Showhouse interiors go upmarket with designs for luxury living

What price the showhouse? Largely responsible in the past for introducing the floral border at dado rail level, the showhouse used to be a bit of an afterthought, handed over to an interior designer to decorate for minimal outlay. All this has now changed. Many builders today see the showhouse as both a marketing tool and a badge of prestige and are prepared to spend time, effort and money to design and outfit it accordingly. Today, the upmarket showhouse offers a concept in aspirational living. As well as featuring the now standard clutch of en suite bathroom, large family bathroom fully-tiled, conservatory, patio, landscaped garden and barbecue, today's luxury showhouse will show off top-quality drapes, lighting, carpet, timber and ceramic flooring, integrated kitchen units, including the new double door US fridges, and perhaps some original art work or sculpture.

Many builders now involve the interior designer with the architect at planning stage, and give them a say in structural features such as doors, floors, architraves, as well as furniture and fittings. Many developments also employ a landscape architect or designer.

"Builders who used to be much more concerned with building products and structural concepts are now appreciating the marketing implications of interior design," says Frank Doonan, managing director of Gunne Residential. "This is partly to do also with a more sophisticated and well-travelled purchaser. I would say the interior design budget has doubled and trebled in recent years." Gunne Residential is selling agent for Abingdon, Swords, Co Dublin, where homes ranging from £1.7 million to £2 million went on sale last week. The interior designer is Sarah MacGinty of the London firm of interior designers Taylor, MacGinty, Howes (TMH).

"What we were trying to achieve was a classical contemporary look, a sense of the best quality we can arrive at," she says. "Many developers these days want the design to reflect the level of quality they have put into the building." The showhouse, she says, can perform both an aesthetic and a practical function for buyers. "Many people find it very difficult to envisage the finished product. So, we can illustrate that this room will fit a dining table to fit this amount of people, you will fit a double bed in here, and this is how it looks, and this room would make a good child's room." She sources widely for furniture and fittings. "The showhouse has become an indispensable marketing tool that gives added value to a development," she says, "it can show people this is how good it can get. I increasingly find a couple coming in and wanting to buy the showhouse lock, stock and barrel, saying all they need do now is hang their clothes up."

The scene has totally changed in the last few years, agrees Fionnuala Nolan, designer, Brian S Nolan Home Furnishings in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, who fitted out the showhouses in the Ardilea development in Clonskeagh, where nine detached homes built by Cosgrave Homes each sold for around £1 million. "What used to happen was the interior designer would have been called in at the end and asked to come up with something cheap and cheerful." They would get a budget to reflect this approach. Some years ago, a design budget of between £5,000 to £10,000 per property would have been the typical range. Today, it is not unusual for the designer to have a budget of £100,000-plus. Ardilea had four showhouses, each in a different style ranging from traditional to modern. Each house had a study furnished as home office with built-in bookcases and extra power points. One showhouse sported a gym and sauna. Decorative gilding, custom-made Irish furniture and a magnificent Italian dining suite also featured.

A traditional look will typically mean patterned wallpaper, heavy carpeting, drapes with swags and tails with an emphasis on formality and strong colours. Modern doesn't necessarily mean minimalist - timber floors, for example, are now so modern as to be moving towards traditional, with carpets making a comeback. The essence of modern is an attitude of flexibility, using a mixture of textures and materials to create an individual look. But with taste so subjective, how can the showhouse designer avoid the bland in favour of the marketable?

"It is difficult to design for a customer you haven't met," agrees Fionnuala Nolan. "And sometimes we just go for it. One of the bedrooms in Ardilea was ultra modern with a lot of black leather. The response to it was both positive and negative, but in a way it's all positive because you get people talking." So the role of the showhouse is to provide a space to evoke a response - and all it takes is for one couple with a penchant for black leather to clinch the deal.

House decor is, she says, increasingly influenced by the fashion industry. This season's colours of lilac, grey and silver can be reflected in drapes, cushions as well as upholstery. The commercial is also influencing the domestic. For example, some of the concepts used in a high profile hotel like The Morrison, where the interior designer was John Rocha, have percolated down to the home interior scene. Interior designer Niamh Strathern agrees that a clued-in builder will regard the interior designer as a key player. She has worked with builder Corran Homes and architect Cyril O'Brien in designing the showhouse for Shackleton Village, a development of 12 homes in Moone, Co Kildare, each priced at £475,000. The accent is on hand-crafted quality.

Traditional natural materials such as unrefined limestone have been used extensively, with oak, pine and ash timbers used in flooring, furniture, fittings and wall panelling. All furniture, fittings and architraves have been custom-made. "Kitchen and bedroom fittings are in painted pine. I used environmentally friendly paints in muted salmon, greens, creams," she says. "The bathroom and en suite both have generous sized showers with additional storage. The whole effect is very simple, but underneath you can feel the solidity of the doors; it's a subtle look.

"People these days want quality. They are not just buying a look, they want style and substance. Ideally the showhouse shows the possibility of a house and if we do our work well it is like a gift for the developer. You need a proper budget and time to do a good job, but good interior design is about more than money - the same £50,000 can be spent very badly or very well."