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Smarmore Castle is one of Irelands oldest lived in buildings

The Viscount room .... rather fab!

Sorry for not blogging til now about the final episode of At Your Service - I have been bonkers with the shop and with classes starting again ..... BONKERS!

Smarmore Castle - Ardee, Co. Louth

Well now what can I say ..... talk about tough clients to please.

My job was to reinvigourate the entrance hall as well as adding a splash of pizzaz to the bedrooms.

Man what a chore ..... it is amazingly hard to work with clients who don't believe you know what you are talking about.

I am a qualified professional and I do have an inkling when it comes to interior design ya know :)

"Trust me I'm a designer" isn't just a fancy catchphrase and I wasn't there for the laugh - it was a long drive from Cork.

Anyway the owners of Smarmore were resistant to say the least when it came to my fabulous new hallway.

My first pick wallpaper IS widely available despite what the castle owners said, so my second pick was used instead. As it happens I was pleased with the results and the hallway looked gorgeous when it was finished.

The chosen wallpaper was Connemara from Laura Ashley in Cinnamon.

The fact that my clients didn't like my first choice paper only hurts a little :) Cry!

Would have been fab lady !

Anyway there were cushions a plenty and some properly sized table lamps to lift the bedrooms.

In fairness the rooms were grand on the whole and I was more interested in creating wow factor in the entrance area. Cushions, throws and proper lamps were all I added to the bedrooms.

I hope the At Your Service experience helped Smarmore Castle cause its a beautiful building, in a lovely setting and it really should be raking it in.

I just wanted to thank Waddell Media and John and Francis Brennan for the pleasure of working with them throughout the series and I would be delighted to be asked back again for series three.

Thats for another day though eh!

So thats it for this collection of blogs and blabs.

I will be back next week with that build up to Christmas I was gabbing on about last time.

Until then ..... Karl

Christmas centre piece ideas ... coming soon

A more traditional approach

The Cork School of Arts and Design

Hey guys .... twas the one without me last week so nothing too much to write about really.

Next Sunday's episode is the last in the current season.

Smarmore Castle in county Dundalk ..... yes! a castle :)

Cushions and furniture placement will be a big feature as well as a wonderfully transformed reception hallway.

Shhhh...... thats all the gossip til the show airs.

In the meantime -

My Limperts' Academy of Design class has started back, with a smaller group than last year. Recession bites eh!

I am the only boy in the class again :)

We're well into the swing of it now and so far so good .... everyone seems calm.

That is of course because we haven't started drafting or plans yet lol. That's when the tears come.

I jest ..... or do I? :)

Once the At Your Service series of blogs is done, I will be building up to Christmas with some cleverly creative decoration ideas.

If you have any of your own please email them to me at karlfradgley@ireland.com

If anyone is interested in learning the art of creating table centre pieces and hand made wreaths and other decorations, my design college ... The Cork School Of Arts and Design runs a day long workshop at the start of December - dedicated to Christmas decorating and how to create unique and personalized presentations.

Contact Victoria on 0857331410 for more information.

Ok .... thats me for today.

Don't forget to tune in on Sunday for the last show and I'll be back to blogger ya Monday or Tuesday next week.

x x

Coral Gables Guesthouse in Rosslare ... underwent the At Your Service makeover

So another show another happy hotelier.

This weeks episode covered the Coral Gables Guesthouse just outside Rosslare.

This was a nice place that needed a little tlc from me and lot of business vision from a very very clever John and Francis Brennan.

Kennels and Biker sheds ..... genius eh!

I was dispatched to liven up the top floor bedrooms and come up with a sensible layout for the top floor to allow en suites to be accessed from all the rooms.

The look was all about trendy neutral tones set off with some stripes and some lemony injections.

That was the easy bit .... convincing the hotelier Sarah was the hard bit.

She was quite resistant to most of my suggestions as well as the Brennans' ideas and seemed very dispondant about the whole affair.

In the end though things came good and Sarah and her husband were pleased with the outcome.

Francis exclaimed he was flabbergasted when I suggested it was possible to sell on the hideous sinks and baths - they don;t make 'em like that anymore which makes them antiques and collectors items.

I kid you not!

Flabbergasted is a word I haven't heard in conversation in years and I did have a good giggle.

Only the man himself would get away with it.

If you have some hideously cool retro sinks or bathware you can sell them .... either online or through a salvage company.

Let me know if you have done this before .... I'd love to know how much you got for it.

During the week I will give you some tips on how to achieve the sexy new look in the Coral Gables Bedrooms.

Talk soon.

Karl