Irish presenter and broadcaster Angela Scanlon is the host of the hugely popular Your Home Made Perfect television show.
The third series is currently airing on New Zealand screens at the moment.
Scanlon tells Jim Mora the show cuts through the dramas of building and focuses on creating a family’s dream life via design.
Irish star Angela Scanlon is the host of Your Home Made Perfect. Photo: Supplied/Carver PR
"We know obviously things happen on site and disasters happen as they do with building, but we just don't show any of that," Scanlon says.
"It's really a celebration of the design and the idea of using the design ... It's about really considering and thinking about how you want to live and then knowing that's within your ability.
"I think in series one or two, Robert [Jamison] put a bath in the living room [for] a couple who had said goodbye to their son. She loved [having] a bath but there was no room for it upstairs and why not. It caused absolute ructions but to each their own."
But relationships in a household can be strained when the focus is on aesthetics instead of the function of spaces, she says.
"Think about what you need as a family, and I think most of don't really do that ... to try and get to the heart of what makes you tick, what makes you happy, what would facilitate an easier family life and I think we can all access that no matter how much money we have.
"It's kind of our responsibility now to take control back, that you can listen to yourself and honour what you need and not think worry about the resale value.
"It's about how we see value and the value we can get from our home is when we can cross the door let our shoulders drop, and take a deep breath ... and it really doesn't matter how many rooms, you can live in a mansion and never experience that or live in a one-bedroom studio and be the happiest."
Often when people wept or became emotional upon seeing their home, it wasn't because of the actual transformation, Scanlon explains.
"I think a lot of people are quite taken aback because they don't really believe, or they haven't given themselves those things or felt they can ever do those things.
"Then suddenly they're smack bang in the middle of this potential new life so it's more than just a change of windows and a new floor, I think it's kind of enabling them to literally live the best life."
Using cutting-edge virtual reality and visual effects, the show enables homeowners to see what their future home could look like before it's built in real life.
Scanlon says that makes the process less daunting for people who have saved money all their lives to change their home.
There have even been homeowners who have been shocked walking into their own kitchen, she says.
"They land in their home and they go 'oh my god! It's my kitchen!' and they get really excited and we're like 'babe, that's your house, it's just tidied'. So I often think 'I don't think you need a renovation, I think you need a cleaner'," she jokes.
"The joy on their faces when they see the kitchen table without all the stuff all over it, that makes me laugh."
