Clodagh
photo by Keith Scott Morton
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? I do already, and it is in Beacon, New York, in the fantastic Hudson Valley surrounded by Dia and Storm King sculpture park, organic farms and music venues.
What are three words to describe your style? 1. Timeless 2. Authentic 3. Comfortable
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? It wasn’t just one bedroom, we moved five times before I was sixteen. Plus, the bleak dormitories of my boarding school, which makes six. The one that I am nostalgic about was my nursery bedroom in our home, Moytura House in the West of Ireland, where in winter there was always a roaring fireplace and hot water bottles to warm my bed. We toasted homemade bread on a toasting fork and told stories while the soft sounds of burning logs lulled me to sleep. Oscar Wilde, whose father’s country home it was, had engraved his initials on the nursery window using his mother’s diamond ring.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? An organic top-of-the- line mattress with all the linens and pillows.
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer other than yourself, who would it be? Tadao Ando
No room is complete without good lighting.
People think of me as kind, but I am really a sensitive army tank (my husband says not always that sensitive).
Things you omit from:
A flower arrangement: The arrangement bit, keep it simple.
An hors d’oeuvre platter: Anything that’s not vegan.
A bar cabinet: Fussy glasses.
A song for:
Dinner at home: Depends what country of origin the dish is that I’m cooking …flamenco if it is Spanish and I like to dance in the kitchen… none during the dinner though, just a clamor of happy voices
Working at your desk: Boccherini
Going for a run: I don’t run, I walk and listen to the joyful cacophony of New York
Biggest Vice? Hard to choose, there are many contenders!
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? A dim sum group of international cooking oils and ingredients. I love to cook because it is such immediate satisfaction, you don’t have to wait four years to walk through a building you designed…
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? Fifty shades of Black describe the contents of my closet. Black recedes and does not interfere with my color selections. The only problem is that I need a miner’s light to select my clothes. Then I throw on a plethora of ethnic bracelets that I collect from my travels. Favorites are the name bracelets the women of the Samburu tribe in Northern Kenya, (from The Thorn Tree Project 501 C 3, of which I am vice president and whose Board I serve on) made for me.
Who is your star crush? Liam Neeson by day and Brad Pitt by night or is it vice versa!?
What is the thing you would never do on a project, but don’t detest when you see others do it? Use heavy ornate gilt frames for art. My beloved, now deceased friend and artist, Esteban Vicente used to call them Mafiosi coffins of art.
If there were a fire, and you could only keep one design book, what would it be?
Barragan: Armando Salas, Portugal. Photographs of the architecture of Luis Barragan.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? Pioneering Wellness by Design.
photo by Keith Scott Morton
A Few Favorites:
Movie: The Lives of Others
Book: Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Peace is every step“
Scent: I mix my own essential oils every day. Today is a favorite mix of frankincense, rose and lavender
The fabric you always come back to: Jack Lenor Larsen’s sturdy woven Shan Silk
Dream project: A cross-generational campus for the study and showcase of wellbeing, environmental stewardship movement and the arts.
Meal: A baked potato with good olive oil, shitake mushrooms and watercress salad.
Drink: Tequila
Hotel: The Lake Palace Udaipur
Travel Destination: Anywhere in the world except the frozen north, I am a travel slut but I hate to shiver.
Artist: Richard Serra for sculptures and Basquiat for paintings.
Thing to collect obsessively: Experiences
Era in the history of design: Now is the history of the future
Museum: The Tadao Ando designed, Museum of Contemporary Art in Fort Worth
Paint Color that always look great: Weimaramer grey by Benjamin Moore
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: Cindy Allen, @thecindygram and Mitch Owens @adaesthete
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? Dogs. They are welcome in our studio. Bring them over.
