interior features

Reinventing a tired 1950s bungalow as a contemporary family home while maintaining a connection to its past was the challenge for the interior designer Caroline Flannery of Interiors by Caroline in Clontarf. Owned by a married couple, the 180 sq m seaside property in Sutton belonged to one of their grandparents, so it was important to them that while the newly reconfigured space was functional and sophisticated, it had the warmth and character evoked by heirloom possessions. These nostalgic pieces of family history informed subsequent design decisions, creating a scheme rich in context and atmosphere.

“The first thing I ask a client is, ‘What can we keep?’” Flannery says. “It’s a more sustainable approach and it’s an easy way for homeowners to inject personality into a space.” The mid-century dining room chairs were original to the house so Flannery suggested they simply reupholster the seat cushions in an elegant sage-coloured velvet. The dining table, sourced from Soul Lifestyle in Sandyford, complemented them perfectly.

The walls and most of the floors in the house are concrete; the latter polished and the former with a slightly rough finish for a subtle contrast. Flannery felt it was important to balance the robustness of this material with softer textures and she took inspiration from the house’s coastal aspect. “The oversized rattan lampshades above the dining table were inspired by lobster pots,” she says, “but the fact that they were see-through also appealed. I didn’t want anything blocking the views of Dublin Bay.” 

One of the trickiest aspects of this scheme was scale. “I like to overscale, especially in rooms this generous, but my clients got a bit of a shock when the boxes of pendant shades for the dining and hallway arrived — they looked huge!” The size of the statement artwork hanging on the wall opposite was also critical to the success of the dining space and the artist, Petria Lenehan, allowed the homeowners to borrow the work for a couple of nights so they could live with it for a time before making such a considerable investment.

“Artworks can look different depending on how the light falls in a room at any given time of day. The abstract nature also encourages the viewer to look at the piece repeatedly, as each time it’s possible to uncover something new within the canvas. We chose this work because we felt it didn’t compete with the landscape outside but complemented it,” Flannery explains. Two abstract paintings by the artist Leah Beggs helped dress the living room and again the oceanic hues worked with the property’s position in the landscape, creating a cohesiveness between indoors and out.

The living room floor was raised so that the homeowners had a clear ocean view when sitting on the sofa. To distinguish the space from the dining area, they chose a timber oak floor, which brought a warm, cocooning feel to this relaxing area. A mid-century sideboard and original Falcon chair sourced by Flannery in Les Puces de Saint-Ouen in Paris added character and created a unique mix with the modern aesthetic of the Nordic Elements sofa and rug.

For the kitchen the priority was to create an unfussy, streamlined space, so the veneered oak kitchen units by Mooney’s Kitchens in Meath have no handles or hardware. They chose brushed nickel for the taps and the countertops are made of Dekton, a carbon-neutral composite stone that is extremely hard-wearing, heat and scratch-resistant. “It’s an expensive option but it’s incredibly durable,” Flannery says.

This refined interior scheme allowed for a touch of playfulness too, something Flannery’s clients, who share the home with their three children and dog, Coco, welcomed. So the pantry was painted in Petrol, a deep shade of teal by Colourtrend, adding a mood and energy to the small space reflective of the vast seascape outside. A selection of pottery from Nordic Elements added print and texture to this unexpected hideaway.

Another prized possession was an heirloom Persian rug that holds many childhood memories for one of the clients. Visually it adds a pop of colour to the grand hallway and has a luxuriousness that mirrors the off-white pleated silk lampshade overhead and the graceful curved stairway, which was given a lime plaster finish and complemented by a timber handrail handmade by a specialist woodturner in Galway.

The elegant arch of the stairway was recreated in the ceiling above the corridor leading to the bedrooms. Gareth Brennan of Brennan Furlong Architects says the clients were concerned the space might look like a generic hotel corridor. “So we curved the ceiling to create a distinctive look and stopped the skylights arbitrarily about a third of the way into the space,” he explains.

Flannery’s lighting design for this space was just as considered. “The homeowners plan to populate these walls with a curation of family photographs so I chose lighting built directly into the walls. This will highlight the images but it will prevent any glare bouncing between glass picture frames,” she says

“For me, the most authentic and interesting interiors are about storytelling, that eclectic mix of vintage with modern and a blatant disregard for so-called perfection,” Flannery adds. “One of my favourite pieces in this home is the composition of framed pages from the childhood books of the couple’s now-teenage kids, complete with doodles and scribbles, which hangs in the upstairs hallway outside the family bathroom. It’s familiar but really informs the narrative of the new space,” she says.

 The façade of the house was an important part of this narrative too and Brennan Furlong was given old Polaroids of the property as it looked when the owner’s grandparents lived there. “The client didn’t want to make any dramatic alterations to the appearance of the front of the house,” Brennan says. It was important for them that their renovated home retained a strong visual connection to the property as they’d always known it.

 Brennan Furlong replaced an existing front dormer window to house the relocated principal bedroom and added a timber-clad “tower” to one side, which serves as a home office. At the back of the property, they designed a rectangular concrete extension to house showers for the children who are water sports enthusiasts — Sutton Dinghy Club is right across the road — and inside, they created space for a small but functional current pool.

The traditional front façade and very modern intervention at the back of this charming property perfectly encapsulates the beautiful balance of old and new — and serves as a reminder that something as simple as family history is a great jumping-off point for any interior scheme.

 brennanfurlong.ie; interiordesignerdublin.ie