{"id":33375,"date":"2025-08-30T19:17:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T19:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/33375\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T19:17:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T19:17:18","slug":"inside-the-stunning-work-in-progress-home-of-tvs-deirdre-coleman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/33375\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the stunning ‘Work in Progress’ home of TV’s Deirdre Coleman"},"content":{"rendered":"

A SNAPSHOT in time is how Deirdre (Dee) Coleman describes her dream renovation.<\/p>\n

Yes, this revamped 1960s property in Malahide is the forever home and yes, the sleek spaces are glossy-magazine gorgeous, but the Tralee-born interior designer is taking the long view: \u201cWhile this is very liveable and I love it and it\u2019s very much a home \u2014 this is not finished, this is a work in progress, a snapshot in time.”<\/p>\n

\"AA view from the dining area to the kitchen with a large window seat and garden beyond.\"TheThe sitting room where a double-sided stove offers a view to the kitchen\/dining room.<\/p>\n

A bit like life, so? We last spoke two years ago, as Castleknock-raised Dee was just weeks into her role as co-presenter on RT\u00c9 2 series Home Rescue: The Big Fix.<\/p>\n

And back then, I remind her, she\u2019d said most interior designers\u2019 houses would not look complete because \u201cwe\u2019ll always have notions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, she says: It\u2019s not a race to the finish \u2014 and my plans and aspirations are always beyond my budget. But what is the point of always trying to be finished?\u201d I like her style.<\/p>\n

\"InteriorInterior designer Dee Coleman at home. Pictures: Moya Nolan\"AA double-sided stove provides a view into the open-plan area from the cosy sitting room.<\/p>\n

Dee is now a familiar face to television viewers as builder Peter Finn\u2019s co-host on the RT\u00c9 show, with her fourth series as presenter airing from September 4.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also a designer who stresses the importance of \u201cgetting the bones of a building right\u201d \u2014 and spending the budget \u201cthe stuff you don\u2019t see, the heat pump, the ventilation \u2014 something we didn\u2019t really think about before, notes Dee. \u201cWe\u2019ve all had to up our game with ventilation. My advice would be to get a specialist in ventilation if you\u2019re getting a retrofit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The designer keeps it real and walks the walk when it comes to the people she works with, whether on Home Rescue or in the studio she co-founded, Collab Design Studio.<\/p>\n

She is empathetic in the extreme and genuinely wants to seek out solutions that will work.<\/p>\n

Again, I hark back to that chat in 2023, as Dee was imagining her future favourite space \u2014 and confided how she\u2019d always wanted a window seat in her kitchen.<\/p>\n

At first, she\u2019d taken it out of the scope of work \u201cbecause I thought it would cost too much\u201d.<\/p>\n

Luckily, she realised its importance. \u201cIt\u2019s right beside a camellia tree, which blooms around the time of my children\u2019s birthday. It\u2019s like a piece of magic.\u201d \u201cWe nearly lost the window seat in the battle of the budgets!\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put it back in, and I\u2019m so glad that I did. I absolutely love it. It\u2019s cantilevered, if you don\u2019t mind!\u201d The perch is one of what she calls her \u201cthree vanities\u201d in the open-plan kitchen\/living\/sitting room area, the others being a skylight and a double-sided fireplace. \u201cAll things that I really couldn\u2019t afford but I did anyway \u2014 and I loved them all,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"DeeDee Coleman perched in one of her favourite spots at home in Malahide. Pictures: Moya Nolan\"ColourColour in the garden.<\/p>\n

All three enhance light and openness, but the skylight and window seat in particular boost her home\u2019s connection with nature.<\/p>\n

Dee is a big fan of iophilic design and, in particular, the ethos of Oliver Heath, a designer whose approach centres on people as well as the planet, believing that \u201chealthy ecosystems are key to creating healthy spaces\u201d.<\/p>\n

The sound and sight of rain through the skylight delights her in particular. \u201cIt is the connection to nature, it\u2019s that rhythmic, natural, random, organic sound and view,\u201d says Dee. \u201cNothing that mankind can build can replicate that. We have an instinctive need to be in nature, and I have plants everywhere.\u201d In fact, watch out for Dee\u2019s kitchen garden as it takes a starring role in an episode of the upcoming series of Home Rescue.<\/p>\n

For many years, Deirdre had a successful career as a management consultant, but decided to change paths and follow her passion, retraining as an interior designer at London\u2019s KLC School of Design.<\/p>\n

Her epiphany came at a boardroom table as it dawned on her that her work \u201cdidn\u2019t give me joy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never in my entire life got a balance sheet to balance,\u201d says Dee. \u201cAt the time, I had a flat and I had just knocked down a wall in it with a sledgehammer.<\/p>\n

“My friends would come to me to ask me for home DIY and design advice. And I loved that type of work. Also, living in London meant I had access to great courses. I was newly married and I said to my husband: \u2018Look, I\u2019d love to do this [interior design]\u2019\u2014 kind of hoping he would talk me out of it, but he said, \u2018You\u2019d be great at that!\u2019”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dee enrolled at KLC School of Design, Chelsea Harbour and, on graduating, worked at a high-end Notting Hill studio, before setting up her own successful interior architecture practice in London. \u201cEverything worked out the way it was meant to work out. Nothing I did before was wasted; when you get to reflect on it, it\u2019s all good.\u201d Dee met her partner in life, her Swedish husband Staffan Bergdahl, in London. \u201cI had no intention of coming home [to Ireland],\u201d she adds. But when their twin girls, Nancy and Alva, now 13 and starting secondary school, were born, that changed.<\/p>\n

\"PlantingPlanting at the front of Dee’s home.\"TheThe window seat in the hallway.<\/p>\n

In 2013, the family \u2014 including South East London native Foxy, the now-16-year-old cat \u2014 relocated to Ireland, where Deirdre also lectured at the Dublin Institute of Design.<\/p>\n

Looking at her home as it was being renovated wasn\u2019t easy, she adds. \u201cYou\u2019re walking into a bombsite and still paying a mortgage. I\u2019ve done it with clients all the time, but this is the first time I\u2019m doing it myself,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Then, at almost 50, Deirdre embarked on a new \u201cinvigorating\u201d chapter as a television star.<\/p>\n

Home Rescue: The Big Fix is a heartwarming mix of human stories and home makeover \u2014 a whirlwind of decluttering, teamwork and positivity \u2014 changing people’s lives for the better by redesigning their homes, replacing chaos with order and rediscovering the things that really matter.<\/p>\n

The team has just a few days to complete each makeover, so for designer Deirdre, builder Peter, declutter expert Aidan (and the super team of fitters, painters, chippies and clutter-busters) every second counts.<\/p>\n

They bought a 1960s house that needed work. Soaring costs have pushed prices ever upwards. \u201cWe\u2019ve scaled back on plans significantly to afford it \u2014 same as anyone else,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"AA wall light in designer Dee Coleman’s home.\"AA Hermes scarf on display in the hallway.<\/p>\n

Looking at the property as it was being renovated wasn\u2019t easy, she adds. \u201cI\u2019ve never done a renovation like this before \u2014 frightening is too strong a word. You\u2019re walking into a bombsite and still paying a mortgage. I\u2019ve done it with clients all the time, but this is the first time I\u2019m doing it myself.\u201d Work started in 2022, and Dee is candid about the highs and lows of such a mammoth undertaking. It also gives her an insight into the families she works with on Home Rescue. \u201cI am in awe of people who can reach out and ask for help. I can admire them and I feel privileged to help,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all been through tough times; you have to hang on. I understand how \u2018on a knife-edge\u2019 normality is for many people; [at one stage in my life] my mother was dying, my husband wasn\u2019t well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CornerCorner details in the sitting room.\"RecordRecord decks and vinyl in the open-plan living zone of Dee’s home.<\/p>\n

As for working with her television co-presenter and crew, she adds, \u201cWe\u2019ve grown together. ‘Home Rescue’ isn\u2019t a normal job. And I would have gone in trying to make it feel like that. But I think now I\u2019ve got a good sense of how to design to get the biggest bang for buck for the family without breaking the team, to \u2018spare the horses\u2019 so to speak and know how to reserve the energy for what\u2019s really important to the family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Day one of the project on Home Rescue is \u201cdemolition day\u201d, while the next three days are crucial, she adds. \u201cThe crew are gone by lunchtime-ish on the last day. That\u2019s always a tricky handover and they\u2019re destroyed with tiredness; they\u2019ve killed themselves to deliver amazing joinery,\u201d adds Dee.<\/p>\n

\"InteriorInterior designer Dee Coleman in the open-plan kitchen\/dining area of her home in Malahide. Pictures: Moya Nolan\"SittingSitting pretty: Ornamental pots on a sideboard.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the trades have been in and delivered their job, and now the pressure\u2019s on me to deliver. Now all the pressure\u2019s on me, hanging curtains and mirrors \u2014 I can hang a picture, but I still need Pete, and I still need him to be concentrating. Up to what it\u2019s a shell, and every time I finish, I wonder: How did we do that? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s an exaggeration to say that. The build team, the people you don\u2019t see, the declutterers \u2014 there\u2019s an unbelievable spirit of willingness there. They work magic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dee is invested in the struggles she encounters among the families she works with on the series. \u201cYou could not believe the stuff that went our way on one shoot \u2014 there was a whole other layer of positive energy and it was magic,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt is humbling. Do you know what it is \u2014 it\u2019s such a privilege to get such intimate access to people\u2019s lives. You\u2019d have to be in dire need to let a film crew and a designer into people\u2019s lives. You wouldn\u2019t do that unless the need was real. It was such a privilege this year. I felt energised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people are isolated and struggling, the gift of making people\u2019s homes function makes their lives easier rather than adding stress.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the fact that the budgets aren\u2019t enormous, by any stretch, means it\u2019s [what is done on the show] attainable. You certainly can\u2019t do it in that time frame, but people don\u2019t need to do it overnight, and I\u2019m very proud as an interior designer that it shows the genuine power of design.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n