Little upgrades that make big changes

We had the wonderful Dean Cooper out with us today in order to fit handles on to the wardrobes in our bedroom.  The wardrobes were originally designed, fabricated and fitted by Dean Cooper Furniture. The initial design back in 2011 did not have handles on the wardrobes and they looked marvelous and were easy to use with a press / pop action opener.  However there is nothing as easy and as practical to use as a pull handle on a door so Ciaran set about getting a handle added.

He returned to Dean Cooper, who designed and handcrafted a bespoke handle for our doors and then fitted them today.  

I am unbelievable happy with them - they look great and they work phenomenally well!

Here's some before and after pics

Busy St Patrick's Day

Last year I cycled in the Dublin St Patrick's Day parade.  This year I decided to give it a miss as I thought the weather was bad (boy was I wrong) so instead I got up to loads of other fun stuff!

After a walk in the park we went for coffee in Butlers and then called on friends who have just completed their amazing house build (we brought green cupcakes from The Natural Bakery). We were taken on a tour of the house and I can honestly say I've never said "Oh my God" so many times in a short space of time. It is jaw droppingly brilliant and the level of detail was incredible. I don't know why I was surprised as it is my husband's business partner Barry of ODKM Architects who own the house and all ODKM designed houses are incredible!!

Click here to read more about Barry and Elsie's fab home.

As you can see from the above, Bones was decked out in his Green

After our visit, we went home and Ciaran went straight up to the studio and painted and then later on we went for pizza in Manifesto Rathmines (so good) and then on to the Stella to see Green Book.  I loved the Stella as usual and thought Green Book was incredible - a really worthy Oscar winner.

After the film it was on to the Sugar Club to see Scary Eire and then after that back to O'Brien's on Leeson Street for 1 drink.  Phew! We finally made it home about 1am.  A busy St. Patricks Day for sure!

KTribe Lamp

We got a new floor lamp from Patrick in ShadowLight

It's the KTribe designed by Phillipe Starck and it is gorgeous!

It has a stainless steel frame with a bronze lampshade.  

Patrick had given us a loan of a show lamp for the House Beautiful shoot nearly a year ago - Ciaran thought it was so nice that he decided to order it.  Delivery time was not too bad, he ordered it about 4 weeks ago.  It looks great in situ by our brown leather armchair.

For more great pics of lights in our house click here

Twilight - sweet spot for snaps

Yesterday evening while Amy and I were in Dillingers, Ciaran and Declan were working hard taking photos of the back of the house as the sun went down.

These are just iPhone photos of what they were photographing - the proper results will be used on their website www.odkmarchitects.com

Open House!

We have a lot of exciting events taking place in the house in the next few weeks.  In two weeks we have a photographer from a UK magazine visiting to take photos of the house.  Exciting!!!  
Ciaran, myself and the dog will also be featured!  

Then in December we are holding an Open House event.  This is being organised through Ciaran's Architectural Practise.  If you are based in Ireland and would like to attend, click here

Organising all of the above is certainly going to keep us fully occupied for the next while!

Background

This property came available for purchase a year ago.  It had to go through some legal stuff before a sale could go through.  The sellers (Ciaran's Dad & Uncle) were kind enough to let us to apply for planning permissions to totally renovate and develop this property into a bespoke dwelling that hit our brief and the way we live.  Luckily for me, my husband Ciaran is a partner in ODKM Architects and Designers, and has been listening to my thoughts and views on design for the last 15 years so the brief was already known to him!!!! Obviously he has also got a strong philosophy on how we live and how his designs for this house can have an impact on our lifestyle.

Acquiring Planning Permission in Ireland can be an arduous process especially with a Victorian Property located in an area of architectural interest.  After spending months designing what he thought was the perfect solution for the house Ciaran decided, after doing 3D model walk throughs of the initial design, to bin this plan and go back to the drawing board.  When I asked him why, he said that when he saw the design in 3D form he realized that his design interfered with the fabric of the building and it was not the correct thing to do.  He needed to go back to the sketch pad and pay more respect to the history of the building.

After another couple of months and many late nights in the Studio, Ciaran lodged pre-planning drawings with the planners and discussed with same and from there he lodged full planning permission application.  Planning decisions normally take 8 weeks and an early decisions is very unusual and virtually unheard of.  Amazingly the planners came back 2 weeks early with a positive answer!

Success!!!  We had notification of a grant of permission.

Luckily enough there were no observations (no issues raised by 3rd parties) on the application so it was a waiting game for the final legal planning documents to be issued which we received last week.