Why are we so fascinated with other peoples houses? In my family it was not just an interest it was a pastime - my mother would throw us children into the car and head off to spend happy afternoons wandering around show houses or, better still, pre-auction viewing days. Of course, we were well briefed - we would remark loudly about how perfect the conservatory would be for aunt Pam's bonsai tree collection, so nobody thought we were just messing. For years I thought this fascination with other people's paintwork was just a family eccentricity until I compared notes and discovered that most of my friends used to do the same. It is this curiosity mixed with aspiration that fuels Beyond The Hall Door, the popular interior design series that returns to RTE for a second series on Friday (RTE 1, January 9th, 8 p.m.).
The secret of the programme's success is undoubtedly its format. Presented by journalist Bernice Harrison, architect and designer Roisin Murphy, and interior designer Catherine Giovannelli, the series avoids those rather Blue Peter-esque sequences that show the viewer how to make a pair of Austrian blinds out of a J-Cloth. Instead it concentrates on three different elements - the studio challenge, the house visit and the revamp. The challenge section will be a showcase for some 30 plus designers who will demonstrate exactly how they would transform a given space. In Friday's show, architect Philippe O'Sullivan makes free-standing furniture for a shoe box kitchen; interior designer Sinead Moore transforms it with cloudy glass, and cub architect, James Macauley kits it out on a shoe-string.
The designers have been chosen with style and a sense of humour - wine writer Jacinta Delahaye, whose husband Thierry Delahaye is a superb furniture designer, will kit out a dining room; Brown Thomas's display designer John Redmond will dress a Valentine's dinner table, and designer Cuan Hanley will put his mark on the bedroom.
The visit section is for the nosey among us. In the great tradition of Hello! magazine, lovely people invite the lovely presenters into their lovely homes, while the rest of us grit our teeth with envy. In the first show, novelist Elizabeth Palmer takes us through her late Georgian house which is lavishly filled with sconces, candles and off-white sofas. "I've moved beyond the sticky-finger stage of my life now" she remarks drily.
Bernice Harrison points out that although that section of the programmes essentially appeals to the side of us that loves to snoop around really posh houses, the house visits aren't all to mansions and stately homes. "Of course, there's some really lavish houses in the programme but there's also the most fantastic mews in Rathmines and a really interesting converted semi-D. What we really wanted in that section was to show interesting houses or unusual effects - there's a whole slew of different ideas and styles in the show."
The third and most popular element of the programme is the re-vamp - volunteers let the presenters loose on the one room in their house that they regard as the Black Hole. Everybody loves a make-over - generations of women's magazines have thrived on little else - and there is something hugely satisfying about seeing a room transformed without having to wait for the paint to dry. There will, of course, be tips for the viewer, and producer Michael O'Connell is anxious to emphasise that the final result is achievable. "There's no point in us throwing 20 grand at something that the viewer could never replicate. The whole point of the re-vamp section is that you could do it yourself - you might have to borrow or save to get the look but it would be possible."
To help you do-it-yourself, there is a rather well-produced fact sheet to accompany each programme which gives a full listing of the products and services used. Rather than having to scrabble around for a pen and paper at the end of the programme, each fact sheet can be picked up at Irish Permanent offices around the country. It is still doubtful whether any of us will ever actually do anything with that back bedroom, but isn't it very January to pretend we will?