Operation Renovation: ‘Having a husband as your client was the tricky bit. He would come up with ideas and I would say no’

Before it became a calm, light-filled family home, this 1930s house in Harold’s Cross was the kind of place you might have easily overlooked. From the outside, it was every inch the modest Dublin ex-council build – pebble-dashed, slightly dated and shaped as much by decades of gradual changes as by any original design intent. Inside, the layout was awkward, the light uneven, and the charm buried beneath layers of well-meaning but tired updates.