Interior design guru Róisín Lafferty: ‘Grandad’s depression meant he hid. That was hard to watch and pushed me to do things that made me uncomfortable’
Pinpointing the essence of her award-winning designs, Dubliner Róisín Lafferty reflects on growing up in a single-parent household and seeing her beloved grandfather’s struggles, making her mark in London and now nesting in a Wicklow cottage
Interior designer Róisín Lafferty who has just launched an appointment-only design gallery in Dublin. Photo: Barbara CorsicoWhen the door opens to interior architect and designer Róisín Lafferty’s Fitzwilliam Square townhouse studio, I don’t mean to, but I gasp. It’s the huge metal feature hanging from the ceiling. Almost whale-like in its dimensions, coils twisted about each other, it’s so unexpected and dramatic in this traditional Georgian space.Standing below it is Lafferty herself, smiling in a manner that suggests she is used to her work receiving this kind of reaction. It’s busy today in her Dublin premises. Alongside their existing studio, they have just launched Róisín Lafferty Gallery, an appointment-only design gallery that will stock both Lafferty’s first interiors collection, some vintage pieces, and the work of other artisans and designers she and her team have long collaborated with, whose work is currently unavailable in Ireland. “I wanted to create a space that captured the essence of who we are,” she explains.
