Rip It Up: The Renovations Podcast

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