30-07-2025
The interiors edit: Join the quiet Irish luxury revolution
This new wave of Irish luxury interiors is a marriage of contrasts – where old meets new, and rural craftsmanship finds a place in modern design language. Designers like Róisín Lafferty are reaching back to the country's deep well of artisanal knowledge – handwoven tweeds, linen, pottery, and woodworking – and reinterpreting these elements through a contemporary lens.
The result is spaces that feel grounded yet refined, current yet timeless. 'Luxury in the case of taste and style is subjective, however luxury as an experience now has so many variances than before,' says Lafferty, who recently completed the design for the new Montenotte Woodland Experience in Cork – sophisticated cabins with the focus on modern Irish heritage.
'There is a place for the pristine experience with formality and precision, but what I am more and more drawn to is the place of quiet luxury. The opposite to stuffy and formal, the soft, quiet, considered, tactile, sensory experiences that are often hidden in plain sight.'
Stone floors echo traditional farmhouses but are now warmed by underfloor heating and softened with wool rugs in gentle greys and peat tones. Handcrafted furniture, often made from native Irish woods like oak or ash, is pared-back in form but rich in finish.
The look isn't showy, it's considered, with an emphasis on quality, heritage, and understated beauty. Tonally, spaces tend to be moody with pops of accent colours in tweeds, linens and marbles drawn from Ireland's natural palette of misty greens, granite greys, bog browns and sky blues – a connection to place that gives Irish interiors a sense of calm and belonging.
In the last few years, a glut of new hotel offerings – Within The Village, Native, Breac House, Inis Meáin Suites among them – are championing this interiors style and experience with a focus on service, homegrown crafts and vernacular design which honours place and heritage, and homeowners are following suit. It's the gently treated raw materials, clay vessels thrown in small rural workshops, handwoven tweed cushions, each one slightly different, and wooden furniture that tells stories through its knots and grain.
Modet is a small Irish studio in Kinsale, Co Cork, that makes sleek, contemporary furniture high on style, aesthetics and functionality, an example of the shift from traditional Irish furniture to pieces which reflect modern spaces. There is a real focus on material integrity and artisanal skill which reflects a deeper cultural shift: a desire to slow down, live intentionally, and find beauty in the humble and the real, yet rooted in contemporary design.
Traditional woollen mills like Foxford, Mourne Textiles, Cushendale and McNutt of Donegal, once seen as heritage institutions rooted in the past, are now at the forefront of a modern design movement blending time-honoured craftsmanship with contemporary style.
A growing number of small Irish retailers, The Irish Design Shop, I Am of Ireland, Stable of Ireland and new arrival Clan among them, are championing the movement, serving as vital platforms for local artisans and curating collections in a considered and beautiful way.
In Emma Penruddock's beautifully restored farmhouse-cum-gallery space in Wexford, you can browse and buy pottery by David Holden and bowls by Cora Cummins, art by Dominique Crowley and Gemma Geraghty along with primitive famine furniture and modern pieces by Eileen Gray. Hannah O'Reilly's charming new shop in Kilrush, Co Clare, is beautifully curated with pieces from budding artisans including ceramics by Vinh Truong and Kevin O'Callaghan and vernacular style furniture by Brian McMahon.
Dublin's Irish Design Shop has become known for its collaborations with Irish makers and creatives, including artist Jo Howard who specialises in textile landscapes, John Hanly throws and ceramics by Adam Frew.
'For a small island, Ireland is home to an extraordinary depth of creative talent that's deeply rooted in tradition, yet always evolving,' says O'Reilly. 'It feels like a particularly exciting moment in Irish design.'
