At Home: La Roche House

Your home is very significant from an architectural point of view, does that feel like a restriction, or does it simplify things for you, in terms of decoration, furniture etc?

In one sense the language of the architecture does create some restrictions regarding the decoration of the interiors, but mostly in a positive way, since it helps define a clear design brief. We’ve had a great time sourcing mid-century furniture, some of which we’ve restored and upholstered ourselves. Our credenza was acquired by my sister at the dump in Southampton for £4! If we were left to merely our own personal preferences, I would have a lot more colour and pattern. I'm definitely a maximalist, whereas Ross prefers things a bit more paired back visually. Happily we usually meet in the middle, as we both enjoy a bit of fun, colour and quirkiness. The clean, simple lines of the house offer a strong backdrop for those kinds of colourful interventions, and create the opportunity to hang an eclectic range of artwork. Ross is a painter so we have some of his work on the wall, alongside other artists that we’ve begun to collect over the past decade or so.

Photo: Ross Cunningham

Photo: Ross Cunningham

Did you have to do much to the house when you moved in?

The previous owners had lived in the house for 40 years, and clearly had a great love for its character and charm. They had faithfully kept the building in its original form, without making too many significant changes. I recall when we first viewed the house it was like walking into a carefully preserved time capsule. Unfortunately though, all materials have a life-cycle, and at the point we inherited the building, many of the original mahogany single-glazed window units were beginning to rot, and the house was still being heated by a barely functioning (and eye-wateringly expensive) underfloor electric heating system from the 1960’s.

Photo: Ross Cunningham

In summary, we had to do a lot of work to the building: a new heating system, complete re-wire, new roofs, addition of insulation to walls and ceilings, and replacing the entire ground floor windows. Although it's not a listed building, our approach to making any of these necessary renovations has always been to respect the original design, and retain its character and original features where possible.

Photo: Ross Cunningham

We recently undertook some work to convert the ground floor into a functional gallery and event space. This included the addition of a recessed track lighting solution and a minimal wall hanging system for the artwork. It was designed to be as visually unobtrusive as possible, so that the house could still feel like a home when we weren't hosting events.

What is the best thing about living here?

The sense of peace in the courtyard garden space is beautiful. I think this is partly to do with the protected nature of the space, which is dropped a level below the neighbouring walls. It gets south facing sun but very little wind. Also, we both work from home: Ross in his garden pod, and me in my dressmaking studio upstairs. Since there are so many places to sit and chat in the house, it offers a really nice work-life balance without ever feeling claustrophobic.

Photo: Ross Cunningham

We can also pop out at lunchtime for a bit of fresh air as the location might be one of the best things about living here. We're just about far enough out of the centre to feel like we're in a leafy suburb, but it's certainly not a sleepy suburb. It's only a few minutes walk down to Queens and Botanic area in one direction, or a similar stroll to the Lisburn Road in the other direction. So there's a great feeling of being connected to all the life and energy that being in a city offers.

What is your favourite bit of your house?

For me it's the dining area. We often eat together as a family there, or have coffee with friends who call in. The way the open plan spaces flow, you still feel connected to the whole ground floor. You’re part of everything that's going on, which, for a Mum of children who are one-by-one leaving the nest is a habit that dies hard! For Ross, it's definitely his garden studio. Although it’s not in the main house, it has a fully glazed front entrance which looks directly back to the main living space, so there’s still a strong visual connection with the house, but coupled with the occasional benefit of being out of earshot! It’s also a fun design—like a little retro spaceship has landed in the garden, and it always gives people a smile when they see it.

Photo: Ross Cunningham

Photo: Ross Cunningham

If money was no object, what would you buy for your home?

Apart from a live-in chef, any original painting from Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park Series. Aside from fitting beautifully with the style and era of the house, he's also the artist who's had the most significant influence on Ross' painting.

You regularly hold exhibitions in the house, can you tell us more those and how that idea came about?

The house already had a legacy of being shared with the public before we moved in: Queens University architecture students used to come for a tour of the building, and the previous owners had an eclectic collection of art that people came specifically to enjoy. So it was probably always in the back of our minds that the house had the potential to be used in this way. The current high-street art gallery model is under a lot of strain for various reasons (finance, footfall, online alternatives etc), and there seems to be an associated rise of ‘nomadic’ galleries at present (gallerists and curators without a physical gallery location to present their work from). So having a space that could entice a wide range of different curators and artists’ groups (both locally and internationally), seemed to be a much-needed commodity. Despite the rise of on-line sales, art is still best viewed in person, so hopefully we can help fill a bit of a gap here in the market for viewing art in Belfast. On a more personal level, it also means we have the privilege of enjoying and sharing an ever-changing range of artwork on our walls.

We hadn’t initially planned to use the house in this way however. As our children were beginning to grow up and leave the nest, we were considering other ideas for how to make use of the house before it felt too big for us. We often do home exchanges for our holidays, so we’re quite comfortable with the idea of other people staying in our home. To begin with, we imagined being able to simply sub-let or AirBnB half of the house, but then other ideas began to evolve naturally out of conversations with friends. The idea to host exhibitions was greatly encouraged by our friend Charlie Kennedy (who does a lot of the framing for Ross’s painting work). He also helped set up a few initial introductions that got the ball rolling and resulted in our first exhibition in October 2023.

Since then—mostly based on people making requests—we’ve had several other exciting ways to use the space suggested to us directly: film and photography shoots, pop-up events, small group gatherings, and seminars. We’ve even had a podcast recorded with a live audience!

 Photo: Ross Cunningham

Photo: Simon Mills

Photo: Simon Mills

How would you spend a perfect weekend?

Obviously it begins with a lie-in! We haven’t always been able to enjoy an extra hour or two in bed, with children playing sport on Saturday mornings, but we’re in a different season now, and we really appreciate getting the odd lie-in. We’ll often get out for a walk with the dog… ideally somewhere Ross can get a cold water dip as well. I hold the towel! We’re fortunate to have so many places to walk close by, and the coast is never too far away for a quick swim. If the weather is good, we’ll eat outside in the evening. On Sundays we go to church, and then often head out for a cooked breakfast with friends afterwards, or have people over for lunch and a lazy afternoon playing games and enjoying the chat!

Photo: Ross Cunningham

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