Something hi-tech but girly in the wardrobe

Design Solutions: You've got to admire Sharon Creagh's industrious spirit: the interior designer does everything from complete home overhauls to making the oddest things - on the day we visited, for example, a fabric cover for a birdcage. Eoin Lyons reports.

Her shop in Rathgar is full of the popular French look: painted wood furniture with carved decoration, bolts of toile de jouy, spindly wrought iron garden furniture, soft paint shades and so on. Feminine and pretty just about sum it all up.

So when it came to creating a space for a computer station in the shop, it might have been easy to guess that she would follow the same look.

The question was how to make a small neat office that - because it's in her shop - could be folded away at a moment's notice.

The answer lay in a wardrobe: she has adapted one to hold her computer. "The wardrobe came from a company called Scumble Goozie in Cheltenham. They make simple ready-to-paint traditional furniture," says Sharon. "I wanted something that could be closed away and keep everything hidden."

So inside the wardrobe she added a high shelf to holds files (carefully covered in fabric) and another a mid-level to hold the computer. Under this is a kind of drawer on a sliding runner on which sits the keyboard. The hard drive rests on the base of the wardrobe and a round hole was cut in the back to allow wires reach the electrical socket.

"It's important that the doors are on a hinge that can fold right back flush to the sides of the wardrobe, otherwise you could feel quite hemmed in," says Sharon, adding "It's all very girly, I know. The fabric pin-up board I made with ribbons and pearl-topped pins. As it is, this would be great for a girl's room but you could do something similar for a boy but use stripes or tartans."

While she is willing to create these wardrobes for clients, Sharon points out that it wouldn't be too hard to do it yourself with an existing wardrobe and the help of a carpenter.

But with children going back to school soon, we think asking Sharon to make one for your daughter or son is far preferable to the hassle of trying to organise it yourself. To adapt a wardrobe you have already will cost from €650.

Sharon Creagh Interiors, 57 Highfield Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, tel 01 4970731