It is called the Emerald Isle for good reason, as I remember looking out from the window
of the airplane and staring at a breathtaking landscape fully covered in lush green grasses and shamrocks.
Adare Manor is a manor house built in the early 19th-century and located in the village of Adare, County Limerick, Ireland.
It is the former seat of the Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl.
The client was hoping for an extensive restoration, refurbishment and expansion of the property, yet retaining the walls and structure of the 17th-century. Areas to be renovated included the Gallery, the Tack Room and the Guestrooms.
Each bedroom offers a decorative fireplace and are all individually styled, featuring standalone tubs, four poster beds, bespoke wallpaper and plush, traditional furnishings.
We conducted extensive research of local materials and the Irish Connemara marble was a distinctive theme with its colour and pattern resembling the topography of the country. Florals and damasks were carefully selected to represent the Georgian period and finer details such as trimmings from Samuel and Sons were included.
I was part of a larger team to accommodate the greater scope of work we were tasked to complete. My colleague and I were in charge of renovating the Guestrooms. Our first objective was to produce an inventory and to go through each and every single existing furniture, in order to understand which items would be kept and which ones would be sold off at auction. It was important to make Adare Manor feel comfortable, yet a luxurious home away from home. The old and new had to blend beautifully and seamlessly.
The Gallery is a vast vaulted room which holds wood carvings, antique tapestries, three great fireplaces and superb stained glass windows.
It is where breakfast and afternoon tea would be served to the hotel guests.
The Tack Room is for socialising, typically with local craft beers and renowned rare Irish whiskeys – a bar to host performances of traditional and contemporary Irish music near nightly.
The makeover has allowed the Manor's most beautiful period feature to shine anew, thanks to the craftsmen who carefully replaced, repaired, cleaned and polished every single antique, original stone and wood carving, roof tile and 19th Century leaded windows.