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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Entertainment
Sandra Mallon

Dermot Bannon teases new project - and he said he doesn't care if it makes any money

Room To Improve host Dermot Bannon has teased a new project away from architecture – and said he doesn’t care if it makes any money.

The celebrity architect kept his new “pet project” under wraps but told us that it has been a “burning desire” to do.

But the star told us it won’t be a project that will be on TV. Dermot told us: “I’m working on something. It’s not TV. It’s a personal pet project. All will be revealed.

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“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years. It’s a real burning desire passion project and I’ve finally got it underway in the last quarter of last year so this year it is going to be launched.

“Not away from design….. but it’s away from architecture.”

Dermot said fans will find out his new venture by summer.

“It’ll be during the summer. I’m really excited about that. It’s a pet project. I don’t know if I’ll ever make any money out of it, and I don’t care.

“Every once in a while, you have to do something because you really want to do it,” he added.

Dermot is currently filming for next years’ Room To Improve.

He previously dished the details on what viewers can expect for the next series.

He revealed: "It never finishes because you’re working on next year’s episode.

“We’re always trying to react to whatever is going on so for us the big opportunities are in derelict houses because there’s grants available.

“We’ve a really cool project in Mayo. It’s an old butcher’s shop that’s going to be converted into a family home. That’s brilliant.

“It’s more of the same. We’ve got a farmhouse down in Kilkenny, we’ve got an ordinary house in Santry. I think everybody wants to see these houses."

But fans will have to wait until January 2024 to see any of them.

“It depends on how many episodes we can get made (but it will air in) January 2024.

“Until RTE tells me no more, I’ll keep moving away from them."

Dermot opened up about his pride for the show but said he loves and hates it in equal measures.

He said: "Room To Improve has been going for 14 years. We’re into year 15 now.

“If it all ended tomorrow, I wouldn’t feel like we failed. I would just feel like 'didn’t we do well?'

“In some ways, TV wise, I don’t feel like there is anything left to prove but for me there is because when I do Room To Improve, I go into it every year as if it is my first year.

“So say with the shop and the derelict buildings, there’s a whole rake of stuff I can do with that.

“You hear a lot of people saying ‘brand new series and it’s very exciting for me’. That’s bullsh*t. This is actually because there’s no challenges.

“There’s a project this year that I actually started designing before it was approved by RTE. That’s how excited I was.

“I had no authority to do that. That was way above my pay grade but luckily it got approved."

The Dubliner added: "I always had a day job. Room To Improve is great because I love it and I hate it in equal measure because it is so stressful but it is what it is.

“I don’t know if I would like to see Room To Improve season 22 because god knows what age I’d be.

“But I feel very lucky it has gone on this long. I have felt like that since day one…

“I have a day job. I have a practice, we’re busy. Most of my life is actually in the practice.

“I have very few wants, and we don’t have a lot but we just have what we have and we’re happy. I’ve got three healthy kids, they’re getting through school and we’ve a grand house," he added.

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