From Dublin buzz to countryside calm, James Kavanagh is transforming his storybook home with bold Dulux Heritage Boathouse Blue at its heart
When social media influencer and TV presenter James Kavanagh and his partner William Murray, an artist and food entrepreneur, along with pet cat Diana, moved to Kilkenny two years ago, it was the culmination of a plan the couple had put in motion some years previously.
Born and bred in Dublin, James found that he was increasingly drawn to the calm of the country. “William is from Cork and his house is in Currabinny, which is this kind of sleepy little place, and I found myself wanting to go to Currabinny any chance I got.”
Spending numerous weekends in Cork led to the couple spending a month there during the pandemic. “I always found myself calmer and happier. I love going for walks. I love the birds,” he says.
“You should see me and William screaming at each other when the woodpeckers are in the garden, like, the excitement!”
Finding their dream home proved to be serendipitous. “It’s a really beautiful part of the world. and I had no idea,” James says. “I felt like we’d struck gold.”
The house they settled on is replete with history and is set on an acre in a bucolic location on the Kilkenny and Carlow border. It was previously owned by a poet and novelist couple, who, among many other plaudits, worked on the BBC’s beloved Not The Nine O’clock News and Spitting Image programmes.
“When we viewed the house, there was actually a BAFTA on one of the shelves,” James recalls.
“They’re an interesting couple, very artistic, and they had the house done up really nicely. So when we viewed it, it was almost kind of in the style we wanted, that kind of cushy, squishy cottage, very much leaning into the countryside.”
While the house was actually built in 1969, in spirit, it feels older. “It has the aspect and shape of an older house because the woman who built it lived in a Victorian lodge house before this house, and she basically told her builder to build the exact same house on this plot,” he says.
“It has floor-to-ceiling windows in most of the rooms, and they used a salvage yard to put in a lot of the windowsills, and the gates to the front of the house. Some of the doors were salvaged from Georgian houses on Ely Place in Dublin, which I like a lot as a Dubliner.”
The garden was a big draw, too.
“They put 35 years of love into the garden,” James says. “They made all these gorgeous meandering beds, it’s very like a secret English garden type thing, and there’s all sorts of different trees, including an apple orchard.”
The previous owners also left the couple a polytunnel. “We’ve grown tomatoes, courgettes, and salad leaves, and that just thrills me now these days,” he says.
James was keen to put his own stamp on the property. “I’ve installed a pond down the end of the garden, and that has been thrilling to witness,” he says.
“I’ve seen dragonflies come, I see tadpoles and frogspawn, and we have a family of bats too. They come down, they skim the pond and eat some of the larvae, so it’s really fun to witness ecosystems happen in the garden.”
Hedgehogs Elton and John are efficient helpers. “They scour the garden, and they eat the slugs, which helps us with the weeds.”
Naturally, Diana loves it too. “She goes around the garden, and chases the butterflies,” he laughs.
Now that the outdoors is in fine fettle, James and William are turning their attention back to the house, with a phased renovation plan in place. The initial tranche of work will see them do “the invisible, expensive stuff”, like wiring and plumbing. Next, they plan to tackle the upstairs part of their home.
But first, the dramatic makeover of their sitting room, using a Dulux Heritage shade, Boathouse Blue. It was inspired by a visit James made to the Museum of Irish Literature.
“I saw the first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and I was obsessed with the cover. It’s a kind of teal, duck egg, eggshell, kind of blue. I started getting sucked into the world of blues for paint in the house, and as I looked through the different shades Dulux has, I was drawn to Dulux Heritage Boathouse Blue.”
It’s a striking mid-tone blue colour, and James has upped the ante by having the room completely colour-drenched in the shade.
“I was contemplating, do I go for different shades, but then I just went for colour drenching, and I’m so happy I did because it’s so impactful. It’s a very easy ‘wow’ thing to do in a house, and it kind of makes you feel like you’re in a womb. It’s the womb room!”
He loves that the colour changes throughout the day. “It feels really fresh and bright in the daytime, but then it gets quite moody and dark in the evening, which I love.”
The shade also marries beautifully with James’ existing decor. “It’s a really lovely backdrop to everything I own. I have a lot of gold and China blue lamps and it’s way more versatile than you might imagine, there’s nothing I have, art-wise or ornament-wise that doesn’t look great against it,” he says.
“I love dark wood furniture, and it just kind of pops against it. My aesthetic generally has kind of headed towards a mixture between Victorian stuff, and then I also love mid-century furniture, and I think those two eras really work together.”
With an artist in the family, how does James manage to mitigate disagreements over colour and decor choices?
“Me and William do have similar tastes,” he says, “but then we’ll kind of be at odds with each other about certain things.”
The solution was to work with an interior designer friend. “She is the one in the middle, so she joins the threads, and it’s amazing having someone who has that eye to be able to just put certain things in a different position around the room, or make you consider a colour that you think you’d never go for.”
Once the renovation work is complete, the serious business of hosting will resume once more.
“I love having people over, and what’s been surprising with moving to the countryside is how often I see my friends now,” he says. “I thought maybe I wouldn’t see them as often, but now someone might come on a Friday and leave on the Sunday.
“We actually end up having a lot of quality time and doing different things and just hanging out, which is a kind of a thing you forget to do in your 30s and 40s. And there’s a lot of that happening now with my friends, because most of my friends are from Dublin city.”
Affectionately known as The Shire among James’ friend group, he now finds his pals tend to vie for their turn to visit his beautiful Kilkenny bolthole. “They’re like, my turn for The Shire!”
To see the full range of Heritage colours and Heritage stockists, visit DuluxHeritage.ie
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