Buy the style of the woman who reframed Vogue Williams' Howth home, gave Millie Mackintosh's residence a boho look and turned jockey Davy Russell's bedroom the colour of a Caribbean lagoon.
For a designer with a serious contacts book, Arlene McIntyre keeps a very low profile. She lets her work do a lot of the talking for her, which is how she first met Vogue Williams and Millie Mackintosh.
Fashion designer Paul Costelloe, who designed Williams’ wedding dress, let it slip that she was expecting a baby and suggested to Arlene that she might need some design advice at home.
Vogue introduced her friend Millie to Arlene. More recent fans of her look include Lisa McGowan of Lisa’s Lust List and jockey Davy Russell.
Fast forward a few years, and Arlene, who first made her name designing show homes for household name developers, has built a brand that is classic contemporary in style and exudes quiet luxury.
Irish paint brand Fleetwood came knocking to ask her to create a range of colours for them that have just launched, and is a very easy way to buy her style.
Made in Virginia, Co Cavan, Prestige by Fleetwood is a new class of Irish-made paint that is as easy to use as it is to choose from the 30-something colours in her range. All are soft tones that will add warmth and polish to a room or house, and she has painted her own home in shades from the colour card.
Designed to mark the paint company’s 75th anniversary and four years in development, it delivers a strong technical performance and high-quality finish.
Made using premium resins and top-grade pigments, it offers excellent coverage, in some instances only one coat is needed, and lasting durability.
Her favourite neutral is Beach, a sort of wet sand shade that is soft and warm in tone. There are no golden undertones as there are with magnolia.
It’s a colour you see in her own entrance hall. Clay, pictured above, is another soft putty-coloured neutral that jockey Davey Russell chose for his hallway.
Sisal is a neutral with a green tone that she says is great for warming up rooms. She used it on a private client’s stairwell.
Cinnamon is a spicy, earthy tone that allows you to bring in pops of colour or will let your artwork pop.
And for those who have heavily invested in the colour grey, she’s brought in paler, warmer tones that you can mix with your existing colourscape, including Equine and Gris Movette. The former coats the walls of her living room.
How do those who are afraid of strong colours play with the palette? Easy, she says, “You play to your strengths and those that you like.
"Some people hate green, some love blue. Some want a bold statement colour. I recently used Emsworth, a deep plummy red in a large Georgian home where you have the ceiling height and scale to go big and bold. It also makes spaces feel warmer.”
The finish throughout is hard-wearing and wipeable.
She and her business partner and partner in life, Jurgen Reidel, have a six-year-old daughter who has been nicknamed Banksy, after the highly collectable street artist, explaining that “with a set of crayons, she draws something on the wall and then she’s gone.”
She's relaxed about it though. The finish is wipeable and comes in an air matt base, €105.95, and a surface matt, €114.95, for five litres. Prices for one litre start from €39.95.
“Walls are washable and paintable. It’s not major construction work. You’ve got to experiment. It works for us.”
