Shopfront: There are few enough Irish interiors brands that live up to any kind of hyperbole, but it's nothing short of amazing how quickly the flooring company Ebony & Co has built a following in Europe and the US.
No ordinary following, in fact: the company is only two years old but its timber floors (cherry, walnut, maple, cypress and so on) have been used in the homes of Bill Clinton, Donna Karan and a rake of residences belonging to Hollywood types such as Harrison Ford and Woody Allen. They're also in The Mercer Hotel in New York and Calvin Klein stores all over America. Irish clients include John Rocha and Louis Walsh.
A guy called Pat O'Brien is one of those behind Ebony. You might remember he set up - and then moved on from - the beauty store Blue Eriu on South William Street. The thing that makes Ebony different from many other wood flooring companies is that the planks are 22 inches wide and 16 feet in length, which gives a sleeker floor with fewer joints. The clever thing is that O'Brien has marketed Ebony as a luxury brand with fashion-led advertising (last month Architectural Digest ran a small feature on the company's London showroom which opened over a year ago). Next month it opens in Amsterdam.
To try to give an idea of price for this flooring is like asking how long a piece of string is but, needless to say, it's fairly expensive.
Ebony, 39 Fitzwilliam Street Upper, Dublin 2. Tel: 01-6690970
