Episode 3 of Home of the Year offered a modern home for a sea swimmer and her QS husband, on an elevated site with an overhang to keep the rain off, some strong colour and botanical blooms, designed by an Australian architect at a distance of almost 15,000 kilometres.
Photographer credit: Kelan Molloy
We know it rains a lot in Ireland, and yet we do very little to protect ourselves from it in terms of housing design.
Home of the Year episode three contestants Christine and Marc Hamilton spent seven years in Perth, Australia, where two of their three children were born and built their first and second homes.
The couple are childhood sweethearts who met at St David’s School, when she was 16, and he was 17.
Marc is a quantity surveyor and has always worked in construction.
Christine, a nurse, is currently a stay-at-home mother.
While Down Under, they would walk their neighbourhood admiring the housing stock. One day, a plot came up. They bought it and decided to build their own.
They had architect Darren Foster, then of Paramount Design, draft the plans for it.
He also designed their next home.
They liked his work so much that they had him design their ultra-contemporary property in Greystones, Co Wicklow, at a distance of almost 15,000 kilometres.
“He has never been here,” she explains.
As you can see from his work on their first and second homes, his handwriting is all over the design.
They built their five-bedroom, four-bathroom, 371 square metre A-rated house years ago in the garden of her parents’ house.
Their children, Rose, age 12, Olive, age 10 and Harry, age 7, each have a room of their own.
Set on an elevated half-acre site in Greystones, where it was designed to take advantage of the views, it is entered via stylish gates by Automation Supplies, which help set the tone for the rest of the property.
It has a black brick slip façade at the entrance level and white render with gold-finished zinc panelling on the first floor.
The overhang is a souvenir of their time in Australia, where almost every modern home had one.
In contrast, the house they bought when they returned in 2017 had large sliding glass doors that in summer had to be left open to regulate the house.
“The temperatures don’t fluctuate in the house, whether really hot outside or lashing rain and wintry. You can use the outside space even when it’s raining. In Ireland, that’s a lot.”
She’s not wrong. Over the period 1991-2020, on an annual basis, the average number of rain days ranges from 199 days to 273 days; the average number of wet days ranges from 146 days to 228 days; and the average number of very wet days ranges from 23 days to 71 days, according to a report, Climate Averages 1991 – 2020, compiled by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Met Eireann.
The house was built by Contempo Construction, Marc’s new construction company. Architects Amanda and Hugh liked the exterior and the fact that the colour palette on the exterior carried through to the entrance hall and beyond.
A cantilevered staircase with glass balustrade by Alan Doherty of AJD Design, Kilkenny.
Hugh likes the fact that you can’t see how the glass is held in place.
The maximalist botanical papered guest w.c almost has Amanda coming out in hives.
I don’t understand it, and I don’t want to look at it. The maximalist print is one from Wallcoverings' exotic flower range.
Owner Marc feels differently. explains that the palette is “relatively muted”.
It comprises black, white and gold. Layered on top are swathes of pink, deep aubergine and a gold inspired by the Oz continent.
Judge Amanda loved the kitchen, by Kerwood Design, part of a broken plan space.
From a stool at the island, Christine can look through the backsplash window and “see whether it’s a swim day or not.”
An avowed sea swimmer, she can determine whether the water is choppy without ever having to leave the house – the window acts as a tide clock of sorts.
Amanda and fellow judge Siobhan were less enamoured by the living room area, where its bookcases are painted Blush, a muted pink by Little Greene, one of several colours Dolores Farrell of Brady’s of Greystones recommended to her.
In the TV room, the walls are a deep aubergine, a colour Farrell suggested, recommending that Christine see what it looks like in real life by walking up the town to where other Greystoners had painted their front door in this shade. Aptly, the Little Greene shade is called Adventurer.
In the playroom, the walls are painted Brushed Gold, a colour from the Dulux Heritage range that she christened Australian gold.
Upstairs, the principal bedroom frames views of the mature trees and the sea. Its walls are painted Dense Fog, a colour by Helen Turkington.
Surmising, Amanda says it’s about tranquillity, escapism and relaxing.
This floor has deep-pile carpet throughout, a luxury underfoot that she demonstrates by padding about on it barefoot.
“Our home is busy and built for the people around us, to have family around and to share it with them.”
As for the overhang. “On a rainy day like today, you can really appreciate it,” Amanda says. It is one of her favourite moves.
The build cost of a property of a similar size through Contempo Construction would be approximately €1.4 million to €1.6 million, excluding professional fees, which could cost an additional €100,000.
Home of the Year series 12 airs Tuesdays, 7 pm on RTÉ One. For more design ideas, you can view this and all the previously aired episodes on the RTÉ Player
