Store Detective

Daphne Daunt goes shopping in Cork

Daphne Daunt goes shopping in Cork

Daphne Daunt is one of the best-known interior designers in Cork, and also has projects on the go in Dublin and London. About as low-key as it's possible to be, Daunt claims not to have any particular style, but instead starts with the architecture of a building and works from there. She sources much of her furniture in Cork, and after lunch in Isaac's restaurant on MacCurtain Street, she brings us next door to Town & Country. This is a place which does a sophisticated country-look and is worth going out of your way to visit. "They go to trade shows like Decorex and bring back the best of what's there. It's a place where you'll find a lot of very good things under one roof," says Daunt.

Some things of note: Ottomans in any size and fabric (they stock the likes of Colefax & Fowler and Andrew Martin) from about €500; simple elegant garden furniture that Daunt describes as "not visually intrusive" which is light, but heavy enough not to blow over (one table and four chairs cost about €800); embroidered cushions; Diptique candles (€40) and the ubiquitous Farrow & Ball paints.

But it is the products from Vaughan Lighting that Daunt recommends most highly. "There are hundreds of options out there if you want a modern light," she says, "but finding something good in a traditional style is hard. Vaughan Lighting is owned by an English couple who built up a collection of old lamps and made copies of them. Bad lighting lets everything down, but they have a great selection here." Prices go up to several hundred euro, but the one Daunt is pictured with below costs €56 for the base and €49.50 for the shade.

READ MORE

Another important item in any room is and nearby is a shop that sells some antique carpets, but mostly contemporary pieces. Some are very modern, and some are traditional in style, made in India and Pakistan under Fair Trade guidelines. "Holland's always has a great selection of rugs," says Daunt, "I use them a lot. Prices are good too." They are actually more than good, compared with what's available in Dublin. She finds a Pakistan Zigler (pictured above , 8ft 3ins x 5ft 8ins) hand-tufted pure wool, vegetable-dyed rug that costs €1,780. "What's nice about this is the deep colour and the strie effect - a kind of half-tone change of colour in part of the rug."

The third shop Daunt frequents is Marble & Lemon. Here she finds a great solid walnut table for €1,150 - "great string lines and would comfortably seat eight" - and leather dining chairs (pictured above) for €380 each. "The scroll shape on the back of the chair is what gives it a bit of interest, but they're comfortable too."

The shop also sells large American-style sofas, made locally, and Venetian glass mirrors, from about €350. Daunt also likes a teak cube side table that has a cut-off centre to hold books or a vase. This, she thinks, would look best at the armrest of a couch. It costs €360. One of Daunt's design philosophies is that in a simple interior, where everything counts, a piece has to be both practical and beautiful, a description that fits the things she found for us in Cork.

In conversation with Eoin Lyons.

Town & Country, 48b MacCurtain Street (021-4501468). Holland's, 14-15 Bridge Street (021-4551311); Marble & Lemon, Emmet House, Emmet Place (021-4271877); Daphne Daunt (021-4357891)