Victorian home renovation
Victorian home renovation — period detail kept, everything behind it made new.
Victorian and Georgian houses in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway are among the finest housing stock in Ireland, and the least forgiving to renovate badly. RK Designs restores the plasterwork, sash windows, shutters and floors, then rebuilds the services, insulation, kitchen and bathrooms behind them — so a house built in the 1880s works the way a family expects a home to work today.
What period houses need
The six things that decide a Victorian renovation.
- Damp and breathability
- Solid brick and stone walls have to breathe. Lime plaster, breathable paints and correct ground levels solve damp that cement render only hides.
- Sash windows
- Repairing and draught-sealing original sashes, with slim double glazing or secondary glazing where the conservation officer allows it.
- Cornicing and joinery
- Original mouldings, ceiling roses, architraves and shutters recorded, repaired and reproduced to match where sections are lost.
- Structure and roof
- Slates, valleys, chimneys, lintels and floor joists — the unglamorous work that has to be right before anything decorative begins.
- Rewiring and plumbing
- Full first-fix through a listed fabric, planned so chases and drops avoid original plaster and joinery.
- Insulation and heating
- Attic, floor and breathable internal wall insulation with a modern heating system, improving the BER without trapping moisture.
Living behind the façade
Modern rooms that still belong to the house.
The best Victorian renovations do not pretend to be museums. The front rooms keep their proportion, plasterwork and light; the back of the house becomes the kitchen, family space and garden connection the original plan never had.
- Kitchens
- Bespoke joinery drawn to the ceiling heights and window rhythm of the room rather than dropped in from a catalogue.
- Bathrooms
- Stone, panelling and traditional brassware, with underfloor heating and modern ventilation hidden underneath.
- Rear extensions
- Contemporary, glazed and clearly of its own time — the approach conservation officers in Ireland consistently prefer.
- Furnishing
- Antique and contemporary pieces mixed and sourced by the studio, then dressed room by room before handover.
Protected structures welcome
We handle the conservation paperwork too.
If your house is a protected structure or sits in an architectural conservation area, we prepare the application, commission the reports and deal with the conservation officer directly. Owners living abroad get weekly filmed walkthroughs so nothing is decided without you.
From owners who did it
“Thank you for the care and attention you and your staff have given to our new home. You made it happen. My husband and I are truly enjoying our newly finished and furnished holiday home. I hope you have saved before and after pictures, because no one would believe it was the same place. It is warm, comfortable and elegant — just what we had planned. You worked very hard to get just the right touches.”
“Ruth Kennelly designed and managed a complete refurbishment of my house. I trusted her judgement and style, so much so that I handed her the keys and went away on holidays for three weeks! And what a result — a fantastic revamp from old to new. I have no hesitation in highly recommending RK Designs to family and friends alike.”
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