My Style: A former winner of Alternative Miss Ireland, Enda McGrattan has a taste for high style with a large twist of kitsch, writes Eoin Lyons
Enda McGrattan is a club promoter, performer and one time winner of the Alternative Miss Ireland competition: "1999, a very good year", he explains.
He created a drag character called Vada and a club night called Space in Vada, which serves up a kind of contemporary cabaret.
Apart from that he decorates corporate and private parties and creates stage sets, such as those for the Child line concerts. Last year he was the support act for the Scissor Sisters at the RDS.
His home, a sweet little house off the South Circular Road, is filled with items that are quirky and reflect his taste for a combination of kitschy fun and cool design.
In the living room is a television circa 1986. "My Dad bought it in the mid 1980s. I found it in the garage of my parents' house and found it still worked. I love the space-age look to it and the visor that flips down over the screen. Red and black together are great."
The coffee table has red panels that flash in various sequences, much like a 1970s' dance floor . "It was a Christmas present to myself when I first moved to this house. I got it at Habitat and Daft Punk designed it, as part of the shop's celebrity range of designed products a few years ago. It's glossy and again red and black. The lights react to the beat of music. I listen to a lot of music - Amanda Lear at the moment - so this is like a companion to whatever's playing."
A sofa and armchairs with a 1930s curving shape were bought at Kilcroney Furniture in Ardmore, Co Wicklow. "It's not a place many people know of but it has some great stuff." There's a general 1970s' atmosphere with prints in bold colours and an orange/brown colour scheme, for example a rug beside the fireplace combines both: "My parents made it together when they were first married."
A set of Babushka dolls in the kitchen was bought on a trip to Amsterdam. "I got them in an amazing shop called 'Russian Treasures', near Dam Square. It's the weirdest place - they have traditional religious icons but also things like celebrity Babushka Dolls. These have the faces of the members of Abba.
"I remember seeing these in the window, but the shop was closed. I could hardly sleep until the next day when I could go back and get them. The site is www.innakaufman.com."
Also in the kitchen are shelves bought at Inreda on Camden Street, Dublin. "I saw them in The Irish Times and went to have a look but they only had one of each colour left so I bought them all on a whim. They're a really good design and feel like they're impossible to tarnish. I also use them to display photographs."
In this corner of the room, the panels of a door are covered in mosaic tiles. "They were left over from a renovation at The George, where I work, but there were just enough to cover two doors."
Beneath the shelves are various bits and pieces picked up on visits to see friends in New York and San Francisco: a birdhouse Christmas tree decoration from New York, a stripy sugar bowl from Pylons on Prince Street in New York ("an incredible shop of amazing home wares") and a paper holder from a shop called Fabulous Furniture in Woodstock.
The letter V, sitting upside down, was part of a window display at the Louis Vuitton shop in Brown Thomas. "V is for Vada, my stage name, so I went in and asked could I have it."
On another kitchen wall is a giant pink polystyrene heart. "Anna Matronic from The Scissor Sisters is a good friend. She came to stay with me one summer and arrived into The George one night with this 6ft heart. I've covered it with butterflies from Garden Works in Malahide - one of my favourite shops, for plants but also for their amazing kitchen and homewares."
Enda decorates nightclubs such as The Dragon and Sin at Christmas and used some left-over giant glitter-covered deep red stars above his own bed. "I love the ruby slipper quality they have." On them sit two leather dogs.
Elsewhere is a Yoda figure, the Star Wars character. "Yoda is my Buddha. I'm not a religious person but I've made up a kind of pop religion from the Star Wars Trilogy," he laughs, adding tongue in cheek, "Yoda and Dolly Parton are my prophets!"
