The Hare's Corner

Grainne Kavanagh, the owner of The Coach House an interiors and Irish design shop in Dingle, welcomes us into her home.

Grainne Kavanagh runs an interiors and Irish design shop in Dingle called The Coach House. Her home was built in 1929 and she extensively renovated after she purchased it in 2019. Work commenced as the lockdown began, hence what should have been six months took 18 to complete. As well as the main house where Grainne lives there is also a series of stone outbuildings and four acres of land which she shares with her dogs, cats, sheep and horses.

It was when driving to the beach that Grainne spotted the for sale sign for this property, which is located just a short distance from the farm she grew up on. Sitting within four and a half acres and set back on a treelined avenue, she immediately saw its potential and knew it was the home for her.

‘I fell in love straightaway,’ says Grainne. ‘It was like stepping into another world and although there was a lot of work to be done, I wasn’t put off. My father developed properties as we were growing up and always involved the family. That experience along with my interior design work gave me the vision to bring this farmhouse back to life.’

One of Grainne’s first tasks was to renovate the main house. ‘It was modified in the 1980s and I wanted to take it back to what it would have been originally,’ explains Grainne. ‘My preference is to be sensitive to a home’s original interior style. The property was damp, so it needed to be replastered and dry lined. It also had to be rewired, replumbed as well as installing an energy efficient heating system as well as all new windows and doors, so there was plenty to be done.