Railway cottage gets neat treatment in TV make-over show

NEAR the train station in Kildare town, Gaeilgeoir and primary school teacher Shónagh struggles with the rising tide of clutter at the railway cottage she shares with her four young children.

Still mourning the loss of their beloved mum, her home features in the next episode of Home Rescue: The Big Fix on RTÉ2 on Thursday, April 20 at 9.35pm.

Over the years, maintaining the cottage has been overwhelming for Shónagh and she struggles to cope with a long list of repairs and unfinished projects brought on by her ADHD.

Although highly creative, she desperately needs help turning the house into a functioning family home for her children and somewhere she can entertain friends and express her own sense of style.

In the programme, as friends and family row in to clear the contents of the old cottage, relocating a mountain of clutter and legacy furniture to a local jockey training centre for sorting, designer Dee Coleman comes up with an innovative plan to reinvent the dysfunctional kitchen and dark hallway, while also creating a stylish boudoir in an existing chaotic space Shónagh calls her ‘DOOM room’ (an acronym for Didn’t Organise, Only Moved).

Pete Finn and the build crew have their work cut out as they set about panelling the hallway, moving radiators and cutting into a wall dividing the kitchen and dining room to create the ‘tearoom’ ambience Dee has her heart set on.

Meanwhile, Dee gets to work stripping wallpaper, upcycling an old dresser and creating an elegant setting for a roll top desk that once belonged to Shónagh’s late mum.

Misplaced shelves and last-minute changes to the colour scheme turn out to be the least of Dee’s worries as the lads attempt the tricky job of creating a perfectly aligned archway.