Design Solutions: American artist and performer David McDermott lives in a house in Sandymount that is so authentic to its period that were its original Victorian owners to return tomorrow, they would feel right at home.
With no hot water and little in the way of what most consider a modern kitchen or bathroom, McDermott is dedicated to living as one might have done at the turn of the last century.
It follows that the look of the place is carefully planned to fit with this aesthetic. It's atmospheric to say the least: "The neighbours' kids call it the spooky house," he says.
How to do things authentically is of great interest to McDermott and in the drawingroom, the question was how to create a window treatment from what he already had: some badly damaged 19th century lace and some red curtains dating from 1870. Buying something brand new is not his style.
"Lace curtains were a phenomenon of the 19th century," he says, "that's when it started to be manufactured and people could show how wealthy they were by hanging lots of it in the window. In the past they didn't want light in their houses the way you do now because it fades things. I had this very old lace and put it back into working condition by sewing trims from Dublin Woollen Trimmings around the edges to strengthen it and add length where needed.
The lace itself was very damaged and it took a whole winter of sewing to repair it."
Above each of the two window openings he hung a pole that the lace is draped and gathered over. "I wanted to be able to hang the lace so it wouldn't have to be cut."
As for the red fabric curtains "I only had so much material so they had to be hung in a way that would make the most of them." The two sides are conventional enough but where there might be a pelmet, he's done something different.
"Pelmets can be very expensive but swagging, the draping of material, is free if you approach it in an artistic way." With a timber pole from a local DIY store as a starting point, odd pieces of material are draped around two decorative gilded pieces of wood. Two large 1860 French tassels hang in each window to "give a theatrical look".
