Make The Home You Love: The Complete Guide to Home Design, Renovation and Extensions in Ireland

by Fiona McPhillips, Colm Doyle (Contributor), Lisa McVeigh (Contributor)

After completing her own home renovation and extension, Fiona McPhillips, author, journalist and interiors fanatic, was inspired to bring together everything she learned along the way. In collaboration with three award-winning architects, Fiona provides you with the most holistic approach to your design and build.

A practical step-by-step guide to surviving the transformation of your home, taking the reader from the design stage, through the planning process to building, decorating and finishing touches. The balance of personal stories and professional advice makes this an accessible and inspiring guide to renovation. Filled with photographs of real homes, this books is bursting with great ideas and will no doubt inspire you to make the home you love.

192 pages, Paperback

Published May 26, 2018

About the author

Fiona McPhillips is an Irish journalist, author and screenwriter, and an editor at The Forge literary magazine. Fiona's debut novel, When We Were Silent, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, runner-up for the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger and named as one of the Irish Times' crime books of the year. The Party in the Woods is her second novel.

Reviews

[John Braine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like buying books for any project I take an interest in, so when we bought a house with a view to renovating, the first thing I did was to go looking for useful books. I ended up buying "The Housebuilders bible" and "Grand Designs Handbook: The Blueprint for Building Your Dream Home". I quite enjoyed the latter, though it was more philosophical and very light on practical advice, whereas the Housebuilder’s bible was very practical but really aimed at people who want to physically build their own house, but it kept well away from design. So neither of them helped very much. I couldn’t find what I really wanted, until now.

Make The Home You Love is the complete guide; including everything I wanted to know, and also plenty of advice and information that I didn’t even know that I needed to know. From the very early planning days, to figuring out if you need an architect (spoiler: yes!) to working with professionals, finding the right professionals, finding inspiration, navigating the planning procedure, using the Internet wisely, advice on buying furniture, fixtures and fittings, and lots of great advice on all elements of design from initial plans right up to finishing touches and interior decoration.

It’s also jam-packed with lots of fantastic photos and real-world case studies of all shapes and sizes. This is the MUST-HAVE book if you’re doing any kind renovation or extension. I just wish it existed a bit earlier for me, but even at this late stage, I’m finding it very useful and inspiring.