The Schoolhouse | Kingston Lafferty Design

This is the family home of husband, wife and five children, located in Galway Ireland. The home is the epicentre of their hectic and bustling family life. Busy days with family breakfasts, homework, after school activities, paths crossing throughout the day, to calmer evenings, home cooked meals, Irish dancing practice, and both quiet and raucous evening times. It is a home that frames a set of lives, busy, excited and happy lives. It is very much a lived in home, and one we had the pleasure to work on, getting to know this wonderful family and getting to create spaces that best suit how they choose to live.

History of the house – Post Georgian Era, Georgian style home, located in Galway City. 3 bay, 3 storey house built circa 1960’s, part of a terrace of similar homes.

The entrance hall greets you upon entering with the stairs in front of you and the main living room the first door on the left which connects to the reading room. At the end of the entrance hall is the entrance to the kitchen. Connecting the kitchen and the reading room is a small internal annex, which had previously been an exterior space. It has now been designed as an additional, light filled nook for the kitchen, a cozy space to sit and drink a coffee looking out to the courtyard. We re-purposed a large glass display cabinet that had previously been in the reading room, to fit this space, incorporating mirror to dramatize the light. The addition of the annex allows multiple circulation route options between the rooms, rather than the linear layout that had been there.

The kitchen main structural wall was opened up to create a framed opening allowing visual connection to the dining room and the rear lounge and garden. The kitchen wall had been the end of the main house structure, where the miscellaneous back buildings started, but now this wall had become the dining wall. Looking towards the garden from the main dining wall, there is an external small courtyard to the left with glazed doors and a glazed roof. This is the lightest space in the house. From the dining room we designed accordion whitewashed oak doors as a division panel between dining and sunken lounge. This can be kept partially or fully open or closed depending on the use. On the right hand side of these doors is the link between the dining and the long utility storage corridor. There is a full wall of concealed, full height overflow storage on this walkway linking to the back door. At the end of the corridor, past the back door, there are a series of utility and WC spaces, which previously would have been the old sheds but have been re-built to be part of the main space.

First floor has the burgundy tiled WC at the top of the stairs, and next to it the large family bathroom which acts as a master en-suite. Up a further three steps is the master bedroom and master walk in wardrobe, followed by the small study space which then leads us to the stairs to the second floor. The second floor has the blue and white patterned tile bathroom next to the small girls bedroom with brass bed and fireplace. Up the following three stairs is the two boys bedroom with Lemony Snickett style bunk beds which double up as play and desk areas. This leads onto the largest of the girls bedrooms with Lee Broom hanging bedside pendants finishing the floor with the smallest nursery bedroom, complete with fireplace and landing hanging wicker chair.

Our role

This project has been a long one. We were first approached to look at the project back in December, 2018, with Helena McElmeel architects starting to investigate the best planning application approach a further year previous. So all in all, it has been four to five years, start to finish. Due to the historical and conservation relevance of the building, the conservation and planning department were very strict with granting permission for the design works both architecturally and interior.

Our role was to look at the interior architecture of the whole house, the connection between old and new, the functions of the house; bringing what was an outdated layout and configuration, into the now, with focus on the kitchen being the central core, visually connected and framed from all of the other spaces on the ground floor. We also looked at the way the family wanted to live in their home, the spaces that they naturally gravitated towards and how best to design the configuration and journey between these, most importantly, how best to integrate natural light to key areas. The fabric of the original house had hugely thick walls and structure, massively reducing the amount of natural light that could filter through to the dining and kitchen. The architecture sought to filter in as much light as possible by increasing ope sizes, integrated glazed roof structure and subtle roof lights. As well as the interior architecture, we fully designed the interior for the whole house.

Brief and design concept

My inspiration for this house came from the abundant character that exudes from the building as soon as you enter it. This house had a wonderful soul and spirit from the onset of the project, and we sought to embrace and harness that. Our key self-appointed task, was to create an interior that sensitively encompassed the essence of the property and for the end result to feel like it had always been like that. In summary, we wanted it to feel embedded in the building, not a surface level application; timeless and original.

My other key inspiration for the design came from the Handmaids Tale. Although a heavy and intense, futuristic, dystopian, tale, the series captivated me in terms of set design and overall atmosphere. The spaces in the main home in the set exuded a shadowed, atmospheric and poetic darkness. Whilst at the same time, a strangely inviting feeling, drawing you inside the well-worn, homely and somehow timeless interior.          

What was your objective? And the biggest challenge?

My objective was to create a home that felt spirited, soulful, alive and homely. A tactful and encompassing home that reflects both the original essence and the vibrancy of the lives of those who live there. It is a family home for a large and loving young family that unfolds for each of them as they experience it.

The biggest challenge was the conservation constraints. The existing property had a series of dilapidated out buildings and sheds that completely blocked the natural light getting into the building. It took numerous design iterations from both KLD and the architects to get the design approved and to convince the planning authorities to allow us redesign the building to actually enhance it and give the decaying back structures new life, improving the overall quality of the building inside and out. This process took a lot of time and creative thinking as well as patience from our clients. Conservation constraints also impacted the interior design in some cases, with a lot of interior elements being required to be kept or reinstated during the works.

Interior style

We wanted to merge the old and new and ensure each space hosted a collection of interesting pieces from different eras, capturing the character and interest of the house. Our exploration of colour took its cue from the fraying original stair runner and the inlaid Georgian patterned mosaics in the entrance hallway, contrasting sky blue hues with rich burgundy, terracotta and mustard and murky tones.  Aside from the fixed finishes, the house came with an abundance of original pieces including a series of display cabinets, an original Thonet rocker, gorgeous glass and brass pendants, as well as other curiosities and delicate original net curtains we had to persuade one of the clients to keep! The main thing we sought to do was keep these pieces, give them all homes, and add elements that added interesting structures and shapes throughout, injecting colour and material contrasts for depth and richness.

I had purchased a collection of Italian mid-century light fittings that I was waiting to find the right home for and it was clear to me that their structure and colour would fit beautifully in the main reception rooms. Rather than opting for formal chandeliers, the eclectic forms of the sputnick and mobile like shapes offered a playfulness and fun to these spaces, picking up on the primary colours of the original floor tiles. Strong stone coffee tables were selected to anchor these two rooms and sculptural seating was chosen to layer up shapes and add a youth and vibrancy. Our joinery design incorporated high gloss lacquer and brass and provided both bar and media storage. A key consideration throughout these spaces and the rest of the existing house was the artwork. We sourced atmospheric and emotive pieces of Irish photography and abstract bold colour paintings throughout.

The kitchen was designed to be deliberately old fashioned. When we first met the family to get the original briefing, we all sat in the then, dark and cosy kitchen, around a pot of tea served with home baked treats. Although cold and lacking in natural light, there was a character that we wanted to retain. We designed the kitchen in a dark stained oak, and took inspiration from the original kitchen table when designing the kitchen island.

The rear extension area was a favourite of mine to design. I wanted to distinguish this area as a different type of lounge and encourage a different function within it. What better way than to create a sunken conversation pit. The thinking was to sink the seating down so that the view through to the garden could be better celebrated. By creating a structural opening in the kitchen, suddenly we were able to visually connect the kitchen, dining and rear lounge, and by sinking the lounge, we kept a clear visual to the garden. I have always loved the Roche Bobois Mah Yong sofa, so we designed the conversation pit concrete structure to work with the modules of the sofa and opted for a rich moss green velvet upholstery fabric to blend it into the garden. Unlike the rest of the existing house, this space is light filled from all aspects, including a vaulted roof light so we designed streamlined limed oak joinery to clad the stove and TV wall, adding a warmth and natural tactility and integrated classic light fittings to sculpturally define it. The moon by Davide Groppi is a forever favourite as is the dramatic flos wall light.

The dining area is the bridge between the old and new, a previous lean to extension filled with damp and cold, the new design has an almost orangery style, backing onto the boundary wall of the kitchen. We designed a sleek and contemporary bench and dining table but kept the original dining chairs, combing them with Italian mid century wall sconces for a stripped back and raw aesthetic that connects to the sunken lounge and the small courtyard. We continued the terracotta tiles from the dining interior to the courtyard exterior.

Media provider: Barbara Corsico