There’s an extra layer of responsibility when you decide to design not just for yourself, but for future generations. That was the task that the owners of this property in a rural part of Leinster, Ireland, set themselves after making the decision to return, with their two sons, to take over the family farmhouse.
‘The deal was that if they were going to relocate, the home had to be world-standard,’ recalls Róisín Lafferty, founder of Kingston Lafferty Design, the interior architecture studio charged with delivering the literal definition of a ‘forever home’.
Before Róisín and her team began what would be a mammoth four-year project, DMVF Architects had already been hard at work for two years, creating a vast T-shaped extension inspired by the forms of the surrounding outhouses. It was this cavernous space that it became Róisín’s mission to soften and divide into liveable zones.
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Key to her approach are vast, transitional portals, clad in industrial mild steel, that disguise pocket doors – they allow the large living room, kitchen, dining area and snug, with its window seat (the spot that’s now a family favourite), to be closed off at will.
When you have such a modern addition to a period property, it can be the transition between the two eras that is the hardest to manage. For Róisín and her team, the secret lay in ‘creating a repetition of materials that would lend familiarity and comfort’.
Oak is used throughout, from the floorboards and abundance of custom-designed cabinetry to the panelling – contemporary versions in the extension and a more traditional, painted alternative in the farmhouse’s original drawing room. Marry this with the steel, plenty of diaphanous linen curtains, and Róisín’s primary love, marble, and you have a quality-first palette with a timeless feel.
For an interior design studio that’s been lauded for its fearless use of colour in the past, this is perhaps a more pared-back look. The shades here are muted – ‘straw colours, greys and faded greens, like the Irish countryside in winter’. And at the centre of it all stands a showstopping spiral staircase that appears to grow organically out of the walls.
Made from many layers of mesh covered in polished plaster, this staircase is, says Róisín, ‘a kind of translucent sculpture that emits calm from wherever you stand.’ Most shockingly, though, this triumphant centrepiece is white. Completely white. ‘The fact that there is no colour is possibly the bravest thing for us, because it’s the opposite of what we would normally do,’ she concedes.
The most involved and lengthy project Kingston Lafferty Design has been involved in to date, this home, Róisín feels, has had an effect on her life as well as her clients’. ‘I have a new appreciation for the impact a softer choice of materials can have on your mood,’ she tells us. Of course, she’s not about to forego fun and full-on maximalism completely, though. As Róisín adds, ‘it’s all about balance’. kingstonlaffertydesign.com; dmvf.ie
