Home: See how interior designer Jackie Tracey curates living spaces

Jennifer Sheahan talks to interior designer Jackie Tracey and visits her new home and interiors store Jaqi

Interiors at Jaqi featuring the Rosso coffee table. Pictures: Ruth Maria Murphy

Strolling into town one day in late 2025, I saw a crew putting the finishing touches to a new home and interiors store that stopped me in my tracks. The brand names were ones I recognised from trade shows on the continent but hadn’t seen much of in Ireland, and the overall curation of the store was stunning.

We do have some wonderful stores dotted around the country, but not nearly enough — in fact, I feel we are chronically underserved as a nation. So I was thrilled to see one pop up in my vicinity, and even happier to attend its launch event before Christmas. The aesthetic itself is best described as old meets new.

Contemporary design sits alongside traditional and bespoke pieces.

There’s a touch of quirk, a strong mid-century influence, nods to Italian design, and a deep sense of soul. Nothing feels generic. I have since spent time with the owner, interior designer Jackie Tracey, to find out more about her approach to design.

From interior design to retail

Jackie Tracey’s route into interiors was not a linear one. She initially studied marketing in college, but design was always there in the background — or, as she puts it, more like an obsession quietly taking over. So the transition into interior design was a natural one. “You have it, or you don’t,” she says, and I feel this is true for many with such a passion. Her phone, like many designers’, has always been packed with images: architecture, furniture, art, finishes, odd details spotted while travelling. Inspiration gathered organically over the years.

Jackie Tracey. 

What shaped her approach most, however, was not mood boards or magazines but years spent working directly with clients in their homes.

Designing for real people — with real budgets, real families and real quirks — honed Jackie’s skills in understanding the needs and desires of each individual, and designing around those. One story she tells sticks with me: a client with an extraordinary art collection who quite literally built her house and its interior design scheme around the artwork. That philosophy — that homes should be deeply personal, not copy-and-paste — is the backbone of Jaqi.

Gap in the market

Every time I go abroad, especially to the continent, I make a beeline for home and interior stores, and I am often left with a sense of frustration that we don’t get the same breadth of quality offerings here in Ireland.

I get it — we’re a small market and being an island doesn’t help with logistics — but still I feel we could do with more quality stores and brands here.

Interiors at the retail store Jaqi.

Jackie felt the same, so she decided to do something about it. She had always wanted to open a retail store. “I saw what was on offer,” she says, speaking about travelling abroad while working as an interior designer.

Through her interior design studio, she had access to a logistics team and a warehouse, making it possible for suppliers to ship to Ireland. And so, Jaqi was finally born, stocking quality brands including Gubi, Ethnicraft, Versmissen, Caia Leifsdottir, and more.

Combining retail with service

The store may be a reality now, but she hasn’t left her interior design days behind. When you walk into Jaqi, you will likely be met by Jackie or Mark, an interior designer himself, who are on hand to make sure you don’t leave with an impulse buy that you’ll regret the second you get home.

It’s no accident that this happens so often. Buying items that are lovely individually but that don’t relate to each other — in scale, tone or style — is a mistake Jackie saw frequently and one that she seeks to address with Jaqi.

Collection including one of Jackie's favourite pieces, the Ellipse sofa by Ethnicraft.

Many home and interior stores are designed to sell objects, assuming the shopper has the skill to pull these into a cohesive design, but most of us do not possess such a skill. Therefore, integrating interior design advice into the shopping experience is a very welcome relief for many shoppers.

While all are welcome to come in and browse, my suggestion is that the best way to maximise your time in Jaqi is to come prepared.

Jackie’s advice in this area is refreshingly practical: bring photos. Bring plans if you have them. Better still, book a consultation. The team offers in-store appointments (and online consultations too), dedicating time to sit down with you, review layouts, and talk through options. Less instant gratification, more long-term satisfaction.

Going the custom route

Another differentiator that appealed to me is that Jaqi offers a wide spectrum of bespoke and semi-bespoke options, from upholstery and cushions right through to joinery and furniture design. Coffee tables, console tables, plinths, chairs, sofas — many can be tailored in terms of size, material, finish, fabric or stone. This is a service I love, because the number of days (weeks!) I personally wasted trawling stores to find the “perfect” item, only to realise it wasn’t quite the right size or colour, which was infuriating.

Interiors curated by Jackie at Henrietta Street, Dublin.

Customisation is not always the right option. It takes longer, it’s more expensive, and you need to be sure you’re getting it right before pulling the trigger. Getting samples, triple-checking measurements, and agreeing on clear timelines are important. But there’s no arguing that a piece custom-designed for your home is going to look...well, like it was made for it.

Where to find it

Jaqi is open in Charlemont Square in Dublin 2 and online at jaqi.ie, with in-store and virtual consultations available. Many pieces are ready to ship, while others are available on a POA basis where customisation is involved.

Jaqi is part of a larger ecosystem that includes Jackie Tracey Studio, which delivers full-service interior design and renovation projects. Over time, the plan is to further integrate these services, allowing clients to move seamlessly between consultation, design, retail and installation. For homeowners used to piecing these elements together themselves, this joined-up approach feels like a long-overdue shift, and one I’d personally love to see more of here in Ireland.