(Film) location, location, location

Film and TV companies are always scouting for new locations and your home, be it a stately pile or a semi-d, could be the perfect backdrop to the next Irish production. Susan Daly reports

Friday May 07 2010

NOT everyone has a face for showbiz, but when it comes to providing a backdrop for film and TV, even a modest family home can have real star quality.

Andrew Tighe and his wife Dara were astonished when they received a letter in the door of their three-bedroom bungalow in Sandyford, Co Dublin. It was from a company scouting locations for the BBC thriller The Silence, which is directed by Emmy-winning Irish director Dearbhla Walsh and due to air this month.

"It ended up being between us and another house," says Andrew, "but I think they picked us because there is a big car park next door for all their trucks. The other house was also further up the mountain. They have a great view of Dublin from their lounge, but the series is meant to be set in Bristol so it was probably a bit too identifiable."

Andrew, Dara and their daughters Ellen (12) and Ariane (10) had to move in with nearby family members for a month but Andrew says the excitement livened up a chilly and dreary January this year.

"The girls got great enjoyment, being able to come down and watch the filming -- they were very popular in school!" he laughs. Filming only lasted for six days but the crew spent over a week on either side painting and wallpapering some rooms to suit the strong filming lights, and then to return the house to its owners' preferences.

"I'd say the fee just covered our costs really but we got a makeover for free too," says Andrew. "In the sitting-room they did a lovely contemporary wallpaper but after a few days we asked them to come back and remove it again because it had a feeling of closing in the room a bit. They were very good about it."

The experience of the Tighes to find their 'normal' family home in a starring role is not unusual. Mags O'Sullivan, Deputy Film Commissioner at the Irish Film Board, says that there are up to 15 location managers working in Ireland and they are always scouting for a wide range of properties.

"The list of requirements is endless and depends on the project they are working on," she says. "They can require anything from a stately home to a disused property. In fact, all these empty apartment blocks lying around the place at the moment can be popular because disturbing other residents during filming is not an issue.

"And a script might call for a property not to be in pristine condition at all."

That is exactly what surprised David Wright after he was approached about the use of his state-of-the-art riverside house for last summer's RTE/ITV drama Father and Son. The three-storey Swan Lake property overlooking the banks of the River Liffey boasts some incredibly luxe features. There are floor-to-ceiling windows, underfloor heating and intelligent lighting in each room.

A dedicated cinema room is fitted with electric recliner seats and the car port houses an industrial turntable so residents don't have to bother with all that reversing malarkey when setting off for work in the morning.

"The Apprentice show had been interested in using the place but ultimately it was too small to fit all the contestants," says David. "It was between leasings when the director of Father and Son came out and saw the place and he went mad for it. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse!"

But the script for the three-part drama actually required that the property undergo a (temporary) make-under. "The story was that this guy and his wife lived here and she gets killed on the lawn," explains David. "I wasn't too sure about that bit when they first offered to me! Anyway, he comes back 10 years later and the place is all boarded up and overgrown."

The film crew "transformed" Swan Lake in a matter of days, replanting the garden and shifting in tons of earth and plants. When filming finished, they restored the garden and exterior to its previous immaculate condition. David, who currently has a tenant living in Swan Lake, says he would rent a property as a filming location again "in a heartbeat".

He adds: "They were very respectful, in and out with their blue shoe covers. And even if I won't ever be famous, at least my house has been on film."

There is of course still plenty of moonlighting opportunities for those properties at the upper end of the spectrum. The Earl of Meath, Jack Brabazon, says his family have become very used to film crews at the ancestral pile of Killruddery House, Co Kildare.

"It brings in much-needed revenue that goes back into the historic buildings and gardens," he says. "It's jolly useful from that point of view. We've been able to put a lot of new lead on the roof and put in new windows, things that would have been impossible otherwise."

The Brabazons have a longstanding relationship with nearby Ardmore Studios, which means they have hosted filming of 'The Tudors' and this summer will be the setting for new Canadian period drama Camelot. Other films to have shot scenes at Killruddery in the past range from The Magnificent Ambersons and Lassie to Far and Away and The Count of Monty Cristo.

The Earl says he's never been tempted to wander into shot. "I have one daughter, Serena, who is an actor though and she was an extra in The Tudors with a speaking part," he says. "She was a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn. It's quite fun seeing parts of the garden or the estate on film."

Despite the continuing popularity of large properties like Killruddery, the Irish Film Board has a huge range of locations registered on their website, at www.irishfilmboard.ie.

"We don't get involved in the negotiation of how much a property will earn for being featured," says Mags O'Sullivan, "that is between the owner and the location manager and it can depend on a film's budget, the inconvenience to the owner and so on."

FIRST PUBLISHED HERE: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/property-plus/our-home-on-location-2168578.html

Tara! Home! I'll go home!

Coolmore House, the Donegal mansion that is thought to have inspired the iconic Tara in Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind, has been fully restored and is on the market for €850,000, writes Susan Daly

Friday April 23 2010

WHEN Barry Sharkey first saw Coolmore House about 10 years ago it was "dark, dingy and depressing" and had been uninhabited for several years.

"I shook my head and walked away," said the Co Donegal businessman. In 2005, he took a second look and this time decided to buy and restore the Georgian mansion.

His initial cold feet were understandable. The house had never even been connected to a water supply -- the previous occupants had simply drawn from a freshwater well in the back garden.

"It was a lost property," says Sharkey, "You couldn't even see it from the road."

Even so, Coolmore exuded considerable charm. The interior of the house had not been modernised at all, a fact which Sharkey and his partner Susanna Friel found "quite wonderful".

It meant that all original features such as fireplaces, ornate plasterwork, sash windows and shutters were intact.

Friel saved samples of the original wallpaper in each room. "They were badly damaged, but I thought it would be a nice record," she says. "That file will remain with the house -- it's part of its history."

The house also has a literary history. Irish-American author Margaret Mitchell is said to have stayed there in

the 1920s when she visited Ireland to research our Civil War experiences for her bestseller, Gone With The Wind.

"The story is that she came here to do research and to look for her family roots," says Sharkey. "Coolmore was owned by the Mitchell family and she came to see if she was related.

"She supposedly got the inspiration for Tara, the big plantation house, from here. I can't say how accurate the story is!"

The project of restoring Coolmore to the grandeur Margaret Mitchell would have experienced was an epic one.

It took two years to complete structural restoration on the house, and another year to bring the garden and interior décor up to scratch. The ground level around the house was lowered to flood what was originally a half-basement with natural light. External walls were rendered and blue Bangor tiles used in extensive re-roofing.

Sharkey, who is from nearby Killybegs, describes himself as a "serial restorer", having previously returned to glory three other period properties in the area.

The interior has been sympathetically redecorated. "I had the tiles from the original fireplaces to work from so I took my inspiration for the colour scheme from them," says Friel.

Elegant sash windows dominate the main reception rooms and four airy bedrooms to take advantage of panoramic views of Donegal Bay, Slieve League and the Bluestack Mountains.

Sharkey was also keen to take a view to the future. The house has been connected to the main water supply, but also to that old freshwater supply outside the back door, a boon at a time when domestic water charges are proposed. Solar panels have been installed along with a commercial-size wood-pellet burning boiler and 600-litre hot-water storage tank.

"Insulation-wise, it has been dry-lined on the inside so it's a very easy house to heat," says Sharkey. "People are afraid of old houses because they think they can't keep them warm." There is even a prepared site for a residential wind turbine on the hill behind the house.

These facilities make the house a comfortable residence, but also open up possibilities of making commercial use of the site.

The house comes on four acres of land, but there are another 10 acres available for sale alongside.

"The site has been selected as an opportunity site for a local enterprise," says Sharkey. "We have structurally finished the outbuildings and have planning for the coach house to be two self-catering apartments.

"I could see it as a small hotel, a holistic centre, an outdoor pursuits centre."

The proximity of blue-flag Rossnowlagh beach is a fantastic amenity -- Sharkey and Friel had friends over for horse-riding parties on St Stephen's Day and New Year's Day to ride the 10 miles of perfect, sandy coastline.

"It was intended to be my permanent home and we will miss it," says Sharkey. "But we have some properties in Italy that we would like to restore and my five children are adults now.

"I have just completed the sale of my marine engineering business so now is the time to go."

It may also be the beginning of a new chapter in the story of Coolmore.

First published here: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/property-plus/house-of-epic-influence-2149444.html

Don't move, improve

If you're the type of person who likes to attend the Ideal Home Show and daydream, you'll enjoy this. From today's Property Plus in the Irish Independent.

By SUSAN DALY
WITH a perceptible shift in the weather, minds turn to spring cleaning and airing out our living spaces. A complete home makeover might be out of the question but it’s amazing the transformation that can be achieved by a good paint job.

This fresh direction in interior design is not simply a case of lashing a tin of magnolia onto the walls. Denise O’Connor and Catherine Crowe of Optimise Design have created some stunning effects with paint in the showhouse they designed for the upcoming Spring Ideal Home Show in the RDS.

“Unusual finishes can give a huge injection of character to a room,” says O’Connor.
“In the family bathroom of the showroom, we have painted stripes up the wall which carry on across the ceilings. People normally don’t know what to do with ceilings and leave them blank, but we are trying to have fun with them.”

To this end, O’Connor and Crowe have also painted the floorboards of the children’s room in different stripes of colour with a hardwearing and easy-to-wash paint from the Crown collection. “The are launching a new colour palette at the show and they also have a lovely range of stencils. We have a gentleman’s room with stenciled antlers on the wall – a humourous take on the old trophy room – and the great thing is, you can paint over everything if you hate it!”

The new-style paint effects – no naff spongewashing here, thank you – can also lend sophistication to a room. The showhouse features some rooms which have been painted out in all one colour, walls, ceiling and skirting boards included.

“It can make a small space seem bigger,” says O’Connor. “We would often use this technique in a very small bathroom under the stairs. We have completely painted the showhouse cloakroom in a wonderful burgundy colour and there are burgundy high-gloss fitted closets from Sliderobes to match. It has a real wow factor.”

Both O’Connor and Crowe are trained architects and offer an indepth consultation service in people’s homes which uses their complementary fields of expertise in architecture and interior design. After a four-hour consultation, they come up with a series of 3D drawings of how a client can ring the changes in their living space.

That same combination of disciplines is evidenced in the Ideal Home showhouse, a timber-framed structure assembled especially for the event. They have added architectural touches like a bridge extending between the bedrooms over the double-height entrance hall. A standalone dividing wall separates the living and dining spaces, but a tunnel fireplace in the wall also connects the two areas.

“It is a basic two-storey dormer,” says Crowe, “But the architectural features and use of lighting, colour, feature walls and finishes give it individuality.”

O’Connor points out that just as she and Crowe have had to rethink their business, “homeowners are also having to be inventive”. She says: “During the boom, people decorated with an eye to selling up. Now they are staying put and thinking about what design they want, rather than doing it for a prospective buyer.”

The result is a much more homely approach to interior design, and a bolder use of colour. The neutrals palette was designed to appeal to the masses. “Now people want to put their own stamp on their homes,” says Crowe, “They want to do something special with the place they spend so much time in.”

Austere luxe, taupes and beiges are replaced by bold statements like the customised rugs from Irish company Rug Art which she and O’Connor chose for the showhouse.

“That craft look has become important,” says O’Connor, “Some people are getting into making their own curtains or using what they already have, getting old pieces of furniture resprayed. It’s about giving what you have a new lease of life.”

Sonia Harris, PR for the Ideal Home Show, says that home and hearth approach reflects the overall theme of next month’s showcase. “We are building on the theme, ‘Improve, Don’t Move’,” she says.

“One of our major features, along with the showhouse, will be the Dulux free advice centre. People are invited to bring along a picture of a room they would like some help with and our experts might be able to assess how they can reinvigorate the space.”
• The Spring Ideal Home Show takes place from April 16 to 18, 2010 at the RDS – see www.idealhome.ie for more information.
• Optimise Design can be contacted at 01 260 8788 or see www.optimise-design.com

Optimise Design’s top cost-effective design solutions for your home:
• For narrow hallways try covering one area of wall with floor to ceiling mirrors for a dramatic but inexpensive finish. Mirrors also make an inexpensive splashback in a kitchen.
• Need a new sofa or chair on a tight budget? Try reupholstering your existing suite - upholsters will also replace cushions and filling. If your budget is next to nonexistent why not have a go yourself, using stretchy fabric and a staple gun.
• For a complete transformation think about painting your woodwork in a colour other than traditional white or cream. Warm greys and stony shades work particularly well.
• If you have a piece of furniture that you love but isn’t quite working in your room don’t rush to get rid of it. Instead consider spray painting it for a complete transformation.
• Customise a room by using stencils – Crown has teamed up with the Stencil Library to offer a wonderful range of contemporary stencils that create impact in any room.

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/property-plus/room-to-improve-2112539.html