Eoin Lyons visits the Co Kilkenny home of designer Pat McCarthy.
During the mid-1990s Pat McCarthy was probably Ireland's most successful menswear designer. Today his focus is on designing contemporary goods for the home, although he still does fashion consultation work without the headache of production.
McCarthy, originally from Cork, has lived in New York and Dublin, but five years ago bought a house near Inistioge in Co Kilkenny. Although he spends a lot of time travelling, a large part of the 3,000-square-foot building has been set aside as a design studio. Projects he and his staff are working on include throws, rugs, glass and tableware for the Kilkenny stores, fabric development for Magee, and a new collection of home goods for the shopping channel, QVC. Whether in texture or shape, each seems to include some element in their design, that connects with traditional Irish craft.
His Co Kilkenny house, worked on by Mark Guard, an Irish architect based in London, also blends old and new. Off a long, hedge-lined laneway, the stone-fronted building - one of a cluster owned by McCarthy - has a 19th-century farmhouse exterior, but inside it is a little different. On the ground floor is a large kitchen, guest bedroom, and studio space. While these rooms are straightforward enough, the main living area is a refreshing example of adapting space to the way people live now.
This upstairs room is a very bright, white-walled space, with a ceiling that has been opened up to the rafters. It has the open feeling of a barn, and although there's a soft modernity to the whole thing, it doesn't sacrifice too much of the original character of the building.
A stepped, white chimneypiece with raised grate sits at one end, while a staircase at the other rises to a loft area used as a personal workspace.
Beneath this is McCarthy's bedroom. It has an en-suite accessed from the bedroom, and an outdoor shower open to the elements and used by Pat all year round.
The latest addition to the house is a glass apex-roofed area that will act as a meeting room. It juts out from the main building, but is linked by exposed stone walls. From this raised point, views fall away over the Kilkenny countryside and McCarthy's garden.