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EACH WEEK, WE ask an Irish person with a passion for interiors to share one photo of their favourite spot in their home.
Emma Tighe has lived in Celbridge, Co Kildare with her husband and three children for 13 years.
“I love a classic Hamptons style, but I also really crave eclectic and boho styles too,” says Emma.
This week, Emma (@emmalovesinteriors) chatted us through her favourite spot: her breakfast bar in her kitchen.
It’s the heart of our home. Family dinners, homework and arguments – it all happens here. Everyone who comes to visit always gravitates towards the breakfast bar, plonks themselves down on a stool and we’re off!
A whole lot of the world’s problems have been solved here. On an interiors note, I simply love the colours in here. When the sun streams through in the evening, it bounces off the worktops and just naturally lights up the whole kitchen. It’s magical!
When we moved into our house, the kitchen was a usual Shaker-style wood brown – which was nice -, but I was always poring over pictures of Hampton-style kitchens, hankering after their white cabinets and their marble Carrera worktops with dark wood flooring.
After a few years we decided to go for it – on a budget though. So we just painted the original kitchen blue on the bottom and white on the top to keep the room light and bright. We had dark wood laminate floors put down, changed the handles on the cabinets to gold knobs, switched the original black worktop to an imitation marble laminate and voila, we had our own new Hamptons kitchen in Co Kildare!
In pride of place has to be our mini pantry, which I managed to convince my hubby we could do ourselves. Bar putting up shelves and putting together IKEA furniture, we hadn’t attempted anything like it before. I’m not too sure if we’ll ever do it again – divorce proceedings have now been averted! I am so delighted with what we achieved aesthetically and with more storage, it’s brilliantly functional too.
I adore my Carolyn Donnelly rug from Dunnes Stores which has the pops of colour I love and I think gives the kitchen the lift it needs. Another favourite object is the hanging plant. I love the colours the plant pot adds and plants themselves are another great addition to any room.
This photo is a really good reflection of the rest of our home as it’s a good example of what you can do on a budget and how strong classic colours mixed with some brighter pops of colour can really pull a room together. We have been living here for 13 years now and have knocked down a wall or two, but pretty much we have tried to paint and attempt some DIYs along the way ourselves.
I’m not going to lie here – there was a whole heap of tidying done before I took this photo. This could be just my house, but what is it with kitchen worktops being a magnet for basically any item in your house? All sorts of stuff just seems to gather there.
The pantry was lovely and styled when I took this photo, but a lot of jars, crisps and chocolate had to be relegated to the hall cupboard to achieve it!
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Some of the most polite, understanding staff I ever met (in 3 separate branches)!! In the 5years I’ve banked with them the only problem I’ve ever had was the glitch last year, for which I was very generously compensated! Even after that I’m still glad I bank with them!! They have to be better the cowboys in aib and boi!!!
There’s one in Malahide, beside the airport and in the pavilions in swords. Could never understand that triangle of branches, so one of those will close. I’ve been with them 35 years with no problems, even during the IT glitch.
I don’t see the need for 140 branches. Their customer base would be 500,000 ish, not all of them active accounts. People either have to embrace online banking or be left in the past. Aren’t cheques going off the market in 2016?
Tis the mooted date, because I believe the English set that as their date. Really don’t think they’ll be phased out in 3 years though. Still a huge volume being processed every day.
Not a Paddybank. Reason enough to bank with them. During glitch went in branch and was asked how much I needed. No questions asked. Sound.
I’m sure that this news will be disappointing for the usual suspects in the comments sections.
They wanted the banks to fail completely and close all branches.
Maybe they will be happy with 20?
Why dont they close all the branches after what happened last year. i’m glad I’m not one of their customers.
Wouldn’t be much use to those of us who are would it?
You dont say
Ulster Bank. lets see, —- Some of the best savings interest rates with instant access (ie no sneaky stuff) some of the best mortgage rates. No account fee’s, (and they were the first to bring it in) branches open half days on Saturday some of them anyways. Llonger opening hours, not bailed out by the Irish tax payer, and your glad your not one of their customers, because of a computer/technical glitch that could of happened to any bank and still can..
.
Wow you must love being punished, who do you bank with IBRC or maybe, AIB who’s fees breach banking rules, and have countlessly scammed customers out of exchange rates and interest . LOL
I moved to Ulster bank just so any profit they make Isin seen in Ireland to pay bond holders..sign on the dole 190e a week and a couple days work gets 390 vs a full 40h week and come out with less than that…screw this countery
Don’t feed the Trolls.
@ lee,exactly the bond holders ate trolls and should not be fed with our money
Why anybody is still with them after that fiasco is beyond me.
Other than the problem they had last year, I never had any other problems with them. As a mature student they have been a lot more helpful with loans and overdrafts than any previous bank I have been with. Also their queues are so much shorter than others (this could be just my branch though!)
I passed their Wexford branch one Saturday morning a while back (long after their IT problem was resolved) and it was open! What’s that about? Customer service, that’s what – if I was closer to a branch I’d be happy to bank with them.
Excellent polite staff
Fast service in branch
Extended opening hours
Free banking
25% cash back on Ticketmaster tickets
Plus they gave me €2k for the inconvenience of the technical glitch.
I’m staying with them.
You are paying £13/€17 for your discounts etc.
My tracker mortgage is the reason I’m still with them
I just bought tickets the other day & got €49 back, I can afford the subscription charge
They were the only one of the banks not to treat me like a pariah when I moved back to Ireland after working abroad for several years. Staff were and are genuinely helpful and respectful. Their problem last year was bad but sometimes you have IT issues and they worked to make amends (I understand that didn’t always work out). That’s my reasoning FWIW.
Amazingly helpful bank to deal with until about 4 years ago – the staff don’t give a damn now… I think they know their time is limited and have lost all interest…
Totally agree with Donna
After loosing my job today because of the shitty economic climate ill have no wages to go into my Ulster Bank Acc, so close away
And how many staff going to lose their jobs? 950 from them this year give or take…appalling. 950 families closer to the breadline.
Much as I would love to bin my bank and mortgage company because they both have racked up their rates and charges while my income has halved I do not have any choice but to stay with the faceless wonders who seemed determined to ruin me the UK and Ireland.
So anything banks do does not surprise me.
25 years of being with UB means nothing, when you are at a low ebb they’ll keep you til you are dry!
All the banks are closing branches and killing small towns and villages across the country and curtailing services.
Some locations older people may not have the ability to travel to a branch in another town due to either having no transport or the local bus and rail service timetable frequency may not make it possible to get to a local branch in time.
banks disregard to customers only way to counteract this is open a credit union account.keep your money in your community to support local businesses
Guarantee they will move out of Ireland by end of 2014
Funnily enuf I’ve heard of 3 people in different parts of the country who are small business customers that have had their accounts cloned! Money being paid out thru transfers in online banking and not reaching the intended accounts! These same people had massive issues with UB when the “glitch” happened…. Suss???
Close Ballyjamesduff.
Have to say iv been with ulster bank for many years now and I can fault them in any way, had one or two problems last year and they refunded me 400euro I hope they don’t pull out of Ireland in the future and leave us with them other robbing bastards
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