Art director and influencer Jen Connell is using the tool to paint and play with space, and draft colour-saturated ideas for her Georgian country house
Buying a home where all the back-end work has been done allows you to focus on the decorating, says art director and interior stylist, Jen Connell, whose first home featured on the RTE show Home of the Year in 2020.
It was a new build, a house that had been bought but never lived in, and had come back to the market.
The owners’ plans had changed, and Jen and her husband were able to buy a three-storey, four-bedroom home that was finished with top-quality fixtures, including Villeroy & Boch sanitaryware in the bathrooms.
The place needed floors and paint. “It took us more than three years to find our first home. We absolutely loved living there,” she says.
She would have loved to have bought a period house, but financially, it just didn’t add up at the time.
“It wasn’t on the cards. We had looked, but couldn’t make it happen.”
With the freedom to work from home during the lockdowns, they started to explore properties outside Dublin. Her Dublin-born husband didn’t want anything too isolated.
Originally from Limerick city, they spotted the two-bay, two-storey, five-bedroom renovated Georgian country house online, and it piqued their interest.
Situated on the outskirts of Castleconnell village, it had once been the residence of William Edward Corbett, who designed the Catholic church in the village, about a 20-minute drive from the city.
It was also close to Jen’s family.
Then owned by former Ireland fullback Felix Jones, it had been completely contemporarised during a two-year restoration under conservation architect Alfred Jones.
The 1.25 acres of gardens had also been revitalised, under landscape architect's Emmet O’Mahony watchful eye.
It also had a crenelated curtain wall and was sizeable, extending to 296 square metres.
He had done a really good job and had great taste, she recalls.
“The look was really minimal and slightly masculine. I wanted something more feminine.”
So, she’s phasing it out with the help of AI. “I love being more faithful to the colours, patterns, comfort, and decadence of the era.”
I’ve always had an eye, she says. “I’ve always been interested in interiors. As a child, I was constantly adjusting and moving furniture around in my bedroom. I had the box room.”
She studied design and multimedia at DCU, and through her job as an art director, she has learned to use multiple software tools.
This gave her the base to build out ideas for the house using AI.
She has shared these ideas with her 40,000 followers on Instagram at @Jenconnell.home.
The drawing room had a clubhouse feel with painted navy walls and tan leather sofas, a collaboration with sofa company DFS.
“But I realised I was craving feminine. I wanted a fuchsia pink floral room. With AI, you can paint or play with space.”
It is being proud of being feminine, she says.
“There is a lot of shame applied to using colour, especially pink. You’re put in the bimbo category.
"Actually, it’s really nice to embrace its softness, its florals, pushing it another step further.”
She’s on the lookout for the perfect fuchsia colour and is currently exploring several options.
She says Little Greene’s Leather is an intense hot pink while Farrow & Ball’s Lake Red is not as daring, and she loves the name of Cole & Son’s Jam tart.
She’s also on the hunt for an intense pink for the home office, which is the image you see with the large gingham frilled cushions.
She’s exploring and experimenting with yellow too, for the study, in the lead shot above. It will feature a yellow gingham upholstered window seat.
In real life, this room is currently full of kitchen appliances.
She hopes the new kitchen project will be completed next year and has enlisted the help and aesthetic of her first cousin, London-based designer Emily Cove, to help with the kitchen reno.
She is on the hunt for a kitchen table, possibly a refectory style, one with a plinth underneath where feet can rest to balance practicality with aesthetic.
She tends to shop vintage and second-hand. It offers better quality, style, and is more sustainable. She is also keen to bring in more antiques and warm woods.
She’s slowly replacing the grey flooring and hopes to replace it with solid timber parquet, not exactly as it was.
“I want it to look like it’s always been there and hope to use salvaged wood or wood that looks salvaged.”
She’s looking for marble-topped chests of drawers, bedside tables, and commodes. The couple spends their weekends antiquing.
Favourites include Neville Duke’s Ashbrook Antiques in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, who sources a lot of his pieces from France. They’ve bought antique commodes from JC Furniture and regularly visit JPS Preloved Furniture.
The look will include 1920s and 1930s reproductions of antiques bought online on Facebook Marketplace, Adverts.ie, and Vinted and Proantic, where she got two marble fireplaces for the price of one here, including shipping.
It is very much a work in progress, she says.
“It is not about a rush to the finish line. It’s about creating a curated home. It takes years.”
