Episode 1 House of the Year

It's time once more to find Northern Ireland's House Of The Year.

We've got a wonderfully wide variety of houses,

each with something special, something unique, to offer.

But who's going to be making those all-important decisions?

Time to meet the judges.

Returning once again, head judge,

award-winning residential architect Des Ewing.

And international interior designer Suzanne Garuda.

They're joined by Manhattan-based interior and product designer Michael Tavano.

I'm looking at colour, scale, texture, lighting,

how the rooms flow from one to the other, how they relate.

There should be nothing in the house that doesn't work

in terms of its circulation, in terms of its durability.

It's got to look beautiful as well.

A good interior, really, should lift your spirits.

It should really nurture you, revive you.

Ultimately, a good interior should be a pleasure to live in.

So there we are, three super-stylish judges,

12 absolutely stunning properties, but only one winner.

So let the games begin.

Well, here we are, back again with the show that absolutely everybody has been talking about.

Trust me, I am as excited as you are.

We will be travelling on your behalf the length and breadth

of the country, trying to winkle out some wonderful properties,

any one of which could be the winner of this year's House Of The Year.

Will we find better than in previous series?

Well, you're going to just have to stay right there,

keep watching and find out.

But without further ado, let's see what's on today's menu.

Will this year's winner be this lakeside family home in Enniskillen,

sitting high on the banks above lovely Lough Erne?

Or will it be this stylish contemporary beach house

on the seafront in Cloughey, County Down?

Or will it be our first house? A spectacular restoration.

In fact, it's a reinvigoration of a 19th-century Gothic church

that also includes a very creative Japanese-inspired new build annexe.

You don't see many of those in County Fermanagh.

Built in 1841,

the church was acquired in 1996 by its current owners

Mollie and Jimmy Armstrong,

who fell in love with it, but had no idea what to do with it.

After some years, they commissioned their son Nathan,

an architect living and working in Tokyo,

to design a Japanese-inspired home with a contemporary barn extension.

The church became the functional living space whilst the barn is the sleeping quarters.

The Japanese influence is visible throughout, in the bedrooms,

washroom and in its tatami mat reading bed in the link corridor,

and in the Japanese gravel garden.

It's a very unusual fusion between Victorian Gothic

and then this incredibly elegant, very light,

contemporary, Japanese-inspired style.

It's beautiful to live in. And it is calm.

It's the angularity of all the spaces that is so interesting for us.

This extraordinary family link as well,

because it's your son Nathan that has done all the architectural work.

He's married to a Japanese girl

and he's living in Japan with his three sons.

It's a bit far away for an architect, but we managed to set up

a communication system which worked, really worked.

-With Dad as project manager.

-Yes.

-Driving a dump truck.

-Yes.

Exactly. It wouldn't have been possible, I think,

if it hadn't been for Nathan providing very good working drawings.

The working drawings to me were really the key to the finish of the project.

This is what's so extraordinary about this whole building -

there's nowhere to hide.

With this perfection of detail, you can't paper over the cracks

or paint it a bright colour, it's all got to be absolutely perfect.

So you must, as a family, be enormously proud of what you've done.

-Mmm.

-We are, but we enjoy it.

It really is an absolutely fascinating building.

Let's go and see what Des thinks about the architecture outside.

You must love this place, because it's got more architecture

then you can shake an architectural stick at.

-This is a project that has just got everything.

-It's extraordinary.

The church is too small, so it had to be extended. Two ways of doing it.

You either make a replica of the church, which is very common,

and the way it would be done on most occasions. This is much braver.

We're doing something that blends in,

there's a confidence that it's going to blend in, it's not going to take away from the beautiful church.

It's got a restoration which is absolutely authentic.

It's got lime, they've cleaned back the sandstone, slate roof,

the cast-iron gutters, and then it's got the extension.

Look at that. It is so simple.

It doesn't take away from the church and doesn't crowd it.

The little link keeps it politely away from it.

Simplicity is the important element here.

Who would have thought this little link works? But it's beautiful.

Externally, it keeps the two parts apart.

Internally, it is the most beautiful part of the house.

I think, to me, there is such a strong sense of personality through all of this.

Everybody here, the design team, are making their own decisions.

They're not worried about fashion, about style, about what other people think.

-That's it.

-They just like it, and so the emotion carries you through it.

Yeah. It presents itself beautifully, it sits so well in the countryside.

It's great to see something so polite.

Des has definitely been seduced by its complex simplicity,

or should that be simple complexity?

Let's go inside and see what Michael thinks.

I think you're being well and truly spoilt.

Imagine, Michael, this is your first ever House Of The Year contender.

-What a beauty.

-It's unbelievable.

If this is what I have to look at my entire time here, I am going to be so spoiled.

They stripped this place back

and created this amazing modern temple, maybe, if you will.

They've done all this lovely oak, this Irish oak, that's here.

Usually oak is a very cold wood to me.

This is a very warm feeling here.

They've done touches like that through the whole place.

You don't feel like you're in this big, vast, open space.

It has a sense of warmth and comfort to it.

The pod up here, where Mollie does her needlework that she does,

she can look out these gorgeous Gothic windows behind us.

It's just lovely views everywhere you look.

This is a very, very elegant, very contemporary kitchen.

It is, and it works in here, because it has a Zen-like quality to it.

It has the Corian countertops that are just beautiful, the way they're done.

It's an easy workspace, you can get a lot done in here,

it cleans up quickly, not a lot on the counters.

Again, going back to that Zen feeling.

This is what they call in New York style manuals "eclecticism".

-It is, at its best, I think.

-Because it's not bought off-the-shelf,

-it's something that's grown.

-It's personal. Most people say,

"Oh, well, it's not in trend, it's not in style,"

but trend and style is about your personality,

and this house is full of personality.

I reckon that's a T-shirt. That's a very good T-shirt slogan. Excellent.

It sounds like Michael is extremely impressed.

Suzanne is checking out the living quarters. Let's go and catch up with her.

It is all extremely clever,

because the reason the church feels so uncluttered is because all the living happens here.

-But very elegantly.

-Beautifully designed. Right through from the screens which divide the bedrooms,

-the Japanese bath...

-Yeah.

-Oh, beautiful. It's just so well-designed.

And again, these double height spaces, so there's a constant feeling of space.

This is probably my favourite bit.

This is the most beautiful link corridor I think I've ever been in.

But for most people, this would just have been written off,

because it's just a space that unites the church with where everybody's living.

But here it's considered as an experience in its own right.

It's a link from the past to the present.

It's a link that is actually a relaxation area. It's connected to the outside.

You've got the beautiful Japanese garden. It's very, very Zen.

Obviously, a commercial development, a corridor area like this

just simply wouldn't happen, because it's a luxury of space.

But obviously for Mollie and Jimmy, they're making the decisions, they're calling the shots.

-Absolutely.

-You can really tell they enjoy this.

But so much attention to detail has gone into this one space.

You've got the Japanese garden outside and all the layers which are in that.

Then you've got this tatami mat which is lovely. It's so relaxing.

There's a real serenity about this space. It's the attention to detail, even in the small things,

which makes this so completely successful.

There we have house number one,

Jimmy and Mollie's Gothic church conversion

with its extremely elegant Japanese-inspired new build annexe.

A fitting start to this year's quest to find House Of The Year.

Let's meet house number two.

Our next house really wouldn't look out of place in Malibu or Muscle Beach,

but this is Cloughey in County Down on the Ards peninsula,

so no chance of any East Coast weather.

In fact, despite all of its glamorous, jet-set, LA styling,

the most surprising thing about this property is its small budget.

Sited right on the seashore in Cloughey,

this contemporary beach house was designed

by its architect owner Lee Jenkinson

and project managed by himself and his wife Kate.

Elegant and cool, it was completed on a very modest budget.

They already had the site and cleverly only spent money on quality finishes where necessary.

The exterior is cedar, which not only looks good -

it's also excellent for insulation.

Internally, it's stylish and tailored,

with a contemporary kitchen/living space and incredible sea views.

A very imaginative feature is an internal 20-foot well

dating from 1826, uncovered during the build.

There's a landscaped sea garden to the side

and a very James Bond-esque turning circle,

necessary because of the contained nature of the site.

-Are you very proud of him, what he's done?

-Yes, he's worked very hard.

She didn't even think about it. Did you see that? Straight in there.

"Yes, I am proud of Lee."

Because it's a very, very swanky pad.

-It's not about money this place, is it, at all?

-BOTH: No.

Very much a budget and what you can achieve on a budget.

Cos our circumstances changed. Just before we started,

we would have lost about a third of our budget, so it was touch and go whether we did it at all.

Did you find that you were forced to find new ways of doing things?

Say, for example, the edge detail.

That would have had quite a lot of stainless steel in it.

We pared it down to something

that Dad and I could have just clipped on.

-What's it actually like to live in?

-The house is brilliant,

it's lovely and warm. One thing I love is heat.

We haven't even had the heat on since we've been in.

The kids have got lots of storage now for their toys. It's brilliant.

-Just the layout and the design...

-Have you got lots of storage for the kids?

-I think that's quite important!

-That's why they have their TV room.

-The snug, that's where they go.

-How much did it actually cost?

-170,000 minus 12,000 VAT...

-Blimey.

-Do you do gift wrapping?

-BOTH LAUGH

The thing is, it really does look as if it should be on the cover of a glossy magazine. And who knows?

Perhaps it will be on the cover of a glossy magazine

when it wins House Of The Year. Is it going to?

Let's join Des down on the beach to see what he thinks about the architecture.

Obviously the big story here is how much good value this place was.

-Does that look like a cheap house?

-Not to me.

When you compare, this is the equivalent of a townhouse in the city.

We can have this beautiful house by the beach.

Do you feel that actually more houses should be built like this?

Because he's used design rather than throwing expensive materials...

He's gone over and over it, reducing the budget all the time.

Because it's by the beach, it's got these tremendous views.

All you need is something that is very simple,

has got sensible accommodation and makes the most of the link with the water.

He's done that, and he's done that on a very tight site with very difficult planning constraints.

I think the other thing I find very interesting

is also this kind of subplot, if you like, about disabled access,

because it's not obvious, is it?

It just makes the building very simple and a joy to use,

because everything is so level and easy.

There isn't a big disabled ramp at the entrance.

-In fact, at the entrance, there is the turning circle.

-Have you had a go?

-I've not had a go yet.

It also means he's got a bit more shelter round the door, which is a necessity.

And this building has been designed out of necessity

and what has been achieved is a little piece of art.

Well, there's no doubt about it,

this house is a triumph of design over budget.

And although this isn't the East Coast of America,

I think it looks sensational on the beach.

But let's find out what Suzanne thinks about the interiors.

For all its LA-inspired loveliness,

it couldn't be further from LA weather, could it? Very Northern Irish.

There is a real continental feeling about this house.

-Very international.

-Yeah, it is, very European.

There's a lot of energy you get by living by the sea

and that is what is so beautiful about this location.

They have really maximised this with the windows,

and the fact that they're just solid plate glass windows,

rather than doors, because of the sand coming in.

-Then that fantastic balustrade.

-I suppose that's because they've been on the site for eight years,

they know that it would be lovely to have doors there,

-but they simply wouldn't work. They wouldn't be practical.

-Yeah.

That's the thing about having lived here before,

they learned a lot about the site

and knew how to position everything so it works very, very well.

But the thing I really like about this house is it shows what we're going to have to do more of.

This house has been done to a very, very tight budget.

It's been very well thought-out. They've informed themselves, looked around,

they've picked something they like the style of.

Everything here is straightforward, high-street stuff. But it's the mix, isn't it?

-It's the way it's put together that makes it personal.

-Absolutely. That's what's happening now.

They've got a bit less cash, but a bit more confidence, and that's great.

I think that is going to change the way we see design here.

It is high chic but from the high street.

Let's go and find Michael who's having a look at the living rooms.

Right, where are you? There you are. You're not easy to miss here.

-I'm in the den. This is a really cute den.

-No, no, this is a snug.

A snug? How cute is that? Well it is kind of snug in here.

It's well done. This is where the kids watch TV.

They've done a great job with the privacy with the window behind us up high.

This wall is really interesting,

it's the curve from the car turnstile out front.

Do you think that would have been nice with a little bit of colour on it maybe?

I do. There needs to be more colour in here.

I'd like to see more colour. In small spaces, colour works.

The bathroom, I like the use of shiny and matt tiles on the wall. It gives some depth to it.

And then this, this is really, really pretty.

Pretty outrageous, this well, that they've found

when they were excavating.

That dates back to 1826.

It's a nice way of bringing a bit of history,

but in a very contemporary way.

-Yes, it really, really is.

-There we go.

-Careful, careful.

it's a bit like Indiana Jones' snake pit. Indiana O'Jones.

I want to show you in here.

It's a small little room, has great views

and there's some great little DIYs that they did in here.

What he did to the window - isn't that brilliant?

It's like a shadow box lit with the painting. It's adorable.

But this view is what makes it for me.

To wake up and look at that is really pretty special.

A DIY Malibu beach house but without an LA price tag.

A very impressive house number two. Now onto house number three.

And so onto our third and final house.

It's a characterful new build here in Enniskillen,

situated high above the banks of Lough Erne

to make the most of these spectacular views of water rolling through the lush countryside.

Yum! It's the perfect location. But what's the house like?

This grand lakeside family home is the property of Richard Cooper

who acquired the site five years ago

with the dream to build a large house close to town, but still have spectacular views of Lough Erne.

He wanted to create plenty of space for the kids to run around

but also to have some grown-up areas as well.

Rustic finishes are used to create cosiness in the open plan kitchen/living space,

whilst areas such as the dining room and master bedroom have a chic, contemporary feel.

An impressive feature is this stone-clad tower,

which houses a spiral staircase.

This is the most astonishingly beautiful view.

-Do you have links, family links with the area?

-Yes, my mum and dad used to live down in that house.

-That one there?

-Yeah, absolutely.

I think in my mind I always wanted

something that had a view of the lake.

I was always on the lake when I was young

-and I always wanted to be close to it.

-Cos the thing that strikes me about the house

is that there are a lot of traditional references,

but it still feels very, very modern inside in the way that you obviously want to use it.

What were the inspirations in terms of laying a house out like this?

Well, we wanted space.

Things that you see in it, like the stone and the ironwork,

were all things that I'd seen over a number of years, on my holidays,

and looking through magazines,

and there were always things that I liked in houses.

So it was a matter of throwing all those things together

and seeing what way it turned out. I think it turned out fine.

-Do you think this house sums you up as a personality?

-Yeah, absolutely.

It's a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll -

-it's the best of both worlds.

-That's me.

It's definitely a fascinating house.

I'm going to catch up with Des and see what he thinks about the architecture.

Now, Des, this is a house that is trying to be both traditional and modern at the same time.

-Is it working for you?

-Not for me.

It falls between two stools.

I feel you've got to have a conviction to go one way or the other.

It's a site for a modern house when you've got views like this,

but the client wants something that's traditional,

so you can see from this the concept is a bit muddled.

There's modern touches, some of which I think are quite nice.

I quite like this glass balustrade and there are some ideas,

like at the front, that turret strikes me as a good idea.

-It is an eye-catching...

-The turret is good. It shows you where the entrance is.

You know there's going to be something there and that's where the front door is.

So that's good. It is a little jumbled on that side.

You've got the retaining wall on one side

and the fact you come to the garage first at the house is never a good thing.

In its defence, I know that this house has grown from the inside out,

which I like. I think it's nice to think in terms

of how it's going to be used, it's a family home.

But, obviously, this is a very, very obvious house and that is the big thing.

Because if you're having a picnic over there, gorgeous,

ravishing area, this is what you're looking at.

Yeah, and I bet it looks great. I bet it looks great from there.

Because you've got the stone and it looks like real stone from there.

But when you come closer, you see it's just a veneer,

you see it's a fake, which is not a good thing.

-So is it a des-res?

-It remains to be seen.

I think some of these materials are very exciting.

-It's the idea of bringing the landscape in.

-Yeah, it's a bit like a cottage inside.

-That external wall there, the render of that is very nice.

-That's lovely.

And the wonderful curve, which makes it feel much, much more welcoming.

This is a lovely space, the way it's been divided up.

So you've got this really nice snug and then you're straight through

into this conservatory, so you've got another nice, big, bright room.

And then the kitchen and the dining room.

I think this is very successful, because obviously this is a big area

and a lot of people would have just left it open, but, in fact,

by creating these little zones, creating these little personalities...

I think that is its charm. That they have the different levels,

they've divided the space up very differently.

-We're so used to know seeing big open-plan kitchens, very contemporary.

-Yes.

And they don't always work. This has got a nice use of materials.

You've got the Yorkstone, the stone on the wall, walnut,

which is quite contemporary. They've really thought about their use of materials.

Do you think design is moving on? Are we turning our back on the modern?

-Are we looking for a new style?

-I think we're reworking a lot of contemporary living.

People have had those big open spaces

and now they're trying to put a bit more emotion into it,

a bit more feeling, and they're realising that the old finishes, actually,

a lot of them really, really worked and made places feel a bit cosier.

-So I think we are.

-The heart of the home again. Very interesting.

So Suzanne is getting emotional in the kitchen.

How does Michael feel about the dining room?

There is a distinct change of mood as you come through that door.

The rustic gives way to something a little bit more grand,

something a little bit more glam, actually.

Yes. Glamour, glamour, toujours glamour. Look at this.

-This is glamour. Mirrored fireplace.

-That's quite boutique hotel. And the wallpaper...

The wallpaper, a great statement.

I think it's lovely, the idea of using pattern and colour,

-almost like texture.

-Yeah, it is a texture,

and this does add a texture to the wallpaper, which is nice.

-Beautiful window treatments, great header detail.

-This is nice as well.

This is a family piece that he brought from his parents' house.

He really loves it, he wanted to use it here.

I'm so happy when things like that happen.

I think again getting out of the tyranny of modern houses with modern furniture.

Right, you blend it in. It's great. This way, leading into the foyer here,

you have your archway into the formal living room.

It mirrors the archway into the kitchen

and then it brings us in here to the stairwell,

which is the turret from the outside.

That leads you upstairs to this very grand hallway

that could actually even be used as a picture gallery, if you would.

Then leading into the master suite.

Again, having more wallpaper in it, which is well done in there.

He's done a job of mixing wrought iron and stainless steel

and silks and beautiful wallpapers to create a traditional modern.

-So, well done.

-There we go. Traditional modern.

An incredibly interesting last house for today's programme.

Three fabulous houses, but will one of them

have what it takes to be this year's House Of The Year?

Only the judges will decide.

So we're back, and better than ever,

and we've got some astonishing architecture,

some jaw-dropping locations and some fabulous properties.

Now, just like you, I was extremely impressed by those three houses.

But what did our judges think?

Before we find out, let's have a quick reminder.

House number one is Mollie and Jimmy's Japanese church house in County Fermanagh,

a fascinating marriage of East and West, Old World and New.

House number two is Lee and Kate's contemporary beach house in Cloughey,

a stylish pad that wouldn't look out of place in Malibu

but realised on a very modest budget.

And house number three is Richard Cooper's lakeside family home in Enniskillen,

an impressive new build with its own tower

and breathtaking views of Lough Erne.

Time to find out what the judges really think.

Well, show one has thrown up three incredibly interesting houses.

What a great start to the series. Today, we're not here to choose a winner,

because everyone's going through to the final.

Michael, you're the new kid on the block.

What did you think of the Japanese church house?

I have to say, if this is anything like the rest of the homes,

it's going to be a tough competition.

This house was really well done,

integrating the old and the new together.

The textures that were used, the craftsmanship was right on top.

You could see that with the way the outside was brought into the inside was brought through to the finishes.

I think that's what really makes it work so successfully.

-It was that little link that worked the most successfully.

-Absolutely. That, to me, was the little gem.

Which is a surprise, because it was so necessary externally

to separate the two buildings, the old and the new.

They carried everything through. Like the link corridor

had that Gothic peak to it that carried through into the church.

The contemporary beach house,

another architect-designed house, by Lee and Kate, in Cloughey.

There was great energy from the sea, from the location,

and you got that because of the way the windows were.

They were big windows at the seaside.

-What about the feel of the interior?

-The feel of the interior left me wanting more.

-It doesn't have to be lacklustre on a budget.

-It was not lacklustre.

-That house is not lacklustre.

-I thought it was.

It was genius, for that price,

to produce something that has that beach house feel to it.

It's created something that is just very simple, I think.

Anyway, here's a house for you - the lakeside family home.

It's got you written all over it.

-MICHAEL LAUGHS

-It does have an American scale to it...

-You know him so well!

-I know.

It does have that American scale to it, which I did enjoy.

I did feel at home,

the way they had these great big open spaces that were used well.

I wanted more from the interior. I got a little bit of it with the wallpaper

and some of the window treatments that were being used.

The kitchen really worked. The kitchen and the snug, the use of space.

I think Richard really put a lot of thought into that.

For me, what was most disappointing was the fact you approach the garage first.

The approach of a house is very important. You come to the garage

and then you come to an area of tarmac with a retaining wall.

You've come in and you've lost already.

-Well, we've some strong contenders.

-Yeah, sure.

-Maybe a potential winner.

-Maybe.

We're just going to have to wait and see how they compete against the other houses in the final.

Interesting as ever. Food for thought indeed from our judging panel.

We'll be finding out how those three do against the other properties in our series final.

Join us next time, cos we've got more inspirational homes

as we continue the hunt to find Northern Ireland's House Of The Year.

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