I liked the former shop, especially the library, though I would have wanted some form of porch/entrance between the street and the kitchen/living room. I felt I’d seen the Dublin terrace before, plus its two owners — I’m probably being deeply unfair, but I feel we’ve met that exact couple doing that exact thing, on Dermot Bannon or Hugh Wallace’s Great House revival, more than once. Maybe Dublin is just full of them.
And I thought the Cork mansion had gorgeous, plain bones, but the renovation was beyond awful — it made me think of a prissy old-fashioned 1950s B and B with notions, the kind of place that would check for wedding rings the moment a couple checked in. A big 19thc country house would never have looked anything like that, plus it all looked so stagey and uncomfortable. You knew nobody would ever sit down in those uncomfortable-looking chairs in the bedroom bay window, that they’d just been chosen to fill a space. I’d have given it a five for effort.
All the judges seemed more combative than last year. Is the new interiors woman trying to make her mark by starting fights? Plus Hugh and Amanda seem to have turned into caricatures of themselves! It’s brilliant.
Though what I really want is for Dermot Bannon to be the third judge, so they can all fight.