My Favourite Room
When the experts renovate, what do they do?
“She gave me free rein to decorate my room exactly as I wanted it. I remember at eight, I opted for yellow and bright green”
‘Aroom is not a room without natural light,” said the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Maximising natural light is often the dilemma of those extending their homes — how to make rooms in the house bigger without ending up with dark holes elsewhere.
Traditionally, in Ireland, the kitchen was the second smallest room in the house, and very often people make the kitchen bigger at the expense of light in an adjoining room, usually the living room at the back. This was the problem faced by Bronagh Page and her husband, Brendan Fitzpatrick.
The 30-something couple live in a compact townhouse in Sutton, and because the garden was small, they could only use a little of it for extending. Adding to the space behind the living room — and in the process unavoidably making that room much darker — seemed the only option.
Fortunately, both Bronagh and Brendan are trained architectural technicians, and if anyone could solve this type of problem, it was a pair like this, versed in the minutiae of design and building.
“An architectural technician is different to an architect. It’s not necessarily a step to architecture. It’s a different path,” says Bronagh, adding, “It’s a more practical application of design. It’s very much about the make-up of a building. Where the architect might draw the outside line and the design, an architectural technician will design every piece of blockwork, insulation and weather-proofing, so that the building works. It’s really technical.”
As it happens, Bronagh no longer works in the field and has instead become an interior designer/interiors buyer, currently working with Woodie’s, so Brendan, who now works for architectural firm Cantrell & Crowley, did the bulk of the design on the extension. Needless to mention, no decisions were taken without the input of both, especially as Bronagh’s work still involves design. And of course, her knowledge as an interior designer helped also in the creation of their lovely home.
There was never any doubt in Bronagh’s mind that she would make her career in something to do with house design. “I was always fanatical about buildings and design, for as long as I can remember. My mother was great,” Bronagh says. “She gave me free rein to decorate my room exactly as I wanted it when I was a child. I remember at eight, I opted for yellow and bright green.”
After finishing the Leaving Cert, the young Dublin woman got a place in Bolton Street, and, as it happens, so did Brendan, who was her boyfriend at the time. “He’s from Cavan. My friend is his cousin, and I used to go down there with her. We got together because we were both into the same thing, but it was a fluke that we ended up in the same course, it wasn’t planned at all,” Bronagh says.
Both worked for architectural companies during and after college, but then the downturn came in 2009, so they decided to go travelling in Australia. That didn’t work out too well as there was a bit of a crash there too, so they came home after 10 months.
By that stage, Bronagh was having second thoughts about her choice of career. “I loved the aesthetics side of the job, but I didn’t love the technical-drawing aspect of it, whereas Brendan did enjoy that,” she says. “So when we came back, he went on to do a further qualification in
“When I started, you wouldn’t have touched a brass light. Now we’ve fully revamped the whole lighting section with lots of metallics”
Bolton Street, whereas I went to study interior design in Dun Laoghaire Senior College.”
That led to a job as an interior designer with Ikea, and she was there for five years. “Basically, I did all those little room sets you see as you walk around Ikea — that was my job. And the store layout,” Bronagh says. “It was amazing — you really are learning from a fantastic global company that knows how to do things right. We were implementing room-set after room-set for all types of people from all walks of life, for all types of budgets. It gave me an amazing insight into what the public is looking for.”
After watching the products over the years, Bronagh learned which would sell best and who would buy what, so she decided she’d like to move from interior design to interiors buying, and got a job as a homestyles buyer three years ago with Woodie’s, for their 35 stores. It means travelling to all the interiors shows in Europe and working out current design with suppliers in the Far East.
“What’s in now are deep, rich colours, dark greens, navy; rich velvet fabrics; lots of gold and metallic; especially in lighting. When I started in the buying role, you wouldn’t have touched a brass light. Now we’ve fully revamped the whole lighting section with lots of metallics. I do all homestyle — lighting, cushions, rugs, mirrors, frames, candles, fragrance,” Bronagh says, adding, “It takes a year from concept to sampling to ordering to getting things on the shop floor. I start every season with mood boards, and send them out to suppliers and tell them, ‘This is what we’re buying’, so that for every season, the collection is cohesive.
“I’m always looking at trends in my job, and my problem is I want those trends in my house, too”
That’s the big change with Woodie’s since I joined — we have a lot more on-trend products.”
Needless to mention, there are a lot of the new Woodie’s products in Bronagh’s house, a compact townhouse dating from the 1980s.
She and Brendan bought the house seven years ago, principally because it’s five minutes from Bronagh’s parents, something which was then nice, but became a lifeline when their twoyear-old, Harry, was born — her parents are always at hand in the case of an emergency.
The couple had done it up when they moved in initially, doing mainly cosmetic changes
— new floors, new paintwork, new kitchen, new bathroom. However, with both of them in the business, they were dying to get their hands on it and really put their stamp on it.
Last year, they moved out, went to live with Bronagh’s parents, and ripped the house apart. “I think living in it first was so important,” Bronagh says. “We both decided the layout, but Brendan did all the working drawings, which we sent out to the builders, and the neighbours were a dream to deal with.”
The layout is more or less the same, but they now have a much larger kitchen with a dining area, and a downstairs bathroom. “We took part of the garden to enlarge the kitchen. The most drastic change we did was we dropped the floor level in the kitchen and hallway. Brendan was a big advocate of this, he insisted that we needed to get some height — height can give some grandeur and more light to a room. It’s only an extra 500mm in height, but it makes such a difference. We have steps up to the living room, and we put in pocket doors so we don’t have doors swinging open, taking up space,” she says.
“Because we have such a sunny orientation in the garden, we made sure to have a roof light right where the house originally finished, so the sun streams through it. And we also
have an ‘up and over’ roof window/light so there’s no break in the sun coming in, and the bifold doors are also taller than average, which brings in more light,” Bronagh explains. “At the time, I was questioning Brendan because it cost a bit more but, believe me, he was right, it all makes a better impact.”
All in all, they’ve made an 1980s townhouse into a very contemporary space with subtle changes. For example, the stairs has a glass banister, which meant no newel posts in the hall. “So no one can throw their coats there, and therefore, there’s no mess.” Bronagh laughs. And of course, the furnishings are right up to the minute. “I’m always looking at trends in my job, and my problem is I want those trends in my house, too,” Bronagh says.
The only seeming downside of the whole project, which the couple project- managed themselves, was the loss of a little of the garden but, according to Bronagh, it turned out to be an advantage.
“We had a tiny garden; now have a tinier garden, but actually we use it more. With the bifold doors, when we open them up, it just extends the kitchen — we spent the whole summer out there,” she says.
So win-win.
See woodies.ie
See cantrellcrowley.com
Bronagh’s Instagram: @ourhouseindublin
“A glass banister meant no newel posts in the hall, so no one can throw their coats there, and therefore there’s no mess”