Renovation Project

At the moment I’m in the middle of a house renovation in Dublin.  There’s a bricked up fireplace in the original living area and the client wants to put a wood burning stove in the space.  The fireplace has been bricked up for a number of years so we were more than a little apprehensive about opening it up, (old houses have a habit of throwing up some awful surprises).

But we were delighted when the builders opened it up.  We found this wonderful large beautiful fireplace which will be a fantastic home for our stove.

OK so it doesn’t look too beautiful at the moment, but trust me…. it will!

Right now though you can almost imagine Peig Sayers sitting there telling one of her bleak and depressing tales 🙂

If you’re not Irish and of a certain age, you may be lucky enough to have no idea who Peig was! But for the rest of us, her book was compulsory reading for the Irish Leaving Cert and Irish Journalist Kevin Myres probably describes her best……

Several generations of poor blameless citizens had their childhoods ruined by the imposition of the demented reminiscences of Peig Sayers, a pipe-smoking old mad woman from the Blaskets.

But there shall be no sign of her in this build 🙂

The next step now is to ensure the chimney breast is not cracked or damaged and then hopefully the space will become home to one of these babies.

I will keep you updated on how the project progresses but in the meantime I thought I’d share some finds while doing my research.

You could easily cosy up in this space on a cold winters evening.

With it’s exposed beams, brick fireplace and low ceiling, this room just oozes rustic charm.

There’s a few too many animals going on here for my taste.

I like this light filled space and the stove works well with the pitched roof.  The tones of green and aubergine give the space a very English Country Garden feel.

White walls, pale wood and tones of blue gives a very coastal feel to this room.

The cream stove and painted furniture adds a lovely warm feel to this living room.

Add some chic during the summer months (remember them) by adding some blooms to match your wall coverings.

Maybe a little too modern for our needs 🙂  But I could look at that view all day.

Don’t forget to check back regulary to see how this project is progressing.  You can subscribe by RSS or simply enter your email below and get notifications of new posts.