While the rest of us smoulder in early morning traffic jams or queue for buses in the rain, lingerie designer Carmel Browne is already at work in her garden studio at Killincarrig, Co Wicklow.

The granny flat was a major attraction when Carmel and her husband Seβbought Cherry House. It needed work but was ideal for Rapture, Carmel's exclusive silk lingerie business.

They laid a new floor when they moved in and built shelves to store the bales of silk. In open display cabinets-- acquired when Carmel worked in designer Pat Crowley's workshop - bodices and peignoirs hang alongside silk trouser liners and under-dresses, something Carmel insists no well-dressed woman should be without. Her decision to work from home was nothing to do with traffic, insists Carmel.

"I didn't want to lock the door at seven in the morning and drive down to an industrial estate somewhere. I love having people come to the house and I wanted to be there for my children, Ronan and Fidelma.

"To work from home, you need to be disciplined. I work for four hours every day. My friends know to come at lunchtime, but it wasn't always like that."

Probably built at the end of the 17th century, part of Cherry House was once a butcher's shop. A dressmaker lived here at another time.

'Cherry' is a popular name around Killincarrig, said to date from a shipwrecked cargo of cherries which seeded rampantly in the area. When they first saw it in 1994, the house was part of a large site earmarked for development, says Carmel.

"The attention was mostly on the site and nobody else was looking at the house. We bought it off the developer after the land was auctioned - it was wonderful to think we were saving it from being knocked.

"We didn't interfere with the structure, only conserved what was there and put glass doors everywhere to let in light."

Timber floors, deep windows inventively dressed by Carmel with "bits of linen" and simple white walls preserve the cottage look of the house.

A big country kitchen was installed at the back of the house and the original kitchen converted to a home office.

They also decided to create a second sittingroom upstairs, to have a view of the garden and get away from the noise of traffic on the busy through road. One of the most interesting additions is a bathroom off the main bedroom, which was literally dug out of the thickness of the wall.

The cottage garden is full of surprises, including an island formed by diverting a narrow stream, the "deeds" of which the family presented to Seβn as a surprise birthday present.

They demolished a "nasty old washhouse" to make way for a vine-covered loggia where everyone eats on warm days. Wide railway sleeper steps curve up to the lawn.

"There was half an acre with the house, with the basis of an interesting garden," says Carmel. "Apples used to be stored in the dilapidated apple house in the old days.

"I decided to work in the garden for the bones of 10 years and then open it for the Wicklow Garden Festival - I'm ready to go now."

Like many successful entrepreneurs, Carmel is an early riser, walking with her dog in the fields or on Greystones beach at daybreak. She believes the very best of the day is first thing in the morning. The garden, however, is where she goes when she needs peace and quiet.

"Tending a garden is like looking after children - all that planting and watering. A lot of women turn to the garden for that reason. If I get mad because someone doesn't turn up, I go out and deadhead roses and the anger is gone."

After graduating from the Grafton Academy and a period working for designer Irene Gilbert, Carmel met Susan Moylett, whose Dalkey lingerie shop Susan Hunter now exclusively stocks the Rapture range. The decision to keep the company small saved her from losing the run of herself , she says.

"At that time, silk underwear was big news in London and Paris and I thought, well, maybe I'd be good at that. I cut my sizes to allow for larger Irish bottoms and I had almost overnight success."

"I'm a perfectionist in everything I do. I'm a happy person, but everything has to be right. I'm completely unable to deal with people who don't think the same way."

A strong conservationist, Carmel wishes there were laws to prevent pretty rural villages like Killincarrig becoming urbanised.

"I'd love to see an end to ribbon housing development at each end of small villages. There's approval for 1,400 houses in Greystones and we just don't have the roads for that amount.

"There's a great sense of community in Killincarrig. We have good neighbours, but I hope that we're also good neighbours."

The flexibility of working at home is wonderful, says Carmel. "When there's a big job on, I work out the number of hours I need to produce and stick to it rigidly. But if I get a nice invitation, I've the freedom to go somewhere and work in the evening instead."