Colouring the past

On a wet January morning, Mary Conroy's yellow-painted schoolhouse glowed like a patch of sunshine in the Co Meath drizzle. Inside, an even brighter yellow teamed with indigo and jade green gives an almost medieval look to the restored cottage. It works. The interior is warm and cheery, with stencilled fabrics and hand-painted furniture and nice pieces of Nicholas Mosse pottery on the kitchen shelves. The house, on French Lane at Stackallen, five miles from Slane, was both a boys' school and local post office. The Conroys turned the post room into an office for the flourishing interior design business. The boys' classroom was transformed into a colourful sitting/diningroom that takes its cue from window curtains in jade, blue, gold and terracotta.

They painted an old pine table in jade green with a blue border, and stencilled the centre with a blue willow pattern design to match the best china on the dresser. A muslin curtain exactly fits the glass panelled door to the downstairs bathroom and this has been hand embroidered with leaves and flowers by textile artist Katharine Fox.

Irish people are often afraid of colour, says Mary. "The whole thing with using colour is either you go the whole hog or you don't." She pulled out paint charts to show the kind of rich tones that complement period houses. White is definitely not for Irish walls, she believes, preferring the softer white from one of the heritage paint ranges. Since Meath has more than its share of old country houses, much of Mary's work since she qualified in 1996 has been in restoring rooms in client's period houses to their original elegance. Interviewing an interior designer at home is like trying to concentrate on reading a book when your favourite TV programme is on. The eye keeps straying, taking in decorating ideas you can't wait to copy at home. There is a shiny black Raeburn in the kitchen with granite worktops on either side for hot saucepans Instead of custom-made units, the Conroys put together a dresser from pieces of old pine and furnished it with colourful pottery pieces. MDF has been used to make open shelves, which were painted green and looked quite expensive. Panels have been removed from the stripped pine doors and replaced with beautiful, old, stained glass. "Bring in colour and texture in things that can be changed and keep everything else black or cream. We're very conscious of this as a long-term residence. We can go modern or Victorian in the future because all the colour is built in and around the permanent structures." Mary Conroy charges £90 for a two-hour session that will give the client an idea of how they want the room to look. After this, a fee is agreed based on how much involvement she will have in the project. "Whatever level a client wants me to come in at, I do it."

Budget is high on the agenda during these initial sessions. Anything needed in a hurry costs money, so allowing enough time to wait for the right fabric or piece of furniture makes financial sense. The latest trends in interior design? "Years ago, people either went for the period cottage or ultra modern look. Now, an eclectic mix of art deco and modern is acceptable, even in an 18th century interior." Co-ordination and getting the tones right are the key to good design, according to Mary. "It's a question of balance. Nothing has to match but just sit well together."

FOR now, a large box sits in the post room full to the brim with brochures and paint samples, gold embroidered textiles and designer curtain finials, waiting for "the big job". When she gets the call to design an entire period house or a small country hotel, Mary Conroy will be ready.