MY SPACE:In our new series on how people create homes, photographer Gerry O'Leary tells Emma Cullinanabout knocking down walls
When did you buy the house and why did you choose it?
We bought it nine years ago. We had rented in the area and very much liked its settled feel. Additionally, it was just 1km from my wife Eithne’s parents’ house in Glasnevin and they are often in and out, especially when our two children were younger and we needed babysitters.
Glasnevin was always home to Eithne while I grew up in Kerry. We had lived in dozens of places in Dublin, as well as in Africa, the UK and America. We came back to Dublin in 1993 after being in San Francisco for two and a half years.
Did you have to do much work on the house?
It was built in the early 1970s and needed to be modernised. There were partition walls everywhere on the ground floor and we knocked them all down – and put in a single red support column – to create an open-plan space.
We did that for two reasons: one was to be able to interact with the kids, who could be doing their homework at the dining table while we were cooking – and we both like cooking. Also, we have people around a lot and everyone can gather around the table with no need to go off into a formal dining space.
I come from a family of 12, and the kitchen was always the engine room. We would all sit around the big table: all the action was there.
So in this house we very much wanted to create a space that hinged around a big table. It was impossible to find a table of this size, strength and style in a shop – we wanted something solid but contemporary – so we got a joiner to make it.
We decided what we wanted to do with the house but ran the ideas past an architect. One idea we took from him was to have floor-to-ceiling glass on the back wall to link the inside and outside. To do this we replaced the small lintels with one long structural beam.
Did you live in the house while the work was being carried out?
We went to live with Eithne’s parents. The work took six months and trying to live among builders could be a recipe for divorce, having no kitchen and guys going with jack hammers on a daily basis.
Do you take inspiration from the properties that you photograph?
Yes, always. Every aspect of this house has been influenced by one place or other. I built up the ideas over time and that is why I wanted a contemporary space with lots of light.
My work also gives me access to good tradesmen; when I needed someone I would ask architects or construction companies I was working with if they had a good chippy or tiler, and they would recommend one. We got really top quality tradesmen.
We got the kitchen made to fit our space by Jimmy Woods who is a former woodwork teacher. He has terrific attention to detail.
You have lots of photographs on the wall – do you like being surrounded by your field of work?
Eithne thinks that we should have more of them!
We have family photographs taken by photographer friends and I have a series of snaps that we have accumulated over the years, including a picture of me being confirmed by Bishop Eamon Casey, which is always a talking point.
We do change the photographs around, and bring in some fresh ones, including pictures from an art series I am doing on aerial Irish landscapes – these are scattered throughout the house – along with cool architectural images that we like.
How did you go about sourcing furniture?
It took three years to find a fireplace that we liked and we just boarded up the hole until we found one that suited, at Hearth and Home. We wanted a really simple raised fireplace. It was more of an aesthetic addition than a heat generating one. We got a cream sofa at Arnotts. We did have a dark sofa in that corner before which made the space feel heavy and closed in. The pale sofa is more in keeping with the bright walls and gives the illusion of greater space.
You recently added an outdoor room and redid the patio; how has that changed your family life?
We needed additional space and had no room to extend into and our new Ecospace ( www.ecospacestudios.com) room in the garden meant that we didn't have to move house.
We wanted something that made an architectural statement and yet was very functional and practical. The architect John Feely recommended Ecospace Studios in the UK.
It was made-to-measure and assembled in four days. It is very well insulated, has a sedum roof, underfloor heating and eco-friendly materials. No planning permission was required because it falls within the size requirements.
It has made a huge difference. The thinking behind it was to have a games-oriented teenage den (with a pool table), where they could get away from us while being relatively well supervised. It’s very popular with their friends and cousins.
Our kids don’t go to school in the area and the local kids aren’t the same age as ours, so this means they can bring friends back to their own space.
The new deck area is west-facing and the intention is to have barbecues and swan around drinking wine, although that didn’t happen last summer, what with the weather.
