Rip It Up: The Renovations Podcast

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.

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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

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!

And finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has listened, shared the podcast, sent us questions, or helped us with research over the past year. Your support and feedback have genuinely shaped what we've built.

We're not going anywhere. Rip It Up continues, and we're very excited about what comes next.

Love,

Jenny & Kate.

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

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.

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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

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.

Once you’ve lived in the house, you’ll know where you actually put your drink, which way you naturally sit, how many dining chairs you really use, what storage is missing, and which empty corner needs filling. 

Places and products mentioned:

• Adverts
• DoneDeal
• Facebook Marketplace
• Vision Ireland
• IKEA HILLTARP sofa
• Bemz / replacement IKEA sofa covers
• CA Design
• The Vintage Hub
• Gaff Interiors
• Second Story Furnishing

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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

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. 

Products and suppliers mentioned:

•  Astro Lighting 
•  Astro Eclipse plaster wall light 
•  Next Home 
•  Made.com lighting 
•  Zara Home 
•  M&S Home 
•  Lampmasters 
•  Mullan Lighting 
•  Hicken Lighting 
•  Deco Nook 
•  Dusk Lighting 
•  Lamptwist 
•  Finnish Design Shop 
•  Light11 
•  Vaughan Designs 
•  Vintage / secondhand Murano and Tiffany-style glass lighting 

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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

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. 

Products and suppliers mentioned:

•  Fabric Outlet, Newbridge and Cork
•  Harry Corry curtain poles 
•  H&M curtains 
•  IKEA HILJA sheers 
•  IKEA STOCKHOLM sheer curtains 
•  IKEA roller blinds 
•  Interior Fashions, Tipperary 
•  Gotain 
•  Nordic Knots 
•  Hang Man, Dublin 
•  Window privacy film

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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

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 
•  McCarren Supply
•  Deluxe Bathrooms 
•  Gran Lusso 
•  Fiora 
•  Kave Home 
•  Ireland Royale Stone

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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

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.

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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

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 give your our best tips plus lessons learned from our own encounters (positive and less positive!) with local planning authorities.

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 in September with brand-new episodes.

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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

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 break down the layout and planning decisions that make a bathroom comfortable, functional and easy to live with.

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 in September with brand-new episodes.

Visit our new renovation platform at thehomepage.ie and join our live Renovation Ready webinar on 4th November 2026 at 7:30pm - tickets €29 available here.

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