Renovation design in Dublin and across Ireland
See what your home could become
Your home is big enough, it just doesn’t work the way it should
Dublin is full of homes that have space but lack design.
We see this all the time. You’re not short of square footage. But you also have rooms you barely use. A dining room that only sees life at Christmas. A spare room that became a dumping ground years ago. The space is there on paper, but the way it’s divided up means the house has never felt as generous as it should.
The renovations we work on feature good homes in desirable areas. The structure is sound. The location is perfect. But the way the space is arranged no longer works. In many cases, it never worked particularly well to begin with.
That’s the problem that renovation solves. We’re the Dublin residential architects who don’t just deal in cosmetic refreshes, new paint and a kitchen refit. We can actually rethink how your home is put together. That often means moving walls and changing how rooms relate to each other. We can help you change how light and circulation works through your house. The footprint stays the same, but your house will feel completely different.
We’ve renovated homes across Greater Dublin and the east coast corridor. We also work with homeowners across Northern Ireland from our Hillsborough studio. Every renovation starts with a homeowner who knows something isn’t right, but isn’t sure what to do about it.
House renovation challenges we see all the time
The many-walled house. Your ground floor has four or five separate rooms, each one too small to be useful on its own. The kitchen is cut off from the dining room. The living room feels boxed in. Knocking through one wall often helps, but a proper renovation looks at the whole plan and creates a layout where every room has purpose and a relationship to the spaces around it.
The dated (but beautiful) period home. The house has character (cornices, fireplaces, high ceilings) but it was designed for an era of servants and formal entertaining. The layout doesn’t suit a modern family. A sensitive renovation preserves what makes the house special, while completely rethinking how the space works day to day.
The pre-‘improved’ home. A previous owner reconfigured the kitchen or shifted a bathroom ad hoc. None of it was properly designed. Sometimes the best renovation means undoing past efforts and starting again with a coherent plan.
The location, location, location home. You bought the house knowing it needed work but the neighbourhood was fantastic. You could see past the dated interiors and awkward layout to the home underneath. Now you need an architect who sees what you saw.
Renovation is NOT just refurbishment
There’s an important difference. It matters for how you spend your money.
Refurbishment changes how your home looks. New kitchen, new bathrooms, fresh paint, updated flooring. It makes a tired house feel modern again. Dublin has excellent interior designers and fit-out companies who do this well. If your home works spatially but looks dated, maybe that’s all you need.
An architectural renovation changes how your home works. It’s all about the walls, openings, flow between rooms, how light moves through the house, how you circulate from one space to another. Renovation is structural and spatial, not just cosmetic. This is architectural work. You need someone who understands how a house functions as a whole, not just how individual rooms look.
The confusion between the two projects costs homeowners time and money. We meet clients who spent tens of thousands on a new kitchen, only to realise a few years later that the problem was never the kitchen cabinetry. The problem was where the kitchen sits and how it connects to the rest of the house. A stunning kitchen in the wrong position remains in the wrong position.
When you work with us on a house renovation, we solve the spatial problems first. Once the architecture is right, the cosmetic choices fall into place more easily and naturally. And if you need help with those, we can do that too.
“We hired this architectural team for a major renovation of our old house, and the transformation has been extraordinary. Working closely with Sean, he brought a level of creativity and vision that completely reimagined the space. The result is a beautifully designed, highly workable home filled with natural light – it feels both modern and true to the character of the original building.
What really set them apart was their availability and support throughout the entire project. Sean was always ready to answer questions, talk through ideas, and guide us through each stage with clarity and patience. His collaborative approach made the whole process feel smooth and enjoyable.“
Derek Kavanagh
How your house renovation project
works with McCann Moore
Tell us what you would like to change about your home
Every renovation starts with a visit to your home. We walk through the house with you and listen.
What frustrates you?
What do you love about the house?
Which rooms do you use and which do you avoid?
We look at the structure, the orientation, where the light falls and where it doesn’t. By the end of that first conversation, we can tell you honestly whether your home can become what you want it to be.
Designs that are bespoke to you and your property
From there, we develop a design that rethinks your layout. We explore different approaches, test options and refine the scheme with you until it feels right. Some clients arrive knowing exactly what they want changed. Others know something is wrong but can’t pinpoint what. Either way, the design evolves through collaboration, until the house feels like the home you should have been living in all along.
Not every renovation needs planning permission. Internal alterations often don’t. But where consent is required, we manage the full application on your behalf.
Technical drawings to hand to your builder
We then produce the detailed technical drawings and specifications your builder will work from. Renovation work demands precision. Existing structures don’t always behave the way original drawings suggest, so the more thoroughly we specify the work, the fewer surprises emerge on site.
Regular architect site inspections
Once construction starts, we carry out regular inspections to make sure what gets built matches what was designed. Renovations always reveal the unexpected. We’re there to deal with it quickly, without compromising the design.
When a house renovation also needs more space
Sometimes the layout isn’t the only problem. Your house might genuinely need to grow, as well as change. Most of our renovation clients end up considering at least some additional space. It could be a rear house extension to open up the kitchen or a room above to rethink the bedrooms. We handle both as one project, so the new and existing spaces are designed together from the start.
If you already know you need more space, as well as a better layout, our extensions service covers that in more detail. Either way, let’s talk.
Not ready yet to start your home renovation?
If you’re earlier in your journey but still want to explore what’s possible, our free guide walks you through what’s involved when you work with an architect on a home design project.
Dublin house renovations designed by McCann Moore Architects
This Victorian home in Sandycove is in one of south Dublin’s most coveted coastal addresses. The house had beautiful period character – ornate cornices, high ceilings, tiled floors – but a layout that no longer worked for the family living in it.
We restored the original features that gave the house its identity and redesigned the interior, so the period character and contemporary family life sit comfortably together.
Talk to McCann Moore about renovating your home
Whether you’ve been living for years with a layout that doesn’t work or you’ve just bought a house you can see the potential in, we’d love to hear about it.