A home with heart, The Gallery is the winner of BBC NI’s House of the Year and Belfast's Taj Mahal.
Pics: Elyse Kennedy
While design credentials are on show in The Gallery, a south Belfast art-filled contemporary property that has been crowned the winner of BBC NI’s House Of The Year 2026, the home is all heart.
During the series, when presenter and design expert Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen first stepped inside the property, he was instantly impressed with the house that retired dentist and gallerist Bernard and his wife Sinead, a complementary therapist and counsellor, had downsized to.
They built the property in the back garden of their original home.
“I can tell you now there ain’t going to be anything ‘meh’ in here,” he said of the art-filled space.
“It’s about art, it’s about being challenging. It’s about being scintillating. It’s about being very slinky.”
The Gallery has been designed around a nearly 20 metre long work by Bernard’s good friend. Neil Shawcross.
RUA, who, while primarily known for his portraiture - his subjects include Nobel Prize-winning poet, Seamus Heaney, and novelist Francis Stuart – is also a printmaker and has designed stained glass for the Ulster Museum and St Colman’s Church, in Lambeg, Co Antrim.
Laurence likened the house to “a self-portrait” of the couple.
At first glance, the house resembles a white cube gallery space with large windows framing the surrounding mature trees to create a sylvan setting.
From the upper floor windows if feels as if you’re in a treehouse.
But there is nothing rustic about this space.
While the walls, ceiling, and floors are all shades of pale, this is a residence that is full of personality with art on almost every surface and a Le Corbusier palette of primary colours to make the place pop.
“This house is a love story, Belfast's own Taj Mahal,” Bernard said. “It's a gift to my darling wife, Sinéad, as an expression of my love for her.”
Mughal ruler Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in memory of his queen, Mumtaj Mahal, in the northern Indian city of Agra.
The house, Bernard describes as functional and “not just for show”.
The new build construction uses air intake and heat recovery machines to reduce running costs, while the open-plan layout, with its linear, light-filled form, allows for circularity.
There is a very discernible flow throughout the building.
“I designed our new home around a 65-foot-long painting, a gift from my friend and distinguished artist, Neil Shawcross.
"In the event that the wall wasn't long enough, the painting needed to be scrolled at one end.
"A glorious failure, as the detailed measurements had received lengthy consideration.”
"It is a wonderful space adorned with art that resonates with the sound of music.
"Walking round the house when the sun comes up is bliss. There is something comforting and spiritual about it, like being cocooned in a new skin."
“Our home is our passion, and it's been a labour of love from start to finish,” Sinead added. “We will cherish the memories, and now we are living the dream.”
The house, which Bernard describes as functional and ‘not just for show’, uses air intake and heat recovery machines to reduce the running costs.
The open plan and narrow linear form of the property allow light and energy to flow throughout.
But on every surface, there are points of interest.
There are Murano glass pieces, ceramics, and other collectables atop a coffee table.
In the kitchen, the galley design has been constructed to frame an artwork on the opposite wall.
Five homes made it to the grand final presented by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, and judges Patricia McGinnis, co-founder of furniture store Maven, and architects Jane Larmour, a principal at practice Arigho Larmour Wheeler, and James Fairley, partner at Atelier Branco & Fairley, who were tasked with selecting a winner.
“This series saw a lot of stiff competition with a range of really strong finalists, said McGinnis.
“The Gallery deserved to win for a multitude of reasons. The exterior and interior were considered as a whole, and the house was built to be exactly what Bernard and Sinéad wanted it to be, for them.
“It is brave, bold, and beautiful, and a home that Bernard and Sinead should rightfully be extremely proud of, a credit to their vision and tenacity.
"The Gallery is one of the most breathtaking homes I've been in, and I consider it an honour to have been able to visit it.”
