“In designing Adare Manor, we aimed to embrace what the true meaning of luxury means to a guest traveling in the 21st Century,” said Kim Partridge, founder, Kim Partridge Interiors. “The perception of luxury has become intensely nuanced. When we are traveling, the same hotel interiors over the world really will not do, however opulent ceilings and deeply veined marble…At Adare, the key for us was to define how a top-end hotel should make its mark today.”
Adare wants to give guests the sense that they are staying in a country home inspired by Lady Caroline Dunraven’s love of collecting while she made her Grand Tour of Europe (ostensibly to escape the perpetual building work). As was typical of the neo-Gothic movement, layers of pattern weave themselves throughout the fabric of the building, and classical designs were chosen or adapted to give a contemporary flair. Religious influences were taken from both Pugin’s design ethos and from Philip Charles Hardwick (architect for the Dunravens) who had excerpts from the Bible painted on the kitchen walls to motivate staff during their daily chores. The result is an eclectic interior with a touch of drama.
“To our minds, experience has replaced stuff, which is not to say that things, both decorative and functional, have ceased to matter,” she said. “However, it does mean that the design vision and everything that expresses it needs to be authentic. Authenticity in its turn means localization, giving the hotel its particular sense of place in the history and culture of the location as well as in the geography, and last but not least, the design should touch all the senses. Combine these with a guest service that is focused on the individual and a hotel will offer a luxury experience to meet, or surpass, contemporary expectations.”
Similar to the Dunraven family, the new owners have an appreciation of fine art and have accumulated a collection of over one hundred original C17th-C19th paintings. Rooms have been decorated with the art collection at the forefront of the design.
“People no longer want to do what everyone else does, they want their own experience of the locality of the hotel they are staying in; they want to get a meaningful insight into the place where they are staying,” Partridge said. “Our homes are authentic to us; in numerous ways, they contain our memories. The authenticity of a hotel experience is a different matter; it is not about ‘us’—the hotel guest—but about ‘you’—the place in which we are staying.”
The designers used traditional, natural fabrics throughout from Irish and English suppliers. Fabric has been designed specifically for the project using looms from traditional weavers such as Gainsborough Silks, Watts of Westminster and The Silk Gallery. Silk, mohair, wool and velvet have been layered in abundance. Wool and silk rugs have been designed and handwoven specifically for The Adare from as far afield as Nepal and India.
Antiques have been collected: original furniture has been restored and new pieces have been designed using cabinet makers from Ireland and England specifically for the Adare.
Check out a virtual 3D tour of the space here.
www.myinspiredesign.com/irish
