Turning my first house into home
OUR AOIFE ON NEW PAD CHALLENGES
JOURNALIST Aoife Moriarty recently bought her own, first home.
It’s a huge achievement, but now she’s tasked with the challenge of kitting it out.
Here, design expert and PTSB Ideal Homes Show favourite Susan McGowan advises Aoife — and other firsttime buyers — how to go about furnishing a house when time, space and budgets are tight.
IF YOU manage to get a foot on the property ladder, you might be surprised to learn that the journey doesn’t end there.
In fact, it’s only just the beginning. I recently became a homeowner for the first time, and, given the ongoing housing crisis and how tough it was to get to this point, I feel extremely fortunate to be in this position.
But I wasn’t prepared for all the decision-making that would come – from redecorating and furnishing from scratch to deciding which upgrades need to be made to my small, north Dublin terraced home.
My budget is limited and prioritisation is key.
Interior architect Susan McGowan, founder and creative director of design firm Ashen & Cloud, said her advice to any new homeowner would be to prioritise facelift changes to walls, floors and ceilings.
“When you invest in the fixtures and fittings of your house, you’re investing in the property,” she said.
“Things like furniture will come or evolve in time. I would definitely encourage people to invest in work where floors need to be changed or lighting fixtures, or curtain fittings, because that will have longevity.”
It’s much easier to paint a house or sand a floor before you’ve moved all your stuff in. I’m personally glad I made that choice, even if it delayed my own move for over a month.
Rush
Susan — an ambassador for DFS furniture store — said first-time homeowners often feel tempted to “rush out and finish the place”.
I made that mistake early on by ordering some furniture from a lowcost retailer that looked vastly different in real life to their online photos.
“The number one issue is filling the house with stuff that will do ‘for now’,” Susan said.
“I understand it. You’ve just bought a home, you want everybody over, you want to be able to have it done. You’re brimming with excitement.
“As hard as it is to live with bare spaces or without something, try to resist that, and give yourself time to find those little gems.”
When it comes to soft furnishings, however, there’s room to go a little wilder, according to Susan.
“Often when people are making big choices with sofas or beds and that sort of thing they’ll play it safe,” she said.
“You can kind of up the ante overall with the soft furnishings. That’s where you get to bring in texture, pattern, and all those things to make it more interesting.
“That comes in with art, decorative objects, cushions, throws. Appropriate things that are right for the space. But you can have a bit of fun there.”
As for making the most of a small home, her advice is to invest in quality joinery and built-in storage like wardrobes and bookshelves, as well as good planning.
She explained: “The 101 of interior design is to plan the space first.
“It sounds so basic, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t measure the area that their sofa is going to go in, or buy something, and it doesn’t end up fitting.
“Plan everything that’s going into the space,” she added.
List
“Have in your mind the collection of things that are needed for the room. Literally catalogue it. Make a list of it.”
She also suggests using visual apps like Photogrid or Pinterest to collect links to furniture and decor to
DOER-UPPER: Aoife Moriarty outside her new home; (left) open plan dining room with painting create collages of what might work well together.
Susan said: “When I’m shopping for my own house, I just save things to my phone and then I’ll get Photogrid app and put them together to see how they look.”
She added: “You’ll know yourself if something is not working style-wise or tone-wise.”
■ Susan McGowan will be at the PTSB Ideal Home Show today on the DFS Interiors Theatre stage with Jo Linehan at 2pm. See idealhome.ie.