{"id":379247,"date":"2026-01-19T23:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/379247\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T23:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:37:11","slug":"bbc-house-of-the-year-art-filled-finalist-the-gallery-in-south-belfast-is-like-a-self-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/379247\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC House of the Year: Art-filled finalist The Gallery in south Belfast is ‘like a self-portrait’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The unique home is one of 15 to be visited by interior designer and TV personality Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen for the BBC NI programme.<\/p>\n

Just off the Malone Road, The Gallery is home to \u201can eclectic mix of art\u201d collected by retired dental surgeon Bernard, and Sinead, a holistic therapist and counsellor.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Gallery secured the third place in the House Of The Year Final (BBC NI \/ Elyse Kennedy)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a self portrait,\u201d Bernard said.<\/p>\n

Llewelyn-Bowen was joined by his panel of expert judges \u2014 architect Jane Larmour, interior designer James Fairley and co-founder of furniture store Maven, Patricia McGinnis \u2014 to choose the third finalist in the show\u2019s latest season.<\/p>\n

Llewelyn-Bowen was immediately impressed by the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you now there ain\u2019t going to be anything \u2018meh\u2019 in here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about art, it\u2019s about being challenging. It\u2019s about being scintillating. It\u2019s about being very slinky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of The Gallery is open plan with different functional areas blending into one another.<\/p>\n

Downstairs, there\u2019s a music area complete with a grand piano, a spare bedroom with a sink area and utility room.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the entrance is another bedroom, which can be closed off with a blind and has its own en suite bathroom.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Gallery secured the third place in the House Of The Year Final (BBC NI \/ Elyse Kennedy)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also Sinead\u2019s client treatment room, which can be accessed via a separate entrance.<\/p>\n

A black central staircase with bright red banister, and a lift leads to the house\u2019s upper level with a double-height ceiling.<\/p>\n

Upstairs offers the main lounge space, a kitchen with a hidden prep area and the principal bedroom suite, complete with walk-in wardrobe, dressing area and an en suite.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Gallery secured the third place in the House Of The Year Final (BBC NI \/ Elyse Kennedy)<\/p>\n

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen said you can expect “unusual, different and diverse” houses on the news series of House of the Year <\/p>\n

The home features several pieces of art both Bernard and Sinead admired. Llewelyn-Bowen praised the pair\u2019s ability to make the house so personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean one thing that really strikes me about this place is that I don\u2019t think anyone else could live here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean obviously, at the heart of this place is the collection, is the art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernard said the artwork was a priority when designing the home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some of the rooms I put the window in the outside door to save wall space for the art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Gallery secured the third place in the House Of The Year Final (BBC NI \/ Elyse Kennedy)<\/p>\n

A painting by Neil Shawcross is the centrepiece of the home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe became great friends and he gave me this painting. The wall wasn\u2019t long enough, so we scrolled the painting at one end,\u201d Bernard said.<\/p>\n

Sinead praised the location of the house: \u201cYou couldn\u2019t be anywhere more serene,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I really wanted was a bath in the bedroom. So Bernard\u2019s tinkling the ivories downstairs and I\u2019m lying in the bath, that was really lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernard said his love for Sinead inspired much of his design.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis house has been a love story \u2014 I created it like the Taj Mahal \u2014 it\u2019s Belfast\u2019s own Taj Mahal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the wonderful opportunity to create something that we live in day and daily, I\u2019ve never got used to it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The unique home is one of 15 to be visited by interior designer and TV personality Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,27031,19847,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-379247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-jessica-rice","tag-south-belfast-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}