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They say you never really own a home, you’re merely a temporary gatekeeper in its long and storied history. For Kate and Brian, this was innately understood when it came to renovating and extending a 100-year-old farmhouse in Kerry. Overlooking Tralee Bay at one end and the Slieve Mish mountains at the other, the stone house was built by Brian’s great-grandparents in 1908 and has played host to generations of his family for nearly all of the intervening 116 years.
Brian returned to live in it in his twenties and was joined by Kate 15 years ago. Within its stone walls, they began raising their three children, Tom, Leia and Ted, before it became evident it was time for a change. “I was very slow to agree,” says Kate of the renovation and extension. “Because we knew we wanted to do a big enough job that we’d have to move out and it’s so hard to rent, especially with a young family.” However, lockdown, a lack of storage coupled with a growing collection of children’s accoutrements and a call with Brian’s cousin, Canada-based architect John McKenna, convinced her to take the leap. The story of the house evolved over many conversations with John during the various lockdowns, allowing the design to take shape slowly, with a consideration and consciousness of the landscape that only those most embedded in it could illuminate.
Kate soon connected with interior architect Susan McGowan of Ashen & Cloud and she and John worked in tandem to create a four-bedroom home that has modern family living at its core, yet also reflects the building’s history, both with Brian’s family and its relationship to the surrounding area. Using the farm buildings of the family business next door as the catalyst, John replicated their sharp lines, wide openings and darker tones for the extension, creating an angular structure that still felt settled in its environment.
Echoing this through the interior, Susan used a natural colour palette throughout, such as mossy and sea greens that emanate from the fields and Tralee Bay beyond. Two of the original downstairs rooms in the farmhouse were left much as they were when Brian moved in, while a gloriously lit double-height hallway and rust-red staircase, unfolding from the old house into the new, became the central canvas for this dichotomy; a meeting of steel and stone, of heritage and hence.
Upstairs, a warm timber slatted ceiling runs throughout, while hidden storage and dedicated desk areas are found in each of the children’s rooms. “We wanted a place that would grow with us,” says Kate, who emphasised her desire for a home that was in conversation with its surroundings, rather than tucked up against it.
There is certainly an ebb and flow here that moves with the tide beyond. Life is much the same as before – there’s a dedicated playroom now but inevitably toys are dragged to wherever Kate and Brian are – and yet it’s also utterly changed. As this home’s gatekeepers, Kate and Brian have certainly shored up this building and its familial way of life for another century.
Photography: Ruth Maria Murphy
This feature originally appeared in the spring/summer 2024 issue of IMAGE Interiors. Have you thought about becoming a subscriber? Find out more, and sign up here.
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