Architect and judge for RTÉ's Home of the Year Hugh Wallace joined Drivetime to discuss what to look out for when buying or renting a home, and how to transform it into your dream house. Listen back above.
Whether you're renting a flat or buying your own home, knowing what design features and structural quirks to look out for can be a challenge.
Understanding what makes a room or a home well-designed and comfortable can take time and a keen eye. With this in mind, Wallace suggests that people approach a potential home by thinking about what they could do with it.
"I think it's very important that you understand the orientation, in other words where the sun rises and where it sets in the evening", he said. This is especially important when it comes to features like gardens.
"Ideally, if you're building or buying a new home, that you're buying a garden that is not facing east. Every other garden will actually get much more sunshine than an east-facing garden, particularly in the evening when we all want to have our barbecue."
He added that if possible, home owners or renters should "decamp" into the new home for a short period before fully moving in to "let the house talk to you".
"Because maybe you should live upstairs and all the living rooms should be upstairs so you're grabbing much more sunshine, but you also have more privacy if it's on the street and your bedrooms are downstairs."
Wallace acknowledged that designing your perfect home is a long process, and stressed that "you don't have to do everything on day one".
"If you want, paint it an off-white, a nice warm colour and then think about it, live in the house. Don't buy lots of furniture, only buy your absolute bare necessities of life, because you can spend lots of money and buy the wrong piece of furniture."
When it comes to restructuring the layout of the house, it can seem like moving rooms upstairs and downstairs can be time consuming and expensive. However, Wallace said this doesn't have to be the case, especially if "you're willing to roll up your sleeves".
He nodded to some of the guests on his show The Great House Revival, who have transformed neglected period homes, bought for €200,000 or thereabouts, into stunning spaces thanks to their hard work and an investment of around €140,000.
For many of us, personality comes through in the little trinkets, artwork, clutter and decorations we bring into our homes. Is maximalism out of style, as the minimalists say, or is chic clutter having a moment?
"I love my posters and clutter", Wallace said. "I think what's very important is that every year you just decide you'll move all your photographs and paintings and personal effects around, because that actually brings the house to life again, because you'll have forgotten what you have on some of the walls or the bedrooms you don't use."
He added that in his home, he does an annual spring clean where he shifts his decorations around to give the space a new look.
