Changing Rooms

When they moved to Portlaoise, David and Karen approached AlenaCDesign to update the rooms of their family home.

Homeowners David and Karen decided to relocate to Portlaoise for work and after renting in the area for a couple of years, finally found the perfect family home.

As they explain, ‘Having young kids, it wasn’t easy to find a house with spacious rooms, a good size garden for them to play in and at the same time within a good travel distance to the school and to work. It took some time to find the right house and as soon as we saw this one we knew it was perfect for our needs.

‘The house was situated in a quiet area and we liked the bright, big rooms, the large front and back garden, and although the interior looked tired and dated, there was no structural work that needed done and we could see the potential for aesthetic renovation,’ they add.

Moving into their new house, David and Karen took several months to settle down before deciding to change the main sitting room/TV room first. They painted it themselves and bought new furniture. Welcoming a new baby girl into the family, they had even less time to do anything with the other rooms and the open plan living area was a bigger challenge than the sitting room. They also had two bathrooms, which needed updated.

With so little time on their side they made the decision to get a professional designer to help to make the house cosy, functional and inviting. Moreover, they knew that working with an interior designer it would be easier to go through a renovation plan. They followed Alena of AlenaCDesign on social media and loved her recent work. They like a contemporary, elegant style with Scandinavian influence and believed designer Alena would be a perfect fit for their project.