Home shows: Where practicality meets style and personality

We visited the Ideal Home Show to meet design professionals and check out all the latest trends and products

Wed, 03 May, 2023 - 13:37

Carol O’Callaghan

As crowds descended on the RDS for the Permanent TSB Ideal Home Show scouting for professional interiors advice and inspiration, the Instagram influencers were out in force, among them The Real Housewife of Drumcondra himself, Paul Kinsella, strolling the aisles checking out trends, style and innovation.

Star of RTE Player’s Relove My Space, Paul’s a hit with his 34k Instagram followers who covet his accessible DIY, styling tips and product sourcing.

His lifestyle content is pretty cool too. Just check out his recipe for the yummy Paloma cocktail if you’re in the mood for sipping something chill and tart this weekend.

Giving me his round-up on day two of the show, he said: “There’s a big difference this year in furniture being offered and a focus on sustainability.”

Referencing when he and husband Mark were first-time buyers, he understands the less sustainable impulse to get the house done quickly.

“The first house we bought was an ‘Ikea’ house, now we have ‘our’ house. Sustainability rather than panic buying,” he explains. “It’s great to see exhibitors investing in that and selling lifestyle as well as products.”

Instagram influencer, Paul Kinsella, The Real Housewife of Drumcondra, sits on Natasha Rocca Devine's living room set for DFS with Carol O'Callaghan.

An example is where Paul and I perched ourselves to chat; a cushy sofa chosen by interior designer Natasha Rocca Devine for her lifestyle living room set developed around the concept of affordable luxe living, which she says “was informed by my 18-month-old daughter and my love of travel and food and drink”.

It’s durable for family life with a neutral DFS sofa and occasional chair, accessorised with warm-toned, velvety cushions. Eye-catching details include a circular open shelving unit I could see doubling as a room divider, set against a jungle-themed wallpaper by London Art from Custom Walls Ireland.

It’s where practicality, style and personality converge and an example of how the Ideal Home Show is evolving from the days of magic mop demonstrations.

Hugh Wallace, architect and RTE Home of the Year judge, was one of a host of interiors experts speaking at this year’s Permanent TSB Ideal Home Show at the RDS.

“Irish design has stepped up a level this year,” Natasha says, “Lots of individuality from companies like Sonas Bathrooms and Cucina, the kitchen company. The presentation is incredible.”

I’m nodding having just popped by the Sonas stand where a lifestyle set is designed around a bubbling free-standing spa bath, glam metallic wallpaper and a contemporary take on art deco wall lights.

Natasha’s impression is echoed by another designer Monica Daly of MD Designs, one of several studios designing lifestyle sets for the Fleetwood Interior Hub. I’m drawn in by the warm and lightsome colour scheme she’s created, countering the bleak grey skies and rain outside.

“From a visitor’s perspective there’s a fantastic offering with everything under one roof,” she says. “I’m noticing exhibitors have a heightened awareness of new eco-friendly materials; lots of interest in appliances that make life easier.”

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She’s also noticed strong interest from younger people in her room set. Not surprising when the look is fresh and modern with on-trend colour-blocking wall treatments and funky furniture Monica designs herself.

“The female demographic was huge,” she says, “but I found a lot of men kept photographing the walls and wanting to know the paint colour as they wanted a woman’s touch in their bachelor pad.”

Interior and furniture designer Monica Daly of MD Designs shows her Clam coffee table which expands to increase its surface area and provide additional seating.

Something else to appeal to the design-savvy young crowd was Monica’s Clam table, for those looking to source furniture solutions to fit compact living spaces and offer multi-function.

Inspired by sea life along the Wicklow coastline, the Clam is a slimline coffee table with two stools concealed in its structure which swivel out to extend the table’s useable surface area or to detach to use as stools with bonus storage space underneath. For a splurge and to create continuity, a matching console is available too.

Mandy Williams, director of Dublin’s Oriel Gallery took a new approach to exhibiting at the show this year, setting up one of the gallery’s artists with paint and an easel for the public to understand the process of making an artwork.

Artist Ed Williamson creating an artwork on the Oriel Gallery's stand at the Ideal Home Show.

“It can be a little bit intimidating sometimes to walk into a gallery. A show is a much less formal way of chatting, much easier way to engage,” she says.

“We sold six paintings but it wasn’t just people wanting to buy. Lots of people were asking how to use their art. It doesn’t necessarily have to be over the fireplace. Have the art in the place you spend the most time. For most people that’s the kitchen diner, so you get to see it.”