A heart-warming mix of human stories and home makeovers, Home Rescue: The Big Fix is a weekly dose of feel-good TV, something that designer Dee Coleman says we are all in desperate need of.
"The stories are always so compelling," she says of the series. "Every episode of Home Rescue is only happening because of the friends or the relatives who took the time to do the application, which has got to be scary! That alone is such a brave thing to do."
On the show, families are nominated to take part in a five-day makeover that sees designer Dee, builder Pete, and their team of fitters, painters, chippies and clutterbusters complete a jaw-dropping transformation.
Whether a household is struggling with clutter, needs to adjust to a family member's additional needs, or demands a total revamp, the team are on board to deliver incredible results.
Speaking with Coleman, who took the leap from running her own interior design practice to appearing on the show in 2023, it's clear that she gets a real buzz from working on the show, despite the hard deadlines.
"I had been working as an interior designer for 17 or 18 years at the time, and feeling like I needed a bit of a shake-up," she explained.
"I was approaching 50, and I was thinking, what is the point of me? I make fairly well-off people's homes that are fine, even more beautiful and more functional. But I'm not hitting a social need and I'm not part of a community, as such."
Having been self-employed for much of her working life, creating a CV and applying for a job felt like a massive undertaking in itself, but seeing herself on TV was another level of adjustment.
"I had to make a decision because when I first saw myself, I found it quite confronting," she explains. "I'm not in the first flush of youth and, whether we like it or not, we are in a youth culture."
"I was looking at it behind my fingers," she says of her early episodes. "I wasn't even looking at the designs, I was looking at myself and how I looked. I had to get over that very quickly. I said, I either need to stop watching or I need to accept that I'm not a model, I'm not there for my appearance, or to be some icon of perfection."
As someone who wouldn't go down to the shop without checking her lipstick first, Coleman says that being on camera covered in dust and dirt has been a type of aversion therapy: "I've really, genuinely come to peace with it."
Now, two years on, the interiors expert has well and truly found her groove, and insists that working with families who need a fresh start has been good for the soul - if not a little stressful.
"It's insane," she admits. "It's really only three and a half days of the build because it's one day of declutter and demolition, and the last day, which is not even a full day, is when I get the house back for styling."
While the team of builders may do the heavy lifting of demolishing and constructing, Dee insists that no project is complete until the space really feels like a home, whether that be having every light bulb screwed into place or a painting hung just right.
"The mirror is as important as the electrical point," she says. "Pete gets the foundation right, but I create the home. I have to make the family feel like the space reflects them, and that's about putting up their mirrors or whatever it is that gives them their personality."
When the families walk in the door and see their new home, the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the project immediately feel worth it.
"It's sheer joy," she beams. "It's the sense that people have been heard and listened to. Often, these families are working really hard, they're keeping a roof above their head, they're sending their kids to school in their uniforms, everything looks OK on the surface.
"Oftentimes, they've never asked for help before, but they are struggling. You wouldn't engage with Home Rescue unless you were struggling. So for someone to finally put a hand out, to see, to listen and to respond with something practical is such a relief.
"That's all any of us want: to be seen."
Home Rescue: The Big Fix airs Thursdays on RTÉ 2 at 9:35pm. Catch up on RTÉ Player.
