Shots fired, Dermo!

Limerick woman Katie Ryan has defended herself against the reaction viewers had to her after last Sunday's episode of Room to Improve.

Katie and her husband Padraig had architect Dermot Bannon in to revamp their 100-year-old farmhouse however as is always the case with Room to Improve, it wasn't without its hitches with Katie and Dermot clashing throughout the episode about everything from an open-plan layout to the colour of the windows.

Speaking to Aine Fitzgerald of the Limerick Leader, Katie said: "I am a very passionate person. That did come across but I think it came across as more stubborn and argumentative.

"It came across that I have some serious notions and Dermot even said at the start about notions. Well, I don’t have any notions - I’m living on a farm in the middle of the countryside."

School teacher Katie went on to say: "The programme is highly edited and Dermot deserves an Oscar after it.

"Off camera, Dermot and I got on very well together and were laughing to tears in a lot of scenes. In some of the scenes, you can even see him holding back a smile, even when we were fighting about the wall.

"He texted me on Sunday night and I texted him and I was like, ‘you were holding back a laugh’ and he said, ‘I was holding back a laugh for most of it.’ We did have an enjoyable time together. There were over 50 hours of footage that wasn’t used."

Katie said she has not taken any notice of the opinions on social media or the close to 10,000 tweets about the show.

"I don’t think I would be spending my time dwelling on that," Katie said.

"In the wedding speech that my sister did, she would have described me as a tough cookie with a soft inside. Obviously, you can’t walk through life with everything washing off your back but luckily I do have a tough skin but there are a lot of vulnerable people out there who wouldn’t have been able to handle what happened on social media.

"I do think in this day and age people can see the negative impact social media can have on people’s lives and I think people should be a little bit more careful.

"We are very happy with the house. I had to stand up and fight for what I wanted in the house, otherwise, it would not have happened."

In fairness, the pageantry of Room to Improve seems to get lost on social media sometimes and perhaps it's worth remembering that it is essentially still a heavily edited reality TV show.

Saying that though, Katie's cutting: "What's right? It's a shorter list" will go down as our favourite and most cutting Room to Improve line to date.

Sadly it's the last episode of the series of Room to Improve this Sunday, so only one more decorating emotional rollercoaster to go through this year. Who will be the villain this time - Dermot or the client?

The architect will be in Stillorgan in South Dublin where he will be attempting to bring a vision of 'Malibu style' to the 1960s home of clients Lorna and Rory.

Cut to Twitter: "Eh, 'Malibu style'? It's far from Malibu they were reared. NOTIONS."

Catch the last Room to Improve of the series this Sunday on RTÉ One at 9.30pm.