Interior designer Deirdre Whelan lives in one of three noted houses in Dublin 6 built on one site. Eoin Lyons takes the guided tour.
LIVING
This is one of three mews houses owned by Whelan and her partner Paul Kelly and their neighbours, brothers Dermot and Shane Boyd. The houses were designed by Kelly and Dermot Boyd.
The bedroom and bathroom are downstairs and the open plan upper floor is loosely divided into three areas. A white backdrop allows furniture in the living space, including low, grey sofas from Haus, to come to the fore. The atmosphere is calm, and you notice people more than glaring objects. Built-in fittings run along horizontal lines to complement the shape of the room. White MDF shelving is long and low, running across the length of one wall, while on the opposite side, a bookcase "forms the balustrade between the room and the staircase," says Deirdre. "We decided we didn't want any full-height joinery, in order to keep the space as open and wide as possible.
Period Design, Cavan (049-9522323) put these together."
"The lamp is by Form Artemide, an Italian company available at Bob Bushell, and the table was bought in Francis Street, through a friend who did it up for me. The chairs are Cassina and are from Haus. They were a very extravagant purchase - we saved hard to afford them - but I think they compliment the old table very well. I like to sometimes combine old with new, as one item sets off the other." Fitted into a specially-built recess in the window near the eating area is a Philinea architectural strip light, from Phillips. "It's like fluorescent, but gives off a very nice warm, yellow light," says Deirdre. "The recessed slot was created so that there would be a light source without actually seeing the fitting."
BEDROOM
Downstairs at the back of the house is the bedroom, which looks out to a pebble garden. "The room isn't huge, so in order to give the impression that it's bigger, we kept it very neutral. The wardrobes take up the full length of one wall, and are white to reduce their impact. By keeping a bedroom very neutral, it allows you to use different bed linen to change the mood of the room. The white walls show off artwork better."
KITCHEN
"We like to entertain and cooking becomes part of the entertainment because the space is so open. Sometimes it would be nice to have one other room where you could work if the other person wants to watch television, but mostly it's brilliant. You're not shut off from what's happening." The counter in the galley-style kitchen floats to one side of the room and has cabinets suspended from the ceiling. The counter top is covered in stainless steel. "We chose stainless steel for its practicalities," says Deirdre. "It's very easy to keep clean, it doesn't stain, it's not cold to touch, and we wanted something that wasn't going to jump out at you in the room. We had to get it specially made because we wanted the sink to be welded in." The sink and counter are one continuous piece of metal. "Industrial kitchen manufacturers or metal workshops will be able to make it up for you. It's certainly a lot cheaper than going for a stone or marble counter." (Flexifabrication, 01-4568266.)
BATHROOM
"The sink is called Scola by Duravit; we got it at Elegant John," says Deirdre. "We put it on a wood pedestal to create storage underneath, but also because we thought it would be lovely to have a freestanding sink in front of a window. The wall to the left is fully mirrored and that works fine - it's probably better than having a mirror in front, because it usually ends up getting splashed and dirty."