-in shower or wet room spaces. If your house dates from the 1950s to 1970s, you might have a separate toilet and bathroom so reconfiguring that to make it one bigger, more functional space would be beneficial. You don’t necessarily need to re-plumb but opening it up will make it seem clean and fresh. And remember, when it comes to selling, bathrooms, living rooms and kitchens are key areas for potential buyers.

We’re seeing a trend for replacing baths with big showers but for resale value, estate agents count baths specifically when totting up how many bathrooms you have so it can be a good idea to keep one. I’d also encourage young families to keep a bath for bathing children.

Sanitary ware needs to be good quality and in keeping with the style of your house but you don’t need to spend a fortune as long as it has good guarantees and you have a good plumber. Recommendations are key, especially if you have a restricted budget because things can go wrong with plumbing and electrics so make sure you’re confident about your labour.

Tiling allows you to be expressive and fun. Prices can vary hugely but you can definitely have a bit of fun with different textures and different patterns, maybe having a simple rectangle for a parquet effect on the bath or bringing in some marble even if it’s just on one wall for drama. Try Halo Tiles in Camolin, Wexford, who have an endless range of brands.

Many people opt for an attic conversion. Just be careful – fair enough if it is to add to family life but if it is to increase value of the house to sell it, be sure that the attic can actually be classed as a functioning bedroom. A lot of attic conversions are too small or don’t follow building regs so when they are sold they can’t be considered an extra bedroom.

ON A BUDGET OF €100,000

You can dramatically change your life in your house with this amount. A lot of semi-detached houses have quite small rooms with wasted spaces or junk rooms and then cramped and smaller living spaces. If you have enough space but it’s not used correctly, you can reconfigure on this budget and it would allow for adding some structural beams and working with an engineer.

Implement the changes under €10,000 and €50,000 budgets, add storage, a bathroom and kitchen refurb and then look at finishes and flooring to enhance that. We always start with the space as the foundation of everything and get that right and then materials can enhance the space.

Should you extend? Often if a house isn’t working, people think lets extend but often the house is a sufficient size, it’s just poorly configured. If you look at the footprint of the building first, you can do so many creative and unexpected things.

With an extension, for me, it’s about having as much detail as possible decided before you start anything on site. Price everything down to the details so there is no vagueness going on. Take the time beforehand and get it right and you’ll have a better result at the end.