Kathryn M. Ireland
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? I have one, in the South of France! But if I could have a third, it would be on the West Coast of Scotland where I grew up, somewhere I could weave...or at least be part of that process...
What are three words to describe your style? Unassuming, Comfortable, Un-Orthodox
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? In London, I redecorated my room when I was 8, and gone went the animal prints. I’d cut pages out of H&G UK; I remember that was a specific room that inspired me - it had apple green walls, a bed with a sheer company and a dimmed spot light inside it. I remember we must have had the first walk-in closets in Britain. I also had my collection of Julip ponies, bought from a rather sleazy basement in Beauchamp Place. They were my prized possessions.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? My mother gave me a marquetry commode that her father had bought. It was a really good one, and whether I’ve lived in a beach shack in Santa Monica or the Spanish Farmhouse that the boys were bought up in or my new contemporary home, it has worked everywhere.
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer other than yourself, who would it be? Nancy Lancaster
No room is complete without a punch of red.
People think of me as a bit out there, but I am really focused, and expect those around me to work smartly.
Things you omit from:
• A flower arrangement: Those green things you stick in the bottom of the vase.
• An hors d’oeuvre platter: Any sort of decoration.
A song for:
• Dinner at home: I don’t like to have music on when I am eating.
• Working at your desk: Anything from Mozart, Eine Kleine, and Ary Musik
• Going for a run: I don’t listen to music when I run/walk - I listen to nature or talk to myself, go over things.
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? A house, which I have done - I woke up and it was in escrow.
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? Not really, I don’t wear too much color.
Who is your star crush? Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights
What is the thing you would never do on a project, but don’t detest when you see others do it? Trim
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? It doesn’t have to be remembered, just enjoyed during my lifetime.
A Few Favorites:
Scent: Santal Le Labo, its both masculine and feminine
The fabric you always come back to: My first design Quilt Red, it's really timeless
Dream project: An apartment in Rome.
Meal: a fab plate of Pasta.
Drink: a properly made Cosmo - not too sweet, a splash of Cointreau
Hotel: La Posta Vecchia, I used to stay there before it was a hotel, it's still run as if it was a private house.
Travel Destination: anywhere that has a sense of history....loved San Miquel Allende, just spent New Year's there..
Artist: Matisse
Thing to collect obsessively: French 50's Ceramics
Era in the history of design: Present time - everything is permitted! We now have the ability to use 16th - 21st century pieces in the same room
Museum: The V & A, the exhibitions that Victoria Broackes has masterminded (Bowie, Pink Floyd, etc) has changed the face of the museum.
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: Now you're making me think.. I'd have to say Oscar, Otis and Louis (my sons), love seeing what they are up to.
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? I used to have Jack Russell's - Greta and Gitana, they were with us all for 18 years! We now have Buster a corgi/JR, he is a rescue from the Malibu fires last year.
For more from Kathryn visit her new digital platform, The Perfect Room at theperfectroom.com
