A bevy of bathing beauties

DesignSolutions: Problem: Over the past few years Pat McCarthy has designed many types of goods for the home, some for the Kilkenny stores and others for the American home shopping channel QVC. He's also involved in product development and works with his team from a cluster of buildings near Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.

The main building there was originally a traditional farmhouse and, after much renovation, it is now also his home as well as studio.

Mark Guard, an Irish architect, now living in London, worked on the house and, while the stone façade to the front suggests a regular, attractive country house, the inside spaces were opened up, unusual layouts created and the space now has what one might call a organic-modern style. While one end of the building given over to studio space, the other is McCarthy's private area. "One of the key things we wanted to do in this part of the house was stack the two bedrooms above each other and create en suites for both without eating into the actual room space in the process."

Solution: This was done by playing with the idea of the 'lean-to' structures that were hung, usually in a clumsy manner, from the upper floors of so many dwellings that were built before our 20th century need for multiple bathrooms.

Of course, what McCarthy and Guard created has scant resemblance to the old fashioned wooden boxes that held little more than a wc and sink. But the concept of a small extra room added to the main building, did result in a slick version of the 'lean-to'. Off the external wall of each bedroom is a small shower, one on top of the other, built in a concrete shell that begins at ground level and rises up the first floor.

From each bedroom they are reached from behind a free-standing wall which screens the toilet and sink (these were placed inside the bedroom, beside the door to the shower).

From the other side, this wall acts as a headrest for the bed. The chrome showerheads are by Vola and the water mixer by Trevitherm. Both were bought in Edwins, Notting Hill, London (Vola is also distributed by Shires in Ireland).

So while only a very small amount of space was lost from each bedroom, both now have an ensuite.

"From the outside, at the back, it's the only thing that suggests there's something different happening here, on what is otherwise a regular farmhouse," says Pat.

That's not where the drama ends. The shower off his bedroom at the upper level is open to the elements: there is no roof. Slim glass panels can be closed for privacy - although, set in the middle of the countryside, only the nearby livestock might object.

Pat uses this outdoor shower every day. "The experience of showering outside is great," he says. "You are under hot water but also have the bracing air around you and views out over the countryside. I use it in the dead of winter and am not a masochist!"

The shower area off the bedroom beneath is also open on each side and has similar glass panels. "Friends balk when they come to stay but end up liking the shower by the time they leave because it's so refreshing."

The original plan was to have a retractable glass roof on the open-roofed shower above, something Pat is still considering.

But despite the cold weather, for the moment at least, he's showering en plein air.

Pat McCarthy Studio, The Rower, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny.

Tel: 051 42385, www.patmccarthystudio.ie