A restored heritage house dating back over 130 years and situated in the heart of a Co Mayo village is one of the properties through to the final of RTÉ’s Home of the Year.

The eye-catching house belonging to interior decorator Jacqui and husband Robert Naughton was previously owned by his late parents until the couple took over the property in 2019.

At that stage, it had been vacant for four years and needed considerable work to transform it into a welcoming family home. It was previously used as a girls secondary school and is thought to be the oldest property in the town.

“My parents bought it in 1977, I lived here for nine years, I think,” said Robert. “My parents, they lived there until they both passed away and we took over the property in 2019, 40 years later. It had been vacant for four years. It was nice to retain it as a family home and we’ve brought it back to life.”

Jacqui explained how they “did all the work ourselves” and they gutted the property to transform it into a bright, airy home.

The couple, who have two sons, lived in the US for five years and when they first moved back to the Mayo village, they were the only family living on their street. Since then, two more families have moved back.

As viewers saw on Tuesday night’s show, judge Hugh Wallace said it was “so important that these homes are refurbished, lived in and loved. Our villages need people in them”.

The homeowners went for an eclectic mixture of furnishings and furniture in the living room but judge Sara Cosgrove said they “kept the palate quite restrained”.

However, judge Amanda Bone did not agree and criticised it for being “overly packed, there’s a lot of pieces of furniture. The furniture is too big and heavy”.

When they entered the kitchen area, Mayo native Sara said the blue and white colour scheme reminded her of her mother’s house.

Upstairs there was an extended landing area and Amanda said she was “really enjoying being in the space as there’s a real character of the original home”.

The main bedroom was very generously-sized while up another flight of stairs was another bedroom that left the judges feeling “totally transported”.

“I feel I'm in the mountains in America, you know that America vibe like I’m in a log cabin,” said Hugh.

Amanda said it was “completely unexpected and very different to the rest of the home”.

“I’ve always romanticised about ranches, about cowboys,” she said.

“I have a dream, I want the biggest pick-up truck and I want to drive down a dirt track in Wyoming.”

On assessing the home, Hugh said it was “great to see a village property restored and lived in by a family, bringing life back to a community”.

The judges gave the house an overall mark of 25, sending it through to the grand final to compete with six other houses.

Also featured on Tuesday night’s show was a duplex apartment in Kildare described as a “cacophony of colour”.

Owned by María Alcazar and Michael Swan, they bought the property back in 2001 and have extensively refurbished it to put their own stamp on it. They got a score of 24 from the judges.

Viewers also saw into the the county Dublin home owned by Jean and John Farrell, who had lived in a Victorian house for 26 years. But after their children moved out, they decided to build a stylish, contemporary house in the garden of their old home. They also got a score of 24.