Áras is where the heart is as Irish homeware range launched

Áras means dwelling, house, building or home in Irish. It also means "a house of importance, and we feel that everyone's home is a house of importance", says Clare Grennan of the Irish Design Shop after the launch of their new collection of specially commissioned homewares, Áras.

Bringing together exclusive products from makers and designers around Ireland, Áras places an importance on the everyday objects we use in our homes, from lighting fixtures to plant pots and from hand soap to placemats, giving people the opportunity to buy beautiful, functional and affordable objects for their home, whether that home is big or small.

In fact, a consideration for many products was how they would work in a small space.

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“We wanted it to be accessible as a range, and the products were to take into account that people live in small spaces,” Grennan says.

“We could also see that our customers are really into their home, into cooking, into their garden. And looking at what’s currently available from Irish makers, we began to see that there was a lack of certain products.”

Using that insight into what customers are looking for and marrying it with their own design sensibilities, Grennan and co-owner Laura Caffrey have collaborated with a number of designers to create a range of new products specifically tailored to their customers' needs, filling gaps in the market in the process. It helps that the two not only run the Irish Design Shop but are trained designers and metalworkers who produce homewares and jewellery in the workshop above the shop.

Collaborations

The products in Áras stem from collaborations between the Irish Design Shop and a number of designers and makers around Ireland, some of whom they have worked with many times in the past, and others who are new to the shop. One such new maker is Down-based

Helen Faulkner

, a potter who has trained in Thomastown in Kilkenny.

Faulkner has made three plant pots for Áras, one small, one tall and one hanging. Thrown in richly-hued terracotta with a simply decorated cream glaze wrapping around the rim, the pots are designed with cactuses, aloe vera and herbs in mind.

“My mum used to teach horticulture, so I was able to pick her brains on what types of pots suited what plants,” Faulkner says.

Áras launched last month with six products, all totally unique to the Irish Design Shop: Faulkner's plant pots, felt coasters and placemats laser-cut by Dublin studio Alljoy, a wall-mounted copper lamp by Coppergreen Design in Wicklow, nourishing hand soap by Clarke's in Dublin, brass candlesticks made in-house by Grennan and Caffrey and a range of colourful tote bags sporting the Áras identity created by Belfast-based designer Alex Synge. The range will, however, grow and grow, with a number of carefully considered new products being released a few times every year.

There are drinking glasses made by Waterford’s Irish Handmade Glass Company and prints by Donegal-based studio RubyPeg in the pipeline, as well as ambitions for lots of other products by new and old collaborators.

Seasonal changes

The nature of the range also allows for seasonal changes such as differences in material or colour, so the products can adapt to varying tastes or customer demand.

Working with small craft-led enterprises in Ireland can be challenging, and the development of products such as this will often take time.

“We have a very good relationship with a lot of our suppliers, we know them personally, we can call them friends, so it’s easy to talk to your friends about design processes and different products that could be developed. And we find it very easy to work with other makers. We understand a lot of making processes and the time it takes to produce something beautiful and handmade, maybe because we’re makers ourselves,” Grennan says.

So whether it’s an elegant copper light, a set of luxurious brass candlesticks or a hanging pot, Áras at the Irish Design Shop is bringing an element of the well-designed and the handmade to your everyday life . . . in your own house of importance.

irishdesignshop.com