A boutique furniture business that sells 20th century classic design replicas has found success the old-fashioned way - by word of mouth, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER
One good New Year’s resolution would be to steal Una Foley’s style. Her modern home is a mix of contemporary and classic pieces where hard lines are toned down with soft furnishings and set against a paintscape that she refreshes regularly.
Foley is one half of CA Design, a boutique business that sells 20th century classic replicas that she runs with her niece, Carol Anne. It is her initials that form the company name.
“The furniture we do at CA Design is now timeless,” Foley says. “The pieces look like they could have been designed yesterday yet some of the designs the chairs are based on are more than 60 years old. They sit as well with antiques as they do in a contemporary setting.”
This school of thought is in evidence throughout Foley’s home. She hates modern minimalism, preferring a space in which to feel warm and comfortable. She favours “a mix of antiques with contemporary pieces”.
Interiors have always been her first love. Growing up, she was buying House and Garden when other teens were reading Cosmopolitan, but when she left school the Limerick lady took up European studies at the University of Limerick. While at college she recalls drooling over the Laura Ashley catalogue, one of the few interior brochures available in 1970s Ireland, and fantasising about how she would work the fabric swatches into her own space.
A tutor took Foley and her undergraduate class to Moscow, which was still under communism. That was 1978. She bought a Dr Zhivago-style fur hat and brought back Soviet contructivist posters and stamps that adorned her college year walls. The decoration bug had bitten.
After college she got married and, with her then husband, bought a two-storey over basement period house in Limerick that had been sub-divided into six flats. Slowly she set about repatriating the house into a family home, project managing the renovation and cutting her teeth on the hands-on and grittier side of the business.
Her friends were impressed. “I got asked to help out and offer opinions but I still wouldn’t have called myself an interior designer. I didn’t have the confidence to take money for the work.” Six years later the house sold for three and a half times what they had paid for it. This was 1995. The Celtic Tiger was in nappies.
Fast forward a decade: Foley and her husband had divorced and she went back to college, to the Dublin Institute of Design, to follow her one true love. Work still took a back seat to rearing her three children. Emily, the youngest, is now 17, Isobel 18, and Ali 20.
Foley got her first paid interior design commission from a cousin. “People who saw her place got in touch and my workload grew from there,” she says. “People started to seek me out. They liked what I was doing. It helped build my confidence.”
Her own 1990s-built house demonstrates her confidence. It is a work in progress, she says. “I have no particular style. It’s a look that has evolved and has taken time to put together.”
The kitchen has a rustic, country feel. The dresser was made by Jan Watté, a Belgian living in Ireland since 1992. It has a mirrored back to help reflect light. Botanical prints bought online have been framed and create a colourful area of interest above the table. The space is also home to several Eames-style rockers, a version of the mid-century design classic usually seen in harder, sterner interiors. Una has softened their silhouette by dressing them with ikat-printed cushions she bought in Bo Concept. She replaced the kitchen cupboard doors with tongue-and-groove doors and black granite countertops. The island was originally stained dark. Foley painted it white to lighten the look.
In the sitting room there is a Georgian-style sofa with pea arms that Foley bought from Peter Johnston Interiors. It had a strong ikat cover that she reincarnated a few years ago with a plain neutral fabric. She bought the pale-blue pin-striped armchair in Buckleys of Sandycove for about 20 punts. The rug she found in Kashan Carpets.
The living room doubles as an office. She confides that the space is usually far messier than it looks here. She works at a “quite battered” rosewood art deco pedestal table bought years ago at John Dunphy’s Auction Rooms in Sixmilebridge. She sits at an Eames-style office chair.
There is smart shelving, painted marine blue, an intense colour by Little Greene Paints. She updates the paintwork on the walls every six months. Elsewhere in the room is a linen-upholstered Matador-style chair.
Her daughter Ali has just moved out. A wall in her old room, now occupied by Isobel, is decorated with I-D magazine covers in poster format. The built-in single bed has oodles of storage drawers underneath.
Her advice to anyone wanting to update their home is to play with colour. “Paint is a cheap way to update a room and new cushions can really help change the mood of the existing furniture. They’re not expensive to buy and can transform a plain seat into an area of interest.” She also suggests reframing paintings.
CA Design pops up at Antica's new showroom, at 6-7 Mulcahy Keane Industrial Estate, Greenhills Road, Walkinstown today, (January 5th) and next Saturday, January 12th, from 10am to 5pm. The shop is open by appointment for the rest of January. Tel: 01-514 3540 Cadesign.ie
