When Lynn Ferrari first saw the house on a quiet Waterford road, she wasn’t looking to buy. She and her husband Dan were renting, but they still dreamed of one day owning a place with a garden and a bit of character. The property looked like the perfect renovation project, so they made an offer. It was their first home, and they moved in five months later. They expected the work to be mostly cosmetic, but they quickly learned that the house held more than just dated décor.
The couple arrived to find purple and cream walls, cracks covered in wallpaper, and a kitchen that needed a complete overhaul. They stripped back tiles behind the cooker to find bad fire damage and unsafe wiring. It was a lucky discovery. They also discovered that the extension needed a new roof due to a leak and that the entire house required better insulation. The plumbing needed improvement, and the ceilings were uneven.
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They decided to split the work into two phases. Phase one involved revamping the kitchen, turning a bedroom into a walk-in wardrobe, replastering the ceilings, and fixing a leak in the dining room that led to a new roof on the extension. Phase two was gruelling. It included a utility room renovation complicated by mould in the walls, a loft conversion, and another roof replacement. By the time they finished, the house had gone from an unliveable property to a cohesive family home.
Despite the setbacks, Lynn managed to create a style that flows throughout the house. She uses a “golden thread” of colour, mixing pink, green, and blue in every room. The dining room was once dark and purple, but painting it white made the light bounce off the walls. The bathroom features a black ceiling and white lower walls to create the illusion of more space. They kept the carcasses of the old kitchen cabinets and replaced them with new Shaker-style doors in Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue, paired with a solid oak worktop.
The renovation timeline became more complicated when Lynn became pregnant with their daughter, Farrah. They had originally planned to save money by just replacing the countertops and spraying the cabinets, but their carpenter advised them to get new doors to ensure the quality held up. The couple chose to stick with the new doors. They also faced a rookie mistake when the new flooring arrived scratched and marked from the months of construction work that continued after they moved in.
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Lynn admits she cannot resist colour, so her plan to keep the design neutral did not last long. She incorporates her colour schemes into the nursery, the living room, and even the bathroom. The bedroom they set aside for Farrah was originally kept simple and pared-back, but as the baby grew, they added a maximalist wallpaper from Murwall and painted the wardrobe doors in Studio Green.
For a tiny kitchen with only standing room, Lynn found a £400 solution on eBay. The new space is now perfect for parties. They even kept Dan’s grandmother’s bar cart, adding new handles to the original reddish stain. Lynn says the house is a reflection of their hard work and determination. They could see past the repairs when friends and family visited the unfinished property, and now they have a home they are proud of.
