“Being a good architect is something you live and breathe.”
Architect and Home of the Year presenter Amanda Bone chats with Marie Kelly about the passion she feels for her profession, the loss of friend and colleague Hugh Wallace and why her fingers are crossed for another season of the hit show.
Although this is Home of the Year host Amanda Bone’s sixth series co-presenting the show on RTÉ One, it marks only the second time she has actually watched it as it airs on television.
“I used to watch it, but I kept getting stressed about things nobody else would notice because I’m a perfectionist. I’d lie awake in bed at night overthinking it all. So I realised maybe I should stop watching. Also, I didn’t want to become self-conscious about how I behaved – I’m not an actor after all, I’m an architect.”
The 53-year-old’s change of heart was, of course, due to the unexpected passing of her co-presenter Hugh Wallace last December. “I wanted to see Hugh again,” she explains. “I was watching the show with my parents and then with my husband Niall [Rowan] and up until a couple of weeks ago, I was really enjoying it, but then I got very upset. Niall thought maybe it was because the series is coming to an end. I think he’s right,” she admits.
The affable and eccentric Wallace had a reputation as a one off, a perspective Bone echoes, admitting that she has never met anyone quite like him. “We could say whatever we wanted to each other and the next minute laugh about it. When I first started doing the show, I was naturally apprehensive and nervous. I don’t think I’m very articulate so I was worried I’d say the wrong thing. But Hugh took me aside and said, ‘Look, this is a great opportunity. It’s a TV program. It’s something different. Just go with it and enjoy it’.”
Their “jesting” and “childish silliness” were evident on screen. “But we did have a lot of very interesting conversations about the houses at the end of each show because I was curious about what Hugh saw in one property that I didn’t and vice versa, but those conversations didn’t necessarily appear in the final cut. “We’re in a house for eight hours a day and that’s edited down to just three or four minutes,” she explains.
You know that sentiment, ‘On their deathbed, nobody ever wished they’d worked harder’? I completely disagree with that.
Of the ten presenters who have appeared on Home of the Year over its 11-year run, Wallace was certainly the most colourful character. Amanda has earned a reputation as something of a purist, advocating a streamlined and minimal approach to architecture and design – her reaction to clutter and confusion would make Marie Kondo proud. Bone explains that she’s extremely claustrophobic and this has led to her love of calm spaces. “In order to function, I need everything around me to be calm and clear and quiet.”
Although initially perceived by viewers as overly harsh and too critical, Bone soon established herself, alongside Wallace, as the backbone of the show, with her restraint serving as a perfect foil to his effusiveness. Her private practice, Amanda Bone Architects, was defined by this same restraint, until she closed it on 31 December last year. “We specialised in residential projects and I wanted a change,” she explains when asked why she shut the doors after 25 years. She now works with DTA Architects – her husband is managing director – on a mix of private houses, social housing and other projects, including a library for Cork County Council. “The EU procurement setup makes it near impossible for small practices and in terms of the public procurement process in Ireland, it’s very difficult to get public work. And I just needed a challenge,” she explains.
Bone also lectures part time in the school of Architecture, Building and Environment at TU Dublin. She admits that juggling teaching and private practice can be all-consuming, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. “You know that sentiment, ‘On their deathbed, nobody ever wished they’d worked harder’? I completely disagree with that,” says Bone. “To feel passionate about work is a privilege, and yes it’s exhausting, but work brings so much joy and interest to my life,” she adds.
She will be speaking to students at her former secondary school, Holy Child Killiney in South County Dublin, about architecture as a profession the week after our interview and she plans to prepare them. “Being a good architect is not nine to five. It’s something that you live and you breathe and you’re passionate about. For me, life is about creating something positive, something beautiful and making a contribution to society – that is the most valuable thing. I’d rather work myself to the bone and create something that matters than have an easier life.”
This means arriving back to her Bray home from her College Green office at 8pm or 9pm each night. She moved to the coastal suburb in Wicklow where she grew up a decade ago after many years of Dublin city centre living. “I left home when I was 18 to study at UCD, then I lived in Paris, New York, Northern Spain and back in Dublin, but ten years ago, I decided I wanted a change.”
If you imagined Bone living in a dynamic piece of contemporary architecture as I did, you might be surprised to know she resides in a “modest” 1990s bungalow three minutes from her parents’ home and a short walk from the sea – Bone is a sea swimmer so the location is ideal. It may appear unassuming from the outside, but inside, Bone has created a clean-lined, light-filled, refined home with energy and vitality. “We completely refurbished the house before we moved in – only the front and side wall were left. We pushed the house to its limits,” she says. She explains that she and her husband had a five-year plan to stay in Bray. “But then, of course, property prices went bananas. Now, we love it here. Niall told me recently it’s the happiest place he’s ever lived.”
Art is one of her passions and it serves as a way to introduce colour to her home. “I like art that’s very expressive, that’s very emotive,” she says. She mentions a Brian Maguire piece in her living space, which she describes as “really, really upsetting, but brilliant”. “My art is very abstract and tactile and a real contrast to the restrained backdrop.” She’s also begun to introduce colour to her wardrobe. Long-time viewers of Home of the Year may remember the sternness of her predominantly black outfits during her debut season. “I wore black for all of my professional life, but I realised that black doesn’t look as good as colour does on TV.” Bone works with stylist Vanessa Sloper. “She’s a very good friend of my mom’s and she lives close by; she’s great at advising me.”
She feels her presenting style has evolved in tandem with her wardrobe choices. “I definitely think I’ve become more relaxed,” she says. “It’s interesting because when I’m in the office, I have to explain everything in detail so a client or colleague understands. Whereas on TV, I’ve got to be quick and snappy. It’s a very different approach and quite an adjustment. But I’ve learned how to get my ideas out in just a few words and in a way that’s understandable and friendly so I’d like to think my presenting style is more relaxed.”
Bone and co-presenter Amanda Lam never know when a series ends if the show will be renewed for another year. “I might get a call in May, or it might be June or July,” she explains. “I really hope the show will continue though because Hugh loved it so much. Last November when we finished filming the current series, I remember him saying, ‘This show is gonna keep going! I’m gonna be doing it forever.”
Originally published in The Sunday Times Ireland, April 2026