Design Solutions: A characteristic of the Georgian buildings on Merrion Square is a vaulted arch at basement level beneath the granite steps that rise from the street to the hall floor.
These spaces were originally used to house coal and most were bricked up to allow for more regularly shaped rooms when the houses began to be divided into flats and offices in the 1930s.
Such was the case in the basement of number 81 from which Helen Roden and Joseph Ensko operate their interior design business. "It's considered a dead space," says Roden, "and at first there doesn't seem to be much you can do, but we decided to open the vault up because the arch provided a feature."
But as features go it wasn't particularly interesting and made for quite a dark space so they decided to loosely interpret an idea from the period to make something of it.
The Irish Georgian Society, neighbours on Merrion Square, supplied them with line drawing copies of architectural details that were used in 18th century print rooms (the walls of which the ladies of the house would paste monochrome images for amusement).
They created a hexagonal motif that was photocopied by the dozen and pasted onto the vaulted ceiling: harder than it sounds. "The trickiest part was measuring out the space so they line up perfectly," says Ensko. "The photocopies were stuck straight onto the white ceiling and then we covered the whole thing with an ochre glaze." While still wet, the glaze was wiped away around from the center of the hexagon and the in-between parts (i.e., the actual ceiling) were then stippled to create a darker effect so that the hexagons would seem recessed. Walls upholstered in a brushed cotton fabric and some ambient lighting completes the effect.
It's worth noting that this works in the environment of a period building but might not elsewhere, although Roden and Ensko have successfully used a similar idea in the lobby of an apartment. "Something like this is good in small spaces, cloakrooms or bathrooms where the walls could be varnished to protect the paper from steam," says Ensko. "It would also be a lot easier to do it on a flat surface and use wallpaper paste so that the paper can be pulled off and moved if you place one out of line. The tone of the glaze could be matched to any color scheme." It's a decorative trick and not supposed to look completely realistic but "the funny thing is that now it's the first place visitors look and usually ask about," says Roden. Not a bad outcome for a once humble coal room.
