Viewing a £350,000 apartment which you'll never afford isn't the most entertaining way to spend an evening, but who could resist a preview of one of Dublin's first official block of "lofts"? Once a 1950s clothing store, The Warehouse has recently been transformed into a series of luxury loft-style apartments which are quickly being snapped up by well-heeled thirtysomethings.
Josephine Kelliher of the Rubicon Gallery had been hanging paintings in the place all day. Upstairs, Helen Roden from the Design Company, which was responsible for the interior design, chatted to hairdresser Robert Chambers. She spent months with fellow designer Joseph Ensko researching loft living and has consciously eclipsed the 1980s tendency towards industrial loft styles with a luxurious 1930s approach.
Project manager Elaine O'Mahony recalled the difficulties in recycling the old wooden floors among other things but from the finished result you'd never be able to tell! Among those who passed briefly through the doors, make-up artist Annie Gribben, Paul Johnston from the Odeon, Suzanne Macdougald from the Solomon Gallery and Sarah and Peter Stapleton from Lisney.