Interior Design Renovating My Terraced House in Ireland

vertical garden

When I moved to Ireland I undertook the renovation of my new home. In this blog post I explained how I chose the interior design elements to create a modern look.



Contents

Interior Design Ideas

The inspiration for most of my interior design ideas came from Instagram and House & Home Magazine, which is also a great source to find suppliers.

Taking on a Renovation Project

Without a major budget, taking on a renovation project is limited to non-structural work and redecorating.

The first step was to eliminate mouldy wallpaper in the living room and bedroom, as airborne mould particles can cause respiratory diseases.

I started from the living room, as it’s the place I tend to spend the most time in. As a freelance writer, I work from the living room.

After peeling off four layers of wallpaper, I painted the room a pale green which immediately gave it an uplift. I had a vision of creating a vertical garden for the living room.

vertical garden

Vertical Garden

To create a simple vertical garden, the easiest way is to get a tall unit and arrange various house plants according to their height. I got a shelving unit from BuyItDirect. You can get similar ones on Homcom. The shelving unit sits next to the window so all the plants get plenty of natural light. To add interest, I chose cascading plants like pothos and spider plant. The shelves can also be used to display some small ornaments. I chose a variety of ceramic and plastic pots for the plants as well as decorative baskets.

Related article: house plants and plant swaps.

Upcycling Furniture

The house came with a kitchen dresser in natural pine. I saw the potential of getting two pieces of furniture from it so I split the top half and turned it into a drinks cabinet, and the bottom half into a sideboard.

 

There are many different types of furniture paint available and some of them contain a primer, which makes the job of repainting furniture quicker and easier. I used Johnstone’s Paint in Urban Sky, an attractive dark grey that immediately brought the furniture into the 21st century.

Dining Area

The living room doubles up as a dining room and I decided on an industrial look for the dining table and chairs, which I got from Cult Furniture. I was extremely lucky that these items were included in the winter sale. You can get similar ones from Your Price Furniture. The furniture I ordered had to be self-assembled and to be honest it took me a few days to put all the four chairs together. It may seem simple that you only need to attach the legs to the seats, but the legs are slanted and they have to be screwed in in the right order. The final result was really good and the chairs are very comfortable and stylish. The table also needed assembling but I think it took a few hours, not days, to put together. I chose a round table over a rectangular one because it makes the room look bigger.

It’s also a nice table to work from – as a freelance writer I work from home most of the time.

To complete the look I added a floor lamp, also from Cult Furniture, and a mirrored side table from Dunnes Stores. You can get similar items from Aspect.

I bought all items myself. This article contains affiliate links. Picture credits: Paola Bassanese. You can follow my renovation projects on www.instagram.com/paolaenergya