Photographer Emily Quinn’s home is a colourful sanctuary inspired by travel and family
Emily Quinn and Sophie in the kitchen of Emily's Ranelagh home.
Behind the facade of Emily Quinn’s Ranelagh home in Dublin lies a stylish sanctuary to suit the needs of a modern family, where Batman masks and well-worn Crocs sit comfortably alongside Louis Poulsen lamps and custom terrazzo floors.
A fashion photographer and children’s clothes designer, Emily has transformed a standard 1980s three-bedroom semi-detached house into a family home full of texture, colour, and personality. “Colour is central to my work. I didn’t want a black/white/grey, toned-down house, you know, like the ‘after’ versions of the Home Alone house,” she says.
When Emily and her husband, Niall O’Driscoll, co-founder of tech company vStream, bought the family home for €690k in 2017, it was far from turnkey. The proportions were modest and the layout typical of its era — compartmentalised and inward-looking — but Emily and Niall recognised potential.
“As soon as we moved in, we knew we wanted to renovate,” she says “Even though I changed my mind countless times, I kept returning to my original instinct.” The existing plan consisted of a narrow hallway leading to a quintessentially ’80s kitchen — again, divided and quite choppy. Beyond it, a rear annex accommodated a small utility room and toilet — functional, yet disconnected from the main living space. “We took it all down, and our builder began again, and he designed it to be more kind of useful to how we live now,” says Emily.
At the crux of the renovation was the desire to make the house more functional to accommodate the entire family. The internal partitions separating the hallway, through-room and rear utility were removed, and the builder adopted a more fluid, contemporary layout.
As we walk through the transformed space, her builder Franny — a neighbour whose craftsmanship Emily praises without hesitation — moves quietly in the background, attending to final details. “We’re nearly there,” says Emily. Once the countertop goes in, we move back.” I bet the in-laws are pleased.
From the outset, the kitchen was always destined to be the fulcrum of the house (I’ve been making my physics teacher proud since the Noughties). It wasn’t meant to be just a place to cook, but the architectural and emotional heart of the home. “I love entertaining. I love feeding people. I’ll spend hours making a Sunday roast. So I can’t wait. I’m finally getting the island I’ve always wanted,” says Emily.
They didn’t have the smoothest of journeys, though. “We had initially gone with a Crittall door. I had asked two carpenters to come out and price it, and then they ghosted me,” says Emily.
She found a highly skilled carpenter, Alan O’Shea of AOS Carpentry, who had an amazing track record of fitting kitchens. “At this stage, I was broke, but I really didn’t care. He priced it for me, and it wasn’t far off Ikea, I’ll be honest. He is so, so good at his job. He extended the units to full height, taking them up to the ceiling, and made a window seat, a multi-purpose nook for cups of tea, chats, and Lego sessions.”
The creative couple are inspired by their travels, but they didn’t initially agree on the floor that now looks as if it always belonged. “Niall said the terrazzo reminded him of school (ah, now, Niall). But we visited Peggy Guggenheim’s house in Venice, and once he saw the terrazzo floor there, he got it,” says Emily. The mint-green flooring flecked with mother-of-pearl accents is custom-made by the family-run Irish business, JK Terrazzo & Concrete Flooring, and comes alive under the overhead Louis Poulsen light, which floods the honeyed wooden table from another Irish brand, CA Design.
Beautiful mid-century chairs inherited from Niall’s dad fit right in, and a whimsical overhead cylindrical lamp from Mo Muse in Powerscourt Townhouse features chirpy-looking birds. An exposed bulb gives a springtime feel.
GOING into the front room, the eye is drawn toward a keyboard with a large brass lion lamp presiding over it. I resist the urge to break into a raucous “Ah Zabenya”. Her son Euan’s influence is seen in the forest green paint, used as a feature colour, adding cohesion to the house’s green exterior windows and in the terrazzo floor. “This room used to be a bit of a dumping ground. I wanted a quiet space here — for music, movies, and Lego,” says Emily.
A lot of the “junk” has been removed, and though there’s “less stuff,” it doesn’t feel minimalist or bare.
I’m horrified when Emily tells me they had no TV for years. Joey Tribiani echoes in my ear: “But what do you point all the furniture at?” Movie night is definitely on the cards now. The wood-burning stove whispers of embers glowing and dimming, a theatre of lights barely outshone by the TV.
My favourite room in the house is the downstairs bathroom, which has undergone the ultimate extreme makeover. Imagine if Tyra got her hands on it (shudder). A jaunty sink with citrus yellow accents is the pièce de résistance, complemented by bright, bold floral wallpaper.
The Italian Blue Provence wall-mounted sink was a luxury splurge, but Emily resisted buying until it went on sale. Judging how my heart leapt when I saw it, I can’t imagine having such restraint. At €2,600 full price, it certainly was an investment, but Emily knows it’s a forever piece. Though it be small, it’s mighty. The glossy white porcelain base forming the bowl and backsplash gleams against a yellow underside.
Nobody puts the taps in the corner of this house: The cross-shaped faucet handles in that same striking marigold yellow really tie the look together.
A veritable showstopper in its own right, the floral House of Hackney wallpaper is hardly second fiddle to the sink. The significance of that wallpaper lies beyond the aesthetics.
“During covid, I had a cousin who died by suicide. I spotted this wallpaper on Instagram, and the post was commemorating the brand’s manager, [Waterford man] Steve Corcoran, who had died last year,” says Emily.
She wanted to honour her cousin, and the tribute paid to Steve just deepened the emotional connection.
A seasoned fashion and portrait photographer who has shot campaigns for Arnotts, Brown Thomas, Avoca, The Irish Times, and more, Emily’s ability to tell stories through details shines through her home. Case in point: geometric tiles with alternating horizontal and vertical graphic lines are giving an Amalfi Coast-adjacent outdoors indoors vibe. “We stayed in this place called the Brighton Hotel in Sorrento. They have these beautiful blue-and-white striped tiles everywhere. And I always said, God, if I ever were to do the utility room … I got those tiles for that reason,” she says.
With clever use of dark-blue cabinetry, the room is compact and fitted to have enough space for washing and ironing. “It’s a little room that’s well-finished, but it has enough storage that we can put everything away,” says Emily.
WHILE Mediterranean motifs pop up in the utility and upstairs bathroom, it’s not thematic to the entire house. “I wanted each room to have its own distinct personality,” says Emily. “I wanted the approach to be beautiful but functional, and I said if I’m going to be in the utility room doing washing and ironing, I’m going to make it pretty.” I smile and nod even though I’m the proud owner of an iron which is still in the box and has never, and will never, be used.
A little tableau styled atop a table catches the eye in the hallway. Objets d’art perch on a wooden chest — an azure blue vase with fresh blooms and a framed photo of Dylan, 19, and Euan, 5. The visual anchor is a framed print Emily won in an auction designed by the art duo Electronic Sheep, famous for their scarves. Is the print’s subject a person with a wolf mask or a human-wolf hybrid? Or is it grown-up Michael J Fox reincarnated as Adult Wolf (a woman can dream)? Who cares? It sparks conversation the minute you walk in the front door.
Six-year-old golden retriever Sophie is a social anchor for the neighbourhood. “Everyone knows Sophie. She positions herself on the window in the front bedroom upstairs and sits like a queen. She watches everything that goes on in the estate,” says Emily. We do love Sophie, but her behaviour can err on the side of rambunctious. Windows: Who knew when they installed Aluclad windows about six years ago, the pup would be entering her calamitous era? “Sophie ate away the windows. I later tried to polyfill them myself and just ruined them.”
She’s a bit older and wiser now, but Emily had foresight this time and replaced the original natural wood floor downstairs with a heavy, durable laminate that can be mopped easily. “The wood flooring was banjaxed — it marked and dirtied badly, and the window frames were chewed away.”
There’s still more to be done — the carpet, more artwork up the walls and maybe the upstairs will come later, but right now, she can’t wait to share it with everyone. “I’m so excited to have an open house with biscuits, tea, and kids coming in and out.” If Emily has one bit of advice for homeowners planning renovations, it’s this: “Go and visit as many places as possible. We love the olive green landscapes of Sicily, the tiled Riads in Morocco, and the blues in Sorrento. Our house feels like a map of our travels. Visit as many [showrooms] as possible to see what’s out there. Reach out to suppliers and price around. Interior blogs helped so much with our plan.”
Final words? “Plan together.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
