Louth couple’s colourful home features on Home of the Year
The eclectic home belonging to a Co Louth teacher with a passion for colour and her zoo-keeper husband featured on this week’s episode of Home of the Year.
Olivia McGeough is a big fan of the show and was looking forward to seeing what the judges thought of the Ardee home she shares with her husband Peter Philips and their daughters Rose, Emily, and Annabelle and Paddy the cat.
The couple built their Scandi-inspired home on land belonging to Olivia’s father outside Ardee in 2004 and over the years they have stamped their personality on it.
A big fan of Home of the Year, Olivia believes a home should reflect the lives of those who live in it and theirs certainly does.
“We built it nearly 20 years ago on my Dad’s land,” says Olivia, who teaches in Scoil Bhride, Dunleer. “My Mum and Dad have both passed away since but it was lovely being next door to them.”
Her husband Peter is a zoo keeper in Dublin Zoo and not surprisingly is very interested in biodiversity and nature which had a big influence on them when they were building their house.
“We wanted it to be as eco-friendly as possible,” she recalls. “We planted 200 trees on the site and they’re now as big as the house.”
They leave the lawn uncut for much of the spring and summer to encourage biodiversity and they have bat boxes and bird feeders to support wildlife.
When they first moved into the house Olivia took her time before choosing a colour scheme.
“In the beginning, I painted everything white. I love colour and thought that I could add colour with cushions and throws. It’s only in recent years that I started to put colour on the walls and it has made a huge difference. There’s no white walls left at all now!”
She says that painting the walls has made such a difference to the house.
“People don’t realise how much colour affects you;. I feel colours can be really soothing or uplifting.”
Olivia developed a huge interest in interiors during lockdown and completed an on-line course. She then set about transforming their home
and Paddy never knows what to expect when he walks through the doors!
“I’m mad about interiors – I love seeing other people’s homes. Everyone has their own likes and I love to see people’s personality’s coming through,” says Olivia
She shares her husband’s passion for sustainability and much of the furniture in their home are family heirlooms or items she found in charity shops and has upcycled.
“I’m big into upcycling and a lot of the furniture in the house came from my grandparents’ home. There’s a suite of furniture that I got re-upholstered and I can remember sitting around the dining table in their house at Christmas.
“I have other bits of furniture that came from my mother’s house as well as some from my aunt’s garage.”
Olivia loves nothing better than going to auctions or rummaging in second hand or charity shops in the hopes of finding some vintage treasures that she can upcycle into an unique piece for their home.
She enjoys sanding down old furniture and repainting it or covering it with wallpaper to add yet another splash of colour.
“I love to see something getting a second chance and being reused.”
She also uses artwork to bring interest to the walls throughout the house, mixing pieces by local artists with prints and artwork by their three daughters.
“I make it up as I go along. We love it and that’s the main thing.”
Olivia says she was contacted by a researcher for Home of the Year through her Instagram account.
“Peter and myself then had to do an interview over Zoom and showed them around the house. We were later told that we be featured in the series and given a filming date. We had to leave the house and never met the judges, so we were excited to see what they thought of our home.”