While Ireland’s celebrity architect was busy building his dream home, there was one question on viewers’ minds – and it wasn’t about the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Fans took to social media to furiously debate whether Room to Improve star Dermot Bannon had undergone Botox treatment, as the presenter seemed to sport a strikingly youthful appearance.
But as only a top architect can, Bannon insists it was simply down to good lighting.
“I think it was just lighting. I thought it was hilarious,” he said. “I saw the comments but I am 47, why would I bother?”
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The presenter recently visited America’s trophy homes, where he discovered billionaire home owners incorporate ‘Botox rooms’ in their mansions but, he says, neither that nor the introduction of high-definition television has tempted him.
When he first started ageing, he recalls a TV producer offering sage advice.
“I think it is very easy in the media to look at yourself and think ‘oh I can throw a bit of hair dye in’ but I remember what Linda Cullen, the executive producer, said to me when the first grey hairs started to appear about 10 years ago,” he said.
“She looked at me straight in the eye and she said ‘don’t you ever do anything about that’ and I never did. I think you just embrace it. I see so many men with dyed hair and you can spot it a mile off.”
He has also ruled out ever getting cosmetic sprinkles in the future. “No, you see people and they can’t pull their eyebrows up or barely smile,” he said.
“Maybe some people have had it done well but the people who have it done badly start to look like a generic person.”
- Read More: ‘My new home treat? I put a bath at end of the garden’ – Dermot Bannon on his dream house and why he hates ‘property porn’
Fans can tune in tonight to see the architect finally unveil his dream home.
Some of the more striking features include a fake wall and a newly landscaped garden, which is framed in glass from floor to ceiling.
The presenter also treated himself to two ovens in his kitchen and the latest must-have in Irish homes, a warming drawer.
This new must-have is for people who host dinner parties or who want their food to stay warm until they are ready to eat.
Viewing figures for Bannon’s shows are reaching new heights, and an episode of Room to Improve from October made the top 10 with a viewership of 688,000, while last Sunday’s episode was watched by an average of 651,000 people.
Tonight’s show, the final instalment, is set to top that when his dream build is finally unveiled.
“I have everything I have ever dreamed of,” he said after moving into the Drumcondra home. “I hate using this word but there are times walking around the house when you do feel like a Kardashian,” he said.
“I am lucky that I have been able to build the dream.”
- Read More: Dermot Bannon’s Rooms Improved: Three homes revisited 10 years on
But he says he still feels like he shouldn’t be there. “It’s not normal for me to have that house, I don’t think I deserve it but that’s okay, I will in a couple of years. It’s just right now it feels a bit too much.”
“When you have dreamed of something for so long, and I have been dreaming about this for 23 years, it’s very hard to say ‘wow, I have it’. There is an emotional thing that you have to get used to it.”
The second of two episodes of Room to Improve – Dermot’s Home is on RTE One at 9.30pm
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