Georgian Country House

This is a lovely georgian country house in the west of Ireland. When my clients bought the house, they were faced with all the typical work of repairing and restoring the fabric of an old building before they could even think of decoration. Indeed it was nearly a year before the repairs to the roof, walls, wiring etc were finished to the approval of the architect and I could take over the final part of project. We were starting completely from scratch, the previous owners had painted the hall stairs and landing white and carpeted in kelly green!

My clients were a young professional couple with a family and they wanted colours and fabrics to be sophisticated, rich, and in keeping with the age of the house but also to reflect their youthful vibrant and very good taste and to accomodate their furniture and paintings. My client and I worked very closely together on the whole project and the result reflects our combined ideas.

The first two pictures show the hall stairs and landing, we decided since the space was so big and open that we wanted to furnish it by panelling the walls, radiator cabinets were encorporated into the panelling in the hall. Above this we used a Cole & Son damask paper in terracota and peach with two fabrics, a terracotta linen/cotton mix and a floral chintz in terracota, peach and green. the curtain poles on the landing are hand painted in terracotta and gilded wood.

The little wall lights with the toning shades give a lovely warm light on the staircase, while table lamps on the radiator cabinets along with wall lights either side of the hall door give the same effect in the hallway.

The next pictures are of the dining room and the drawing room. The dining room has again, a Cole and Son wallpaper, a reproduced traditional design in gold and navy. Curtains on the curved bay wall are interlined gold silk moire, tied back with gold wool bullion tie-backs. There is a lovely old oriental rug under the table, and a gilded wood side table with matching fabulous ornate gilded mirror, along with the other lovely antique furniture.

The drawing room is furnished in with beautiful antique tables, lamps and accessories with a cream, coffee, navy oriental rug under the couches. Walls are a soft shell colour with matching curtains As in the dining room, I have used traditional swags and tails with interlined heavy curtains. The couches are upholstered in cream damask.

The fifth picture shows the doorway into the study. This is a dark warm evening room, thw wall are upholstered in olive green italian cotton damask with striped olive green, gold and purple striped curtains, again the curtain poles are hand painted and gilded, The furniture here is very masculine with tan leather couches and large mahogany desk. It is a lovely place to sit, with a fire on a winters night.

Beside the study, in the back hallway, which is floored in the same natural slate we used on the kitchen floor, is a small guest toilet. The slate floor continues in here and on the walls and windows we used a matching paper and fabric from Sandersons, the design is big cabbage roses in red, ping sage green and yellow gold. This large pattern in a relatively small space was possible because of the very high ceiling. The toilet and wash-hand basin are set into mahogany cabinets. An old threadbare oriental rug and antique chair along with the wall lights and framed prints complete the look.

Georgian House - Bedrooms.

The next two pictures are of canopy beds in two of the bedrooms. In the master bedroom I had the canopy frame made up and we dressed it in a peach, cream, sage green and yellow chintz, we lined with peach. I had some of the fabric quilted to make a bedspread and we paired it with a soft yellow paper with a small rust over-pattern.

In the other bedroom, the main guest bed, the canopy is a gilded wood rectangular crown ordered from Kidsons in London, this time we used a gold and rich tomato red in the silk damask fabric, and paired it with a plain gold silk moire . The curtains on both windows are teal, gold and red, tied back with heavy gold wool tie-back. The wallpaper is teal and gold. This is a very formal room.

This next picture is of a corner of the black and white main bathroom, showing the window dressed in a black and white Timmony Fowler fabric on a large black painted curtain pole, with a large wool bullon tie-back and fringe. In the corner is a Mackintosh ladder chair. Out of the picture is a black chandelier, the electrician allowed us to use this because of the high ceiling.

TThe fourth picture is of the kitchen, showing the natural slate floor and the windows, dressed in a Designers Guild fabric, out of the picture the kitchen units are natural oak.

The fifth and sixth pictures are of the bedroom for the youngest member of the family. We had great fun choosing the Designers Guild fabrics which we mixed and matched in the circus tent pelmet and curtains and in the captains bed set into the wardrobes, with the little ladder to climb up. We painted the table and chairs in the same blue and took the green for the carpet from the green in the curtains. The five year old resident had to be persuaded that the design presented a sufficiently masculine image, one that would accurately reflect his current standing in society. I rang to speak to his mother one day, after the fabrics had been approved and were at the curtain makers, he answered the phone and after establishing who he was speaking to, started the conversation with "Now Jane, about those pussy cats!"

Client: Private

Upper Mount Street Restoration Project

These apartments were part of a challenging restoration project involving a total of ten houses on Upper Mount Street & Lower Fitzwilliam Street Dublin 2. The three storey over basement houses are owned by ESB as part of their head office complex.

While Jane Reddy Interiors was retained as a finishes consultant to the Architects for the entire project, a total interior design service and fit-out was provided for the two houses which were restored to purely residential use in the form of 8 apartments. The intended use of these apartments was to accommodate visiting overseas clients of the E.S.B. as well as regional managers from other parts of Ireland on short stays at Head Office.

Client: ESB