Hammocks, swings, baths turned into day beds, and primary colours everywhere bring fun and warmth to this seaside home. Alanna Gallaghermeets its mistress.
Some people get road rage, angered by rudeness and bad driving. For Sarah Tomkin the issue is interiors and a particular decorating style: the neutral palette favoured by designers and amateur disciples alike. She has beige rage, a syndrome that afflicts a tiny minority of the newly renovated. It's the sameness of it all that gets her. "For me, colour is deeply important. Look outside: nature is full of colour. There's no beige and white there. It's pleasurable to look at."
Neutrals are "safe and banal", she says, and she rails against lack of adventure. "The homes featured in interiors magazines could be anywhere. There is nothing that identifies the space with its owners' personalities. It's plain being heralded as gorgeous."
Tomkin's style won't appeal to everyone. She's a rare breed in modern Irish interiors: a bone fide colourist. "Colour and light are what make this home feel happy," she explains.
Her property is a 1940s bungalow that has been expanded over the years. Its location is second to none. Set just above the foreshore on Killiney beach in south Co Dublin, the house boasts expansive sea- and skyscapes. Oodles of windows and glass sliding doors add light to the mix.
The space originally housed a granny flat as well as the family home, and Tomkin knocked the two back into one space and recently built an extension to create a U-shape home that makes the most of its wonderful aspect. An external courtyard links its old and new parts, and a deck wraps around the back.
Outside, the house is a pale pink. Inside, the palette is a host of seaside shades: banana yellow, raspberry ripple pink and even Slush Puppy blue. There isn't a white wall in sight - just some vanilla-painted ceilings.
"Colour makes everything happy. It lightens the mood. Colours in the same tones work better together," says the former art student, the only female in a family of two adults, four boys - nine-year-old Isaac, eight-year-old Cosmo, two-year-old Dashiell and one-year-old Bamford, and three cats, Elvis, Massimo Luigi Bugs Bunny and Chaos.
The kitchen is the room that best illustrates her love of colour. The room's reconditioned Aga cooker was re-enamelled in sugar pink. In another corner of this large, open-plan space is a sitting area with a wood-burning stove.
"It spent half a year being an ugly big black thing before I had it re-enamelled in sunny yellow, so now even when it's not lit, it feels warm and welcoming." Eddie Butler of H&F Modelling in Cashel (062-62441) worked on both pieces and is presently finishing another wood stove in duck-egg blue.
A pool table, bought second-hand, serves as the dining table. Painted in naïve florals, its green baize has been covered by a large wooden board that can accommodate 14 diners. The accompanying chairs were purchased from Ikea and customised in a variety of pastel shades.
Tomkin inherited the small kitchen window from one of her friends, who was doing up a house. The house is full of cast-off windows, passed on by friends who were redecorating - an idea that creates additional personality throughout.
The ceiling in the kitchen was removed, which adds extra height. The addition of white painted wood beams creates a New England flavour that is in keeping with the room's extensive sea views. A swing, suspended from the ceiling, adds to the holiday mood.
"I wanted a hanging chair. I got a swing with views out over Killiney Bay instead. Grown men love it."
The master bedroom is in the attic, under the eves. Clear glass drawers built into the walls help keep the room clutter-free. It's a clever use of a storage space that often gets lost in transformation.
The staircase leading to the room showcases LED lighting, again a cast-off from a friend's home that was being remodelled. Frosted-glass wardrobe doors let more colour through.
Tomkin wanted to install a bath, from which she could enjoy the sea views, in the adjoining ensuite. This meant fitting something into the slim dormer window space. Undeterred by the lack of retail options available, Tomkin's builder suggested installing a hot water tank cut horizontally across the top. It was narrow yet deep, and with a seat welded inside you could sit up to your neck in hot water. Lycris-Byrne Copper & Steel Cylinders in Bray (01-2863794) supplied the "bath".
Elsewhere Tomkin has eschewed an entrance hall in favour of a working cloakroom with space for wet cats and buggies. "I've no interest in the entrance-hall concept. It strikes me as such a waste of space. With four boys under the age of 10 and three cats, I need storage. I used to get excited about space, but now what gets me going is storage."
Not all of Tomkin's ideas have worked. The transformation of the pool table was, she says, a disaster, as her husband, Oisin, refused to play on it once she had painted it. "We had numerous rows. We nearly got divorced."
Garden designer Morgan Sheridan (086-3984662) created a wild flower garden that looks and feels very fluid and loose. It includes old-fashioned varieties such as hollyhocks, verbena, anemone, lychris, crocosmia, daisies, buddleia, hardy geraniums and some transplanted cordyline.
His stamp is all over the outside space, from the exterior cast-iron day bed, formerly a claw-leg bath, to the garden bench and extravagant wrought-iron confections that previously served as cots for the two older boys. One is shaped like a chicken, the other a Fresian cow. Sheridan is Tomkin's right-hand man. "I think everyone needs a Morgan, a person whose opinion you value, someone you can turn to, to ask what they think."
This is a look that is very easy to get wrong. It is harder thait looks, but colour confidence is about not being afraid to make mistakes. "Most of the way our home looks is down to accidental architecture. Every so-called design feature is an attempt to rectify a situation. Painting everything one colour is really boring. I want everyone to think outside the beige box that we've cornered ourselves into. Explore new possibilities. If a colour doesn't work, you can paint over it." Don't fall for whatever is the height of fashion. Choose a style that suits your personality instead.
"I'm a stay-at-home mother of four boys. It is hugely important to me to be happy in my surroundings. Right now it's all about the children."
It is said that we are all architects of our own happiness, and a house that feels happy is certainly a step in the right direction. So get out your colour wheel and start spreading the hues.