Kingston Lafferty Design Transforms a Historic Schoolhouse into a Chic Abode in Galway, Ireland

The first time Róisín Lafferty met the owners of a landmarked Georgian-style schoolhouse-turned-cool-house in coastal Galway, Ireland, they’d set out tea and fresh-baked treats in their cozy, little kitchen for the occasion. “There was a homey feel from the minute you stepped inside,” the Kingston Lafferty Design founder and creative director recalls. “They were a lovely, dynamic family of seven, quite young at heart and also a bit nostalgic.” The charming historic abode suited the residents’ personality, but it had issues, including outdated electrical wiring, no central air, and a single shower for all of them to share. A mishmash of rear-facing exten­sions and small service buildings that had been added over time also blocked garden views and the influx of natural light into the deep floor plate. “It felt very dark, and the configuration didn’t make great use of the space,” Lafferty says. “The clients loved the character of the house, but it just wasn’t working for them.”

A nearly five-year restoration, renovation, and redecoration effort ensued to expand the terrace house into a five-bedroom, four-bath residence. KLD collaborated with local firm Helena McElmeel Architects, which helped navigate the municipality’s strict conservation board and took the lead on structural work. The most forceful spatial modifications were made in the back of the property, where the updated kitchen now leads to a window-wrapped, skylight-capped modern addition housing an orangerie-style dining room (where a damp lean-to once stood) and a family lounge. An existing conservatory was also upgraded with new glazing to form a breakfast room, accessed via portals punched through the kitchen’s super-thick stone walls, their depths clad with green marble tile to annunciate the transition from old to new.

The Design Team Transforms Old into New, Spotlighting the Home’s Historic Details  

The décor follows a similar ethos of repurposing. A kitchen table was recycled, raised, and topped with a stone slab to form the cooking island, now illuminated by a cluster of pendant fixtures transplanted from corridors throughout the house. Antique cabinets left behind by a previous owner were carefully integrated into millwork, such as the main bathroom’s armoire, augmented by a marble countertop and antiqued brass legs to create a vanity. Mismatched Michael Thonet chairs handed down from various relatives were grouped around the custom dark-stained oak dining table, imparting a collected-over-time feel. Also repurposed: an original pass-through hatch between the kitchen and the moody reading room, now framed with bronze-tinted mirrored panels that lend the latter space a subtly ominous aura. (“That room is 100 percent inspired by The Handmaid’s Tale,” Lafferty acknowledges.) Not worth salvaging, alas, was a beautifully hued but far-too-frayed stair runner, but its palette lives on in the home’s prevailing tones of sky blue, burgundy, terra-cotta, and mustard.

KLD also layered in more current vintage pieces, such as the front lounge’s mid-century Sputnik chandelier and angular travertine cocktail tables. Lending oh-so-’70’s verve is the rear lounge’s conversation pit, recessed into the concrete floor to preserve sight lines to the garden. “The builder kept asking why we were putting a swimming pool in there!” Lafferty jokes. Further channeling that era is the room’s Mah Jong sofa, dressed in moss-green velvet. “I’d only ever seen the sofa in flashy patterned fabric, but looking at images from when the design first came out, in 1971, I realized it was usually upholstered in something plain, which I preferred,” Lafferty says.

The Home Restoration Offers a Family Room to Grow

Upstairs, the sleeping quarters intermix traditional and modern elements, spiked with a dose of whimsy. The hotel-like main suite, which overtakes most of the second story, encompasses a bedroom, a walk-in dressing room, and a bathroom complete with a fire­place, soaking tub, and glassed-in wet zone. Much effort went into making the large bed­room feel more intimate. “Before, it was just a lonely little bed in a very big room that swallowed up furniture,” Lafferty notes. Now, minimalist but period-appropriate paneling brings a sense of scale to the space, and artfully integrates a curvilinear velvet headboard and bedside sconces. The bathroom is not tech­nically part of the bedroom but instead opens off a landing one half-flight down, where it can be annexed for overflow from the neighboring powder room if needed during brush-teeth or bath time.

While the goal in the parents’ sanctum was to make a large space feel cozier, KLD’s ap­proach to the kids’ zone on floor three was the opposite: making smallish space live larger. The youngest of the three daughters, for instance, got the tiniest bedroom, so the hanging chair on the adjacent stair landing serves as her de facto lounge area. The two boys share a room, and there Lafferty took advantage of the high ceilings with peculiarly tall loft beds that offer plenty of floor space below for hangout and work areas. “The beds remind me of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” Lafferty says. “I like the creepiness of them!” Reference to narrative is, indeed, something of a through line for the entire project: “There’s a sense of emotion and atmosphere when you walk into the house; it just kind of washes over you,” she observes. “It feels like you’re part of a story.” One with a very happy ending.

helena mcelmeel architects: architect

o’gorman joinery: millwork

Roche Bobois: sofa (rear lounge)

davide groppi: pendant fixture

flos: wall light

baked earth: terra-cotta floor tile (dining room)

rocca stone: floor tile

knoll: sofa (front lounge)

through 1st dibs: cocktail tables

tile style: hearth tiles

soho home: rug (front lounge), side table (main bedroom)

martin & brockett: console (entry)

Gubi: chair (study)

square in circle: pendant fixture (study), sconces (bathroom)

HK Living: hanging chair (landing)

irugs: rug (main bedroom)

lizzo: curtain, headboard, pillow fabric

ray shannon upholstery: custom headboard, custom pillow fabrication

mix & match: custom curtain fabrication

socialite family: sconces

ZARA HOME: bench (main bedroom), beanbag (boys’ bedroom)

kutikai: dresser (boys’ bedroom)

finnish design shop: rug

through nest: pendant fixture

eicholtz: pendant fixture (bath­room)

mosaic assemblers: floor tile

versatile bathrooms: sinks

leinster stone: countertop

farrow & ball: paint

vintage hub: vintage vases, styling objects

Agence DL-M Sets a Left Bank Paris Apartment on a Colorful New Course

In recent years, interior designer Damien Langlois-Meurinne has worked on a series of Paris apartments that enjoy mind-blowing views. The dining room of one flat close to Place du Trocadéro is in direct axis with the Eiffel Tower. Another sits atop a hill in the city’s 16th arrondissement and offers sweeping vistas of almost all the French capital’s monuments, extending to Notre-Dame in the distance. Yet none of them has such a direct link to the Seine as this 3,500-square-foot four-bedroom located right on the river’s Left Bank. Look through the trees to the right and you see the Louvre; to the left, the Place de la Concorde. On July 26, 2024, its fourth-floor windows will no doubt be a privileged perch: That is the day earmarked for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, when some 10,500 athletes will sail past on boats from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Pont d’Iéna.

The project stands out for another reason, too. Since setting up his own practice, Agence DL-M, back in 2003, Langlois-Meurinne has displayed a gift for reworking floor plans and spatial volumes. Often, he’ll gut an apartment and start things over completely from scratch. For a recent commission, he even had to remove a 215-square-foot swimming pool that had been installed, rather incongruously, on the fifth floor of a typical Haussmannian building.

There are, however, exceptions to every rule, and this project, for an art-collecting couple from the Middle East, was one of them. “For once, there was a natural balance to the existing layout,” Langlois-Meurinne recalls. “I didn’t really change much apart from connecting the primary bedroom to the adjoining bathroom.” The new birch-clad portal between the two is particularly deep. “It gives the space a sense of protection and intimacy,” Langlois-Meurinne notes. He also modified the shape of the walls in the kitchen, replacing jagged angles with enveloping curves.

What was lacking, though, was much in the way of architectural personality; the space was almost completely devoid of historical elements. So, Langlois-Meurinne designed new ones largely inspired by the Art Deco style of the 1920s and ’30s. He installed wainscoting and cornices in the large double sitting room as well as a host of elements in staff, a type of plaster he particularly loves working with. “It’s extremely supple and allows you to create rounded forms more easily than you can with wood or marble,” Langlois-Meurinne explains. The material was used to create the sculptural fireplace that anchors one end of the living space, the ribbed walls in the entry hall, and the domed ceiling in the dining room, among other details.

The rest of the decor is typical of Langlois-Meurinne’s style, from the strong axes to the integration of niches and alcoves to the bronze door frames that help structure the space. In many of his projects, the designer favors generously proportioned hallways. “For me, they’re essential,” he says. “They’re the backbone of a flat and need to be lively and have their very own personality.” Bestowing visual impact in the main hall, which serves as a gallery, is a mesmerizing moonlike work in bright red by Dutch artist Corine van Voorbergen. Langlois-Meurinne also created a rhythmic pattern on the floor below by insetting the Tundra Gray marble slabs with brass bands arranged in a syncopated fashion. “Their reflections help bring light to the heart of the apartment,” he says.

Light was a concern in the primary bathroom due to an absence of windows. The striking Panda White marble floor, which Langlois-Meurinne compares to a contemporary artwork, helps to distract attention from the fact. “The veining is very dynamic,” he says, “almost like an India ink drawing.” The designer also installed a plaster ceiling dome above the tub, into which he recessed indirect lighting. “When it’s switched on, it becomes quite immaterial and conjures the sensation of a light well or skylight,” he declares.

For aficionados of Langlois-Meurinne’s work, the color palette throughout the apartment may come as something of a surprise. He has long accustomed us to cooler tones, marked by a predilection for shades of blue. “I have a very strong attachment to the sea and the Mediterranean,” he says, explaining that he spent many a childhood vacation in the Cyclades of Greece. Here, however, he decided to play with warmer tones. The walls of the dining room were painted a pale salmon hue, and a monochromatic orange acrylic on canvas—Circus Peanut, by the art collective Henry Codax—dominates one end of the living room. “I don’t know where the inspiration came from,” Langlois-Meurinne admits. “I guess it’s a question of desire, of simply wanting to try out something a little different.”

Mark Alexander: straight sofa fabric (living room)

Lorenzo Castillo: armchair fabric, curved sofa fabric

Versmissen: side tables

Porta Romana: glass lamps (living room, entry, bedroom)

Barbara Lormelle: vases (living room)

Karen Swami: blue ceramics

Nicholas Haslam: chandelier (gallery), wall lights (powder room, bedroom)

TFA: bench fabric (gallery)

Creativ Light: pendant light (kitchen)

arteriors: table

Marc Uzan: ceramics

Graff: sink fittings (powder room, primary bathroom)

Schwung: pendant light (dining room)

Circa Lighting: lamp

Nobilis: chair fabric

HK Living: console (entrance)

Allied Maker: chandelier

Tom Kirk: chandelier (corridor)

Christophe Delcourt: nightstands (bedroom)

Lambert&Fils: pendant light (primary bathroom)

Chromatic: wall paint

Galerie Hussenot, Galerie Greta Meert, Galerie Filles du Calvaire, Galerie Scéne Ouverte, Galerie Maison Rapin: artwork