Spotlight on Suzie McAdam …
Design Week Dublin’s (DWD) event with Suzie McAdam was an opportunity for attendees to discover what drives this interior designer’s richly imaginative work. Following an introduction from MC Ciara Doherty, she told moderator and architect Amanda Bone: “I have long been captivated by the intersection of history and art. I love to mix eras gracefully, so that an interior can continually evolve.”
Suzie McAdam is one of Ireland’s most compelling interior designers, celebrated for her ability to transform spaces into narratives that honour history, art and modernity. After honing her craft in California on high-end residential commissions, she returned to Dublin in 2013 to establish her eponymous studio, quickly becoming a sought-after voice in the design world.
Her portfolio spans the restoration of grand Georgian houses, the reimagining of coastal escapes, and the design of luxury hotels; each project revealing a bold visual language rooted in storytelling, heritage and the unexpected.
SEE MORE: See Inside This Whimsical and Historic Home In Dublin
Suzie has an instinctive ability to layer eras with ease, creating interiors that are deeply personal, artful and enduring. “I love to make the grand intimate, to really reflect the deeply personal for my clients.” Suzie likes her work to be object-led. “I think moving house so many times has informed my approach that I want people to be able to move home and bring their home with them.” This is achieved with a mix of bespoke furniture made by local artisans and makers, carefully considered buys as well as vintage pieces and art works sourced from galleries and markets.
SEE MORE: Tales From My Wardrobe – Interior Designer Suzie McAdam
Accompanying Suzie’s conversation was a fascinating series of images starting with her early inspirations (including an illustration of a near-perfect four-poster that she did at the tender age of ten when imagining her dream bedroom), and some of her projects as well as a glimpse into the interiors of her own home.
Attendees feasted their eyes on interiors that combined colour, character and comfort with items that were collected over time. “Possessions are dear friends,” said Suzie. There were inspirations from every aspect of her life from the maritime mural in the hall that reflects her and husband Barry’s love of the sea and sailing, to how the ancient is combined with the contemporary as in the Isabella Stewart Garner Museum in Boston, and from the minimalism of Eileen Gray’s house in Roquebrune to the scent of polished mahogany and old books she recalls from her great aunt’s house in the country.” That was my childhood happy place,” she says.
For more details about Design Week Dublin, in partnership with Range Rover, see www.designweekdublin.com.
Click into the gallery to see the guests who attended.
Photographer: Conor Healy, Picture It Pix; @pictureitpix
