Episode 3 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 is head judge,

award winning residential architect, Des Ewing.

International interior designer, Suzanne Garuda.

And Manhattan-based interior and product designer, Michael Tavano.

I'm looking forward to see in these 12 houses,

how people live here, what their styles are, their tastes.

There's so much to experience here

that I am looking forward to learning from.

What it comes down to in the end,

is whether the home owner is happy with that style,

whether that style has been executed well,

and whether the end product looks beautiful.

The top house should really have

a well-thought-out integrated foundation,

overlaid with imagination and a lot of personal input.

So there we are, three super-stylish judges,

12 absolutely stunning properties, but only one winner.

So, let the games begin.

And so it's full steam ahead, ding-ding,

on our voyage to discover this year's House of the Year.

So far on our journey, we've met properties that have been exotic,

eclectic and diverse

and today's selection promises to both divert and to delight.

So, here's what's coming up.

Could this year's winner

be this exceedingly stylish contemporary barn

with lavishly landscaped gardens near Saintfield?

Or, will it be this enchanting seaside cottage retreat

in Port Brabant on the north Antrim coast?

Or will it be property number one, a new-build family home

deep in the heart of the Clogher Valley in County Tyrone.

When I say new build, I mean newly-built, barely a few weeks old.

In fact, the owners brought forward their moving-in date,

just so that they could be here for us today.

It's a stunning contemporary architectural statement

that makes the most of a very difficult site,

designed to rhyme with this beautiful surrounding countryside.

This is the new-build home of Gillian and Dylan Morris,

who've relocated after many years in London,

to raise their children here.

They took four years to locate the site and a further six

to plan the build,

painstakingly researching everything from architects to roof slates.

Everything is so well thought out, from the suspended bridge walkway

in the glass atrium, to the rather unusual window sizes.

The finishes are high quality throughout

and there's a good use of colour.

A rear courtyard boasts a striking fireplace feature

and there's even a snazzy sunken trampoline for the children.

There's a lovely feeling of family about this house,

but it's a modern statement.

It is very much about...the things that we own are our taste,

so the house is then driven by that.

I fell out with one of the architects that we met

because he insisted that I have to have an Aga.

For goodness sake.

Because of the country setting, I had to have a kitchen with an Aga.

I said, "But that's not house I want."

There's so much thought gone in.

Things like the integration of the child gates.

Are you detailed people, do you think?

-BOTH: Yes.

-We've been very fortunate.

I've been on site pretty much throughout the whole process

That allows you to go back and see something different every day.

-I agree.

-And to change your mind on something to say,

"What about?" Where we've been lucky, we've had a number of good people

who have come forward with solutions.

That allowed us to use our eyes for detail,

together with other people's knowledge of what's available.

Do you think that people should be personal when it comes to building their own homes?

Absolutely.

It really allows you to personalise your house

to make sure you are integrating what you want into the house and that it works for you.

And you will really reap the rewards from putting time into that.

Brilliant. It works for Gillian and Dylan,

but does it work for Des, the chairman of our judging panel?

Let's join him and see what he thinks of the architecture.

An interesting thing about this house is the fact they've colonised a lot of the outside.

It's as if there's a real celebration of family living

as much outside as there is inside.

It's great, because this is a bit of a problem. It's a sloping site and there had to be a retaining wall.

It's made into a great feature. South is here. Sun comes round, sun trap,

wind trap here. It's an outside living room. This is what everyone wants to have.

It's very good.

What about the house?

I get a sense of the house that it almost feels like a holiday home.

I quite like that. If you're going to live in the country, why not make it feel like you're on holiday?

It's a rural-style house.

There are parapet gables.

To me, the texture of the render is a little bit harsh when you brush up against it.

What about the use of glass? We've got this big glass statement with this wall,

which I think works well, but I like the fact that the glass is quite underplayed

in most of the rest of the house, these little slots. It feels more traditional.

The slot windows are very nice and work particularly well in the bathroom,

my favourite room in the house - the corner window.

Externally, I don't like the appearance of them as much as I do internally.

Des's favourite room is the bathroom. Let's see if Suzanne has her favourites in the kitchen.

Of course, in the good old days, you had a range or an oven there

and you kept your back to the kitchen

These days, it's like everyone wants to be in a cookery show. Or a chef's table.

You can have friends admiring the way you throw your pasta in the air.

It makes a lot of practical sense to have the ovens at high level.

And to have this work surface

so that you can see what the family is doing.

-It's a family home.

-You're connected, you're connected.

One of the reasons this house is so incredibly successful

is that it's a rural setting, yet it's done in a contemporary way

with lovely materials, but it's a very modern family home.

Even the double-sided fire,

which brings you through into the sitting room.

That has a sense of hearth and home to it. But it's done in a very clean, crisp, modern way.

Yes. They've looked at what you can do, how you can do the curtains on the eyelets,

how you can combine the fabrics. Dylan liked one colour, Gillian liked another.

They've used those colours together.

So it's a real home they've created themselves.

They've kind of pushed the boundaries a bit.

We've got rich colours, modern pieces, traditional pieces.

-You get that in the bedrooms.

-It's the personal touches.

It's the personal input.

It's finding out what it is you really like yourself

and using that in your own home.

Talking of attention to detail, can we appreciate the fact that Gillian and Dylan

made an effort making sure their curtains go so well with Miss Garuda's frock!

This is a palace of thought.

Every single last little thing has been thought out

hasn't hit, Michael, behind your gate like that?

I feel like a rabbit in a pen. Can I come out and play?

This is great.

It's not retro-fitted, it's considered as part of the main build and that works well.

I like that they did that, but... There's a lot of thought in this house,

but this stairwell's a bit too much thought for me.

-You can't not love this.

-I do love it.

We've got a big, tall glassy space with a bridge from one side to the other.

It's beautiful. You feel warm and welcome.

You get the feeling of the freshness of the house.

It leads you into these two different wings.

This wing being the more formal for them.

I do love what they did with the window treatments.

Again, they could have gone up a little higher for me.

This is supposed to be formal dining. I wouldn't have done a desk here.

I might have captain chairs that could be brought to the heads of the table.

She did a lovely job with the throw pillows on the sofa.

It does make it feel warm, and a very cosy feel to it.

It's definitely an incredibly strong contender.

It's a family home with heart, but, also, a real strong sense of contemporary style.

House number one, let's move on to house number two.

I love this series, because it's about properties that have soul,

that have character, that have stories to tell.

It's not just about fitted kitchens, or designer curtains.

And this house is an absolute gem.

Rather than having mod cons, this one has old cons, because it's got its own church in the garden.

The Braddan, as it's named, is the home of Conn Auld, a retired schoolteacher

who began the project in 1962, converting farm buildings in Port Braddan.

It's a unique creation with a nautical theme

and is literally jam-packed with historical curiosities,

from 17th century cannons, to a Titanic-era deckchair.

Even the bedrooms are styled as cabins,

complete with porthole sidelights.

Much of the property was created using salvage material

and every inch of the house reflects Conn's life and extensive travels.

The private church was created by Conn in tribute to St Gobban,

who reputedly attempted to build many churches in the area in the mid-seventh century.

This is, I think, for so many people,

their idea of a slice of heaven.

That view, the sound of the sea

and then the ability to be able to create, almost like Robinson Crusoe,

to build something that's entirely you and your personality.

-One of the points about this place is that it's mainly DIY.

-Really?!

THEY LAUGH

It's quite glamorous DIY. Let's face it.

I wanted it to be as much nautical as possible.

The front bit was agricultural building when I came.

-1962.

-Hm.

And, er, I have had the time of my life building it.

This is a work in progress. Are you still tinkering?

You have to down at the sea.

And then there's the church.

This, when I came, was used as a little house for newly born calves.

-Ah. That's very sweet.

-Yes.

It looked like a stable and a lot of the boys were up one Christmas

and they said, "It looks a bit like a stable, it's Christmas, make it into a church."

And we heard the story of Gobban and his churches and whatnot.

It is just a wedding venue. It's a bit Las Vegas.

It's like where Elvis got married.

-HE LAUGHS

-It's the Las Vegas of Northern Ireland.

-Yeah. OK.

I can honestly say this is one of the most interesting,

one of the most story-laden houses we've ever had on House Of The Year.

So I'm going to catch up with Suzanne,

who's in that wonderful front room with those gorgeous windows.

You know, it does feel like a kind of nautical-themed nest

lived in by a very civilised, very cultivated, very gentlemanly magpie

because it's a collection. It's loads of disparate things all brought together

because they have a sense of heart they have a bit of soul. It's a very chatty environment.

It's like a museum. It's like a personal-memorabilia museum

and everything in this room is a little bit of history.

This panelling was reclaimed from an old building in Belfast.

It's just been kind of hotch-potched together.

It's wonderful, because it's things like doors and bits of sash.

Not only have you got all the layers of the history,

the war memorabilia, all the things that have come from boats and his life's travels.

What's so exciting about a space like this is nobody else could recreate this.

-This is completely unique. It's completely personal.

-It's something you could never buy off the shelf.

I wonder whether Michael has ever seen anything like this in New York.

I don't know one single interior design term to describe all of this.

I suppose "eclectic" is close.

What about you, Michael? What would you call this if you saw this in New York?

In the city, we'd call someone bonkers.

LAURENCE LAUGHS

Have you ever seen anything like this before?

You know, not to this extent.

But it is all stuff he's collected over the years.

Everything has a story. The paintings are all done by Conn.

They tell children's stories.

There's a sort of childlike enthusiasm for beachcombing,

and for story telling and for Celtic mythology

and, indeed, for Christianity, which imbues everything.

It does.

This place really does show you all the history that's around here.

There's so much of it.

-On the mantelpiece here are shells that he's collected.

-This feels very, very Georgian.

Doing it on this very clubby shelf, covered in leather and studded along the front.

It has that feeling you're not sure whether you're in a bar,

or you're in a church with the 18th-century window, or you're on a ship.

Actually, I think ship wins.

That, to me, that window is the bridge of a ship.

It's as if we're full steam ahead, sailing out to sea.

-Ahoy, captain.

-Indeed.

Talking of captains, let's catch up with the captain of our panel, Des, who's down on the beach.

What does he think of this extraordinary architectural accumulation?

This is absolutely extraordinary, isn't it?

It's not so much a house, more a homestead, because it's so many buildings.

Yeah. You know the way some people look like their dogs?

LAWRENCE LAUGHS This house looks like Conn.

-It's incredible.

-I see where you're going.

It's just a collection of parts, it's all about the story.

And here he has created something that is going to be here forever

and is going to become part of the folklore of this part of the world.

I think the singularly most impressive thing

is this facade here. That's something he's built himself

and it is so exquisitely picturesque.

That's everyone's vision of the perfect seaside property.

It's absolutely perfect.

He does everything himself, he made these windows himself.

Well, as if that wasn't enough of an achievement,

he made a church himself.

You know, talk about improving on Saint Gobban.

Yeah, this is incredible.

And the thing about this church is it's just so welcoming.

It's for every religion and it's the scale of it.

It's not a big cathedral,

it's something that people really want to go into.

But the thing about this church is, it's already in heaven.

-Hey, we've finally found your soft centre.

-I'm in the zone, yeah.

Are you in the zone? I think we've all been very much seduced

by the house, by Conn, by the whole lifestyle of this.

I think it's going to be very, very difficult to follow

Conn Crusoe's wonderful seaside cottage,

but follow it we must cos they're on to house number three.

Listen. I'm very aware of how lucky I am.

I get to hang out inside Northern Ireland's best

and most beautiful houses, and this one is astonishing.

The standard's been very high this series,

but this house is glossy-magazine perfect.

It's created with an uptown, upbeat, urban lifestyle in mind

but designed to make the most of its beautiful rural setting.

This contemporary barn near Saintfield

is home to Drew and Pamela Wylie.

It's an exquisitely stylish pad built into a steep gradient

creating landscaped gardens on two levels linked by a man-made stream.

Internally, there are three levels connected by a spiral staircase...

and an elevator.

The sleeping quarters are top and bottom,

with main living space in between.

The interior matches the industrial exterior but is softened

by panoramic views and the ingenious use of furnishings and artworks.

It's gadget heaven, with automated curtains

and state-of-art sound and lighting and, to top it all,

there's even a proper playground for the grandkids.

What inspired you to create a home that's so discreet in the landscape?

I didn't have a dream home that I wanted to put on a specific site.

I had a site and then I had to decide what home fitted to it.

We're not trying to make a statement to the outside world.

Where we want this to make its statement

is the friends and family that come into this home and enjoy it with us,

that they will feel comfortable in it,

that the whole environment's right for family living.

You're not frightened of doing your own thing in an interior like this.

We've used things we've brought from other homes,

we've bought some new pieces for here, it's just a blend and a mix

of the things we've gathered up over 35 years together.

There is the astonishing light installation on the staircase.

That looks a million dollars.

-But it wasn't, was it?

-It most certainly wasn't, no.

My wife found those white globes, strung nine of them together

with clear cable and hung them in that manner that gave

the spiralling downwards of light and it seems to work perfectly well.

-We spent our money from the outside in.

-Yeah.

Rather than from the inside out.

You can see in the landscaping and what we've done outdoors,

it really makes an impact. And that, to me, is as important

as the kitchen or the bathroom or the living room.

Why have you got a play park in your garden?

That was the place where, every evening, the diggers were parked,

and our landscape gardener had awful trouble

trying to decide what to do with that space,

and when we told him that our son and daughter-in-law

were expecting twin boys,

he came almost the following day and said,

"I know exactly what I'm going to do with this space.

Brilliant. Well, it is an extraordinary structure

with some incredible innovations.

Let's go and catch up with Des outside,

who's really enjoying the architecture.

There's definitely a real sense of trying to integrate the house

into the rest of the landscape. The funny thing is,

I can see a very traditional barn over there and there's not

a big deal of difference between a barn and the house.

-The barn is the house.

-Do you think the barn is the house?

The barn is the house, maybe it's another house. I think that's clever.

I do, too.

When you're building in the countryside

you want to integrate, so what form should you use

other than the agricultural form of the barn?

So it's a soft, sort of, low-key element.

For hundreds of years, houses were built to dominate landscape,

but this is discreet to the point of camouflage.

There are too many buildings that just stand out in the countryside.

To design something that's subtle and understated

is always much more difficult, so the agricultural form

is very clever, but it's also the way you approach it, that you see it

from half a mile away and just catch the top and you're not sure

if it's a house or whether it's the barn.

-Then, the way you come round the corner and it unveils itself.

-Yeah.

So, it works very well in this, it's good.

All the understatement on the outside, definitely,

but inside is very, very clever, I think.

You're coming in on the mid-level

so you're only going up a level and down one level,

so it doesn't feel like a steep house.

I like the way the top floor feels like a penthouse

which has got a view of the Mournes.

This side we've Scrabo Tower, every direction you have a view.

So it's really maximising its enjoyment of the landscape

but actually being very understated within that landscape itself.

It is indeed.

Right, so fabulously discreet on the outside,

let's go have some fun inside with Michael

who's on the entry level.

I honestly think this is the first time I've ever seen

an ultra-modern kitchen with a black Aga in it and I think I love it.

I love it. This house is a tour-de-force of quality, design,

the quality of living that they're looking for.

This kitchen could be in Soho with this great big island

that you wouldn't think would work,

but it does cos it's the only counter space.

Flowing into this wonderful space for the dining room

with this dining table, it's 20 years old,

it's been in their lives for years and that's what this house is about.

But look at the colour as well, cos this feels terribly confident

and it feels very new and it feels very now.

And great design.

The doors, the pocket doors that just hide away to separate rooms.

-The drapers are hidden up inside the soffits...

-Curtains.

Oh, it's curtains for me.

There's also such an extraordinary eye for detail

in terms of the technology.

The fact that the wood-burning stove spins,

you know, so it can be angled.

It's part of the room but not the focal point.

Look at the ceiling.

You've got these amazing audio grilles

that are the same size as the lights. Very, very clever.

Surround sound without seeing it. And the whole home automation,

that's a part of life that really can change how you live in a home.

If we're going to watch a movie, push a button

and the window treatments close, lights come down, music goes on.

It all sounds very James Bond villain-y to me, you know.

The house is very much like that.

Suddenly you get a large map of the world made of steel and a warhead.

I like that kind on decorating. But as Michael says,

it's a tour-de-force of seamless living down here

but just you wait until we go upstairs to meet Suzanne

because there are a lot of innovations up there

and a few surprises.

It's so innovative, I think,

to make use of the fact that the site slopes,

so why not have a secondary terrace up here just for the master bedroom?

I think it's fabulous to have a bedroom terrace,

especially with that outside.

It's fun, it's architectural and then you come in

to this little living area with a future-proofed lift.

I mean, how... They've really thought about the design of this so well.

They've also got a cunning little butler's kitchen

so, basically, if you wake up in the night

and you fancy cheese on toast or a pot of tea,

you don't have to go all the way downstairs.

So really they're quite self-contained up here

-which I think is lovely.

-Well, look.

This is a suite, this is a bedroom suite, which is what it's all about.

That whole idea of suite living is definitely what people want

from their master bedroom, their dressing area, their en-suite.

But they've taken it one bit further with the terrace

and connecting it to the garden. But what an amazing place.

I mean, it's so stylish, it's so confident.

There's such attention to detail, such commitment to detail

which I'm very, very, very impressed with.

The lighting has been well thought out, the sound system.

Everything has been considered, but done in a very subtle way.

This is a real home.

It's got beautiful artwork, it's got beautiful pieces of furniture,

beautiful colours, but it's not overdone in any way

and it's quite, in many ways, inexpensively done in a lot of places.

See? See, I promised you a treat

and what a grand finale to today's programme.

Three extraordinary houses, three quite different houses

but is one of today's houses up to becoming

this year's House Of The Year?

So, three extremely unique properties,

each with their own very different flavour,

their own story to tell about the owners.

Who knows? One of them might be House Of The Year.

Now, before I unleash the judges,

let's treat ourselves to a well-deserved recap.

House number one is Gillian and Dylan's rural new-build,

a stylish contemporary residence,

beautifully situated in the Clogher Valley.

House number two is Conn Auld's seaside cottage retreat

in Portbraddan, an enchanting home full of historical curiosity

with it's own church.

And house number three is Drew and Pamela's contemporary barn

near Saintfield, an achingly stylish home,

oozing glossy magazine elegance.

Time to find out which impressed our judges.

Well, another three very interesting properties

for us to think about in this programme.

Yeah, these are all very different.

The competition is definitely heating up, it definitely is.

Now, our first house is a rural new-build

which is Dylan and Gillian and that's in Clogher.

I was amazed they've only been in there

for a very short period of time.

They did an incredible job just pulling it all together

and it had a really lived-in feeling.

Overall, the colours were brilliant.

Suzanne, what do you think?

It was great. The couple had done a really contemporary living space

with fabulous colours.

I loved the way Gillian had taken

that sort of citrus green from outside and brought it inside.

The strength was the back.

We walked out and we have this area that's got a fire in it,

he's taken the retaining wall and made a feature of it.

That was so good. That was really beautiful.

I really got a sense of their personality, their travels,

the fact that they had put themselves into that house.

I really got that when I walked through the door.

Yeah, it was so personal. Now, this is something totally different.

The seaside cottage. That was Conn Auld's house, remember Conn?

I loved that and I loved him, and talking of personality,

he is all in every single fibre and member of that building.

Absolutely. What can be learned about this house

is it's not about what's in style or in fashion.

-It's really about the expression of your home.

-Or what's right or wrong.

-Right, cos it's right for him.

-Lots of things were wrong.

He'd just kind of created a wall out of random pieces of wood.

-It looked great.

-Yeah, I think the architecture fit there.

It was perfect. I wouldn't want anything else for him.

Now what about this piece of architecture.

This is a contemporary barn, our next house.

Drew and Pamela in Saintfield.

I...love this house.

They didn't follow any pattern.

They went by what they loved and what they wanted around them

and they expressed it in their home.

It had great personality, great use of colour

but all done on a very clever budget.

Well, what I loved about it was the fact that the gardens

were such great spaces, they'd made use of the levels, in this case,

and the way the paths meandered through it

and the way the river meandered through it

was a contrast to the straight architecture.

I like that juxtaposition of the formality

with the countryside with the house.

They used the site,

so they connected everything through the water, which flowed through.

This was great and this show in particular

has been such a mix of old and new.

We've just got to wait to see if any of them will be the winner.

These are up there.

Well, three houses that have certainly given our judges

plenty to think about ahead of the final,

but before we get to that stage, join us next time

when we've got three more enticing homes in our quest

to find Northern Ireland's house of the year.

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