Room To Improve

Utilising the existing kitchen living space and reworking and improving the layout of this Tipperary home has worked wonders for this family's day-to day life.

- PENNY CRAWFORD

When Pamela, an accountant and her partner Tom, a farmer, built this house in 2010, near Fethard, Co. Tipperary, it was very much designed for them as a couple. Over the past 12 years and three beautiful girls later, Sadie, nine, April, seven, and Heidi, five, the couple realised that the layout that suited the two of them was not so perfect for their growing family.

The layout of the kitchen was no longer working for us, it's an open-plan kitchen living room, so we looked at the option of building another room as a den and just having one large space for the kitchen.

I really wanted a larger, more functional kitchen, a space where the children could do their homework and we could sit and do arts and crafts, without always having to move items to set the table for dinner,' explains Pamela.

After watching many interior programs Pamela came to the realisation that she didn't need any extra floor space, she just needed to improve on the layout of the existing kitchen living area. My brief was a 'Studio McGee' makeover - along with most of Ireland, I had been glued to the transformation interiors show 'Dream Home Makeover'! I turned to Emma O' Sullivan of EK Design, who I had been following for some time on Instagram, to help me realise my dream,' says Pamela.

After a lot of discussions and FaceTime tours due to the Covid restrictions, Emma and Pamela knew they were working from the same hymn sheet, they both dismissed the idea of any expensive building work and concentrated on the reconfiguration of the existing space. 'Our style was very similar, we both share a love of New England style interiors, shiplap and bright airy spaces, so I knew the finished look would be exactly what I wanted,' says Pamela. Her brief to Emma was to incorporate as much storage as possible, 'I wanted the day-to-day items to be easily accessible,' explains Pamela.