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Living

AT HOME WITH ABIGAIL AHERN

Tour the lofty London home of interior designer and faux plant aficionado Abigail Ahern to take a lesson in her maximalist, bohemian style for grown-ups. Find out the trick to her eclectic aesthetic, how to inject some personality into your space and how to get your hands on the best faux flora around…

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Interior and product designer Abigail Ahern

On her luxurious but approachable style…

The easiest tip to creating a luxurious space is to up the ante with texture. Texture is so often under considered that I happen to think everyone should really go for it. Make sure your textures don't match (otherwise it will read as super flat) instead marry a velvet sofa with a woollen cushion or a basket atop a marble table. Do this and you will create magic.

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On a rooms natural flow…

Always think about flow. Firstly, get chairs and sofas off the back of walls and move them more into the room even if it’s a smidge. Secondly, I never want to see a bare patch of floor in the middle of the room, I'll always plonk a coffee table there so you have to weave around things. A space is way more intriguing that way.

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Less is generally not more in my world, less is generally boring.

Abigail Ahern

On injecting personality into a space…

Colour is the easiest most transformative thing you can do to any space and think of pattern and texture like a herb or spice, it adds immediate pizazz!

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Greenery gives a space soul, it’s such a restorative, calming hue. I use it in every room.

Abigail Ahern

On Arranging a Display…

I think objects should be grouped in odd numbers (its always more pleasing to the eye) with a reined in colour palette, that way you can mix anything with anything.

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On her lightbulb moment…

My sister, who is a partner in the business, worked with some incredible florists for 20 years on installations for A list celebs. I kept moaning that I wanted the same look for our stores but didn't want to spend hundreds a week on fresh flowers so we came up with the idea of faux. We tried to find what we wanted from wholesalers but couldn’t, then we had the light bulb moment of producing them ourselves and have never looked back. Now, it’s the biggest part of our business!

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On the types of plants that inspire their designs…

Anything and everything green, from incredible grasses clinging to the hillside found on travels in Asia; to strolls in the woods here in London in autumn where catkins and mossy branches abound. We favour a wild sensibility - where everything looks like it’s jumped out of a Dutch Old Masters painting.

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No need for green fingers or plant sitters with Abigail’s range of you-wont-believe-its-faux plants now available in our Dublin store and online…

SHOP ABIGAIL AHERN

GLORIOUS GREENERY

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