Rip It Up: The Renovations Podcast - Details, episodes & analysis

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Rip It Up: The Renovations Podcast

Jenny Sheahan and Kate O'Driscoll

Leisure

Arts

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/11d. Total Eps: 93

Looking for more support in your renovation? Visit our brand new renovation platform at www.thehomepage.ie!

In the Rip it Up podcast, RTE's Home of the Year winner Jenny and finalist Kate step the listener through everything they've learned in buying a wreck of a house and turning it into a dream home. We demystify the entire renovation journey, from finding the right house, all the way through the renovation process, from picking a builder, to choosing wallpaper. No brick will be left unturned.

Follow us on Instagram at @thehomepageie, or to see more of our renovation journeys follow Jenny @workerscottage and Kate @victorianrathmines

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https://buymeacoffee.com/ripitup
46 shares
https://www.thehomepage.ie
3 shares
https://phare.store/
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https://www.buzzsprout.com/2299960/support
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https://www.instagram.com/ripitup_podcast_official
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https://www.instagram.com/s
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https://www.instagram.com/drlauragp
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Score global : 48%

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Renovation Q&A: Windows, DIY, Builder Quotes & Living on Site

Thursday, November 5, 2026 • Duration 30:44

How come some windows are double the price of others? Is doing your own DIY really worth the savings? How on earth do you choose between two wildly different builders' quotes? And is it possible to live on site during a renovation?

Fresh from our very first The HomePage renovation webinar (which we're delighted to report was a success!), we're tackling four of the big questions that come up time and again from homeowners planning a renovation.

This week we're getting into the practicalities of spending your renovation budget wisely, knowing when to pay for quality, and when taking matters into your own hands might actually cost you more.

Kate shares some hard-earned lessons from doing her own demolition work, including a rather alarming incident involving a wheelie bin full of rubble. We also discuss why the cheapest builder isn't necessarily the cheapest in the long run, what to look for when comparing window quotes, and whether living through a major renovation is ever a good idea.

What we cover:

Windows: Is alu-clad really worth twice the price of uPVC? What matters when comparing frames, durability, warranties, and costs?
DIY: Which renovation jobs are worth doing yourself, and which are better left to the professionals?
Builders' quotes: Why can two quotes for the same job be so different? How to compare them properly and avoid expensive surprises.
Living on site: Can you realistically stay in your house during a renovation, especially with young children? When might it work, and when should you move out?

Plus, the importance of proper preparation, hidden DIY costs, and why renovation dust is somehow capable of getting absolutely everywhere.

The HomePage

We loved discussing your questions at our first live renovation webinar this week! We plan to run more sessions, so keep an eye out for upcoming dates.

Our full renovation course, including practical workbooks, checklists, and a builder's quote comparison tool, is also available for presale.

Explore our renovation resources at https://www.thehomepage.ie

As always, we'd love to hear your questions and renovation dilemmas. Get in touch with us on Instagram!

Jenny & Kate

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thehomepageie, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

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Would You Ever Buy a New Build?

Thursday, October 29, 2026 • Duration 31:46

We launched a business!! If you are facing a renovation, check out thehomepage.ie, and don't forget to grab one of the remaining tickets to our Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November at 7:30pm. Now, on with the show...

Would we ever buy a new build? We're two women who have spent years renovating old houses, and helping clients do the same, but are we missing a trick? Would life be easier if we just bought something brand new?

This week we're weighing up new builds versus older homes, and it turns out there's quite a lot to love about both.

Kate shares her experience of buying an unfinished new build in Galway, and we talk about how to give a brand-new house some personality without trying to make it look like an ersatz Victorian mansion. From choosing your own kitchen finishes to avoiding endless spotlights and echoey porcelain floors, there are lots of little changes that can make a big difference.

We also get into overheating in modern homes, the appeal of low-maintenance apartment living, and some truly spectacular examples of modern architecture. Plus, one rather extraordinary €2 million house in Limerick that gives us plenty to discuss!

And before all that, there's a healthy dose of Halloween enthusiasm, sick children, and Christmas tree disasters.

What we cover:

New build or doer-upper: what would we actually choose?
Buying off-plan, and which decisions to influence before the developer finishes your house.
How to add character to a new build without forcing traditional features into a modern home.
The importance of flooring, lighting, window treatments, and natural materials.
Why some well-insulated new homes can become unbearably hot in summer.
Beautiful modern houses that have us dreaming of lottery wins.
New builds versus renovating older homes: maintenance, energy efficiency, and sustainability.

Links and things we mention:

Balsam Hill – the artificial Christmas tree brand Kate has ordered from.

Are Kitchen Islands Overrated?

Thursday, October 22, 2026 • Duration 30:32

We're back to regular programming after an exhilarating and exhausting week launching thehomepage.ie last week! Check it out if you haven't already, and don't forget to grab one of the remaining tickets to our Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November at 7:30pm.

OK, on with the show...

It seems like every dream kitchen these days comes with a enormous island, a row of uncomfortable bar stools, and enough worktop space to land a small aircraft. Do we really need all that?!

We love a good kitchen, but we're not convinced that every kitchen needs one. We're discussing what makes them so popular, where they earn their keep, and when they can end up getting in the way of a good kitchen design.

What we cover:

Why everybody seems to want a kitchen island.
The importance of getting your barstools right.
The real advantages, from storage and prep space to entertaining.
The downsides people forget: cost, clutter, awkward seating, and poor layouts.
Islands versus peninsulas, kitchen tables, and other alternatives.
Practical dimensions, clever storage ideas, and tips for planning your kitchen.
What we'd choose for our own homes, and what we'd do differently.
And we barely scratched the surface on pendants...

Whether you're planning a kitchen renovation or just wondering why yours doesn't work quite as well as it should, this one's for you.

Items mentioned:

AYTM barstools.

HAY barstools.

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thehomepageie, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

We've Been Working on Something… Introducing The HomePage

Thursday, October 15, 2026 • Duration 27:24

We've been keeping something from you…

After over two years, more than 80 podcast episodes, and countless conversations about renovations, we've spent the past year working very hard on something very special.

We're launching The HomePage!

We've taken everything we've learned from renovating our own homes, helping other homeowners, and making Rip It Up, and turned it into a new platform designed to make renovating a home a little less overwhelming.

In this special episode, we're telling you the whole story. How we went from two Home of the Year contestants chatting about renovations over glasses of wine to podcast hosts, business partners, and now founders of The HomePage. We talk about what we've learned, the many twists and turns along the way, and why building a business (and a tech platform!) has been quite a bit harder than either of us anticipated.

Most importantly, we explain what we've actually built and how we hope it will help you plan, budget, and manage your own renovation with more confidence.

What we cover:

How Rip It Up began, and why we decided to take things further.
The biggest challenges we've seen homeowners face when renovating.
How The HomePage evolved from an idea into a renovation education platform.
Our new Personalised Renovation Roadmap, with tailored advice, indicative costs, and next steps for your own project.
Our upcoming renovation webinar, detailed renovation programme, workbooks, and practical tools.
What we've learned from a year of building a business together.

Our first live Renovation Webinar is on Wednesday 4 November at 7.30pm! We'll take you through the renovation process from start to finish, the big decisions you need to make, and the common mistakes to avoid. Places are limited, and bookings will be open from Friday 16th October.

Explore The HomePage, see a sample Renovation Roadmap, and book your webinar place at https://www.thehomepage.ie

We're also officially launching at the Ideal Home Show in the RDS on Friday 16th October, where we'll be joining Jo Linehan on the DFS Interiors Theatre stage at 4.20pm. Come and say hello!

Don’t Waste Your Money On… Tiles

Thursday, October 8, 2026 • Duration 22:14

Jenny thinks tiles are one of the great joys of interiors and would happily spend the entire renovation budget on them. Kate… would not.

This week, we’re asking when expensive tiles are actually worth the money, when you can achieve almost exactly the same effect for far less, and which choices we’d make differently after living with our own renovations.

We talk overpriced porcelain, real terrazzo and limestone, Zellige tiles, trends, grout colours, clever layouts, outdoor tiles, mosaics, and the surfaces that are much harder to upgrade later.

We cover:

Why we wouldn’t pay premium prices for ordinary porcelain
How to make cheap tiles look expensive with layout and grout
Where it is worth investing in tiles
Why floors require more thought than walls
Real stone and terrazzo versus imitation finishes
Whether you should avoid “trendy” tiles
Jennifer’s enduring love affair with Zellige and terrazzo
Kate’s limestone floors, and the pattern she’s already slightly tiring of
Why outdoor tiles need particular thought in an Irish climate
The cleaning problem with mosaics and lots of grout

The big takeaway: work out whether tiles are something you genuinely care about. If they are, spend deliberately on materials and areas you’ll live with for years. If they aren’t, simple inexpensive tiles can look fantastic when the layout, colour and grout are well considered.

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thehomepageie, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

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Don't Waste Your Money On... Furniture

Thursday, October 1, 2026 • Duration 21:59

You’ve just spent a fortune renovating, your bank account is empty, and now you've a load of empty rooms and a massive shopping list...

Couch. Dining table. Chairs. Beds. Side tables. Armchairs. Coffee table. Console. Bar stools…

This week on Don’t Waste Your Money On…, we’re talking furniture, and why one of the most expensive mistakes you can make at the end of a renovation is trying to furnish the entire house at once.

We talk about why rooms often come together better when you buy slowly, how living in a space changes what you realise you actually need, and why we’d rather invest in one key piece and let everything else build around it over time.

We also get into secondhand furniture, Adverts finds, vintage pieces, IKEA stopgaps, reupholstery, recovering old sofas, clearance finds, and how some of the best pieces in our homes cost almost nothing.

What we cover

Why there is no deadline to have your home “finished”
The danger of panic-buying furniture at the end of a renovation
Why we’d invest in one anchor piece per room
Living in a room before deciding what it really needs
How furniture layouts can change once you actually use the space
Buying the bare minimum when you move in
Adverts, DoneDeal, Marketplace, salvage yards, and secondhand shops
Why patience makes you better at spotting good vintage pieces
Kate’s half-price dream dining table
€50 Aldi nesting tables that became one of the most asked-about pieces in Kate’s house
IKEA sofas as temporary or long-term options
Buying furniture with removable and replaceable covers
Jenny’s €50 Vision Ireland couch
Kate’s free BoConcept couch
Reupholstering and recovering furniture instead of replacing it
When custom furniture really is worth spending on
Why mixing old, new, inexpensive, vintage, and custom pieces gives a room more character

The big takeaway

There's no deadline to have your home furnished

Buy the things you genuinely need. Invest in the important pieces. Then give yourself time to collect the rest.

Don't Waste Your Money On... Light Fittings

Thursday, September 24, 2026 • Duration 20:17

Good lighting can completely transform a home. But that doesn’t mean you need to spend hundreds, or thousands, on every fitting before you move in.

In this episode of our Don’t Waste Your Money On… series, we’re talking light fittings, and making one very important distinction: the lighting plan belongs in the bones of your renovation; the decorative fittings don’t.

Prioritise the wiring, positions, switching, dimming, wall-light points, pendants, task lighting, and anything that will be difficult to add later. Then, if the budget is running out, put an inexpensive fitting on the wire and upgrade it when the bank balance has recovered.

We share where we saved and splurged in our own homes, some of our favourite sources for lighting, the inexpensive styles we think are hard to get wrong, and why the bulb itself might matter more than you think.

What we cover

Why lighting design and light fittings are two different budget decisions
Prioritising wiring, switching, dimming, and getting connection points in the right places
Why you shouldn’t remove wall lights or pendants from the electrical plan just because your dream fittings are expensive
Which fittings we prioritised because they would be difficult to change later
Where inexpensive high-street lighting can work perfectly well
Why we both love plaster wall lights
Built-in LED strips and the importance of hiding the strip and diffusing the light
Alabaster, stone, and stone-effect wall lights
Where we shop for lighting
Clearance sections, sales, and buying fittings later in the renovation
Vintage and secondhand lighting
Why size matters with pendant lights in large rooms
Simple fabric shades as an inexpensive interim option
Why you shouldn’t be able to see the naked bulb
The importance of choosing warm bulbs, around 2700K or below

The big takeaway

Wire for the dream light. You don’t have to buy it yet.

If you know you want wall lights, pendants, dimmers, integrated LEDs, or particular lighting positions, put them into the electrical plan now. A decorative fitting can be swapped in minutes. Adding a missing lighting point after the walls are finished is a very different job.

Don’t Waste Your Money On… Curtains

Thursday, September 17, 2026 • Duration 26:47

Custom curtains and blinds can add thousands at the end of a renovation. But are they something you really need to spend big on straight away?

This week on Don’t Waste Your Money On…, we’re talking curtains and window treatments: one of those finishing touches that can make a huge difference to a room, but can also be very easy to upgrade later.

We share what we’ve actually done in our own homes, from €5-a-metre fabric and ready-made H&M curtains to IKEA sheers, inexpensive roller blinds, DIY café curtains, and online made-to-measure options.

We also talk about the details that can make inexpensive curtains look much better, why getting the measurements and hanging position right matters enormously, and the circumstances where we absolutely think custom window treatments are worth the investment.

What we cover:

Why we’d prioritise spending on the windows themselves before curtains and blinds
Why window treatments are something you can often upgrade later
Kate’s €5-a-metre Fabric Outlet curtains
Where we’ve found good ready-made curtains
Finding extra-long curtains for high ceilings
DIY café curtains for privacy
IKEA sheers and inexpensive roller blinds
Ordering made-to-measure curtains and blinds online
How doing your own measuring and installation can save significantly
The right height, width, and length for hanging curtains
Why curtains that are too short can ruin the look
Layering sheers, roller blinds, and curtains
Curtain poles versus ceiling tracks
Planning recessed tracks during a renovation
Privacy window film as a low-cost alternative
Roman blinds and why accurate measuring is critical
When custom curtains, blinds, or shutters really are worth paying for

The big takeaway:

Spend on the window first.

Good windows, good installation, insulation, and weatherproofing are difficult and expensive to change later. Curtains and blinds aren't.

If the renovation budget is disappearing, inexpensive curtains hung beautifully can get you surprisingly far, and the dream custom versions can come later.

Don’t Waste Your Money On… Bathroom Vanities

Thursday, September 10, 2026 • Duration 24:47

Bathroom vanities can cost hundreds, or easily thousands, of euro. But are you actually getting better quality when you spend more?

In the first episode of our new Don’t Waste Your Money On… series, we’re talking about one area where we both think you can save: the bathroom vanity.

We talk about why many off-the-shelf vanities are fundamentally very similar, what we’ve used in our own homes, and how a basic unit can be transformed with paint, new hardware, legs, or a beautiful countertop basin.

We also look at secondhand and antique furniture as an alternative, where it is worth spending your bathroom budget, and the circumstances where we think a properly custom-made vanity is absolutely worth the money.

What we cover:

Why we wouldn’t automatically spend big on an off-the-shelf bathroom vanity
The vanity-sizing mistake we see people make
Why going wider can give you much better storage and usable countertop space
Our experience with IKEA bathroom vanities
How Kate painted her existing vanity
How Jennifer upgraded inexpensive vanities with new legs, handles, and statement basins
Using antique washstands, sideboards, and secondhand furniture as vanities
Countertop basins versus integrated sinks
Wall-mounted versus deck-mounted taps
Where we’d spend the money instead
When a custom vanity really is worth paying for
Some of the bathroom and interiors suppliers we use and recommend

Our takeaway:

Save on the box. Spend on the jewellery.

A relatively inexpensive vanity can look far more expensive with a great basin, taps, hardware, or a clever paint finish. And if you eventually decide to replace the unit, some of those elements can move with you.

Products and suppliers mentioned:

IKEA bathroom vanities
Superfront handles and furniture legs
Etsy
Roberto Tiranti

Summer Replay: When Renovations Go Wrong - Snags, Fixes & What to Do Next

Thursday, September 3, 2026 • Duration 31:15

We're taking a short summer break - but we didn't want to leave you stranded!

Over the next few weeks we're re-sharing some of our most popular episodes from the Rip It Up archive while we recharge for a brand-new season in September.

In this episode, we talk about what happens when things go wrong, from minor snags to bigger issues, and how to handle them effectively.

if you're listening for the first time, we'd love to hear what stage of your renovation you're at.

We'll be back next week with brand-new episodes.

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thehomepageie, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

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Rip It Up: The Renovations Podcast - Details, episodes & analysis

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Rip It Up: The Renovations Podcast - Details, episodes & analysis

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