From the moment Gail Wall Morris moved into a century-old Irish workman's cottage, a vestige of the era when her town was a fishing village rather than a suburb of Dublin, the house made a point of reminding her of its history. Small and closed off, the rooms were the sort that had not been laid out with leisure time or outdoor living in mind.
Wall Morris changed that, reconfiguring the floor plan so that all rooms in her cottage in Blackrock now open onto a courtyard lovely enough to win our Considered Design Award for Best Outdoor Room. You voted for her, and here's why:
Photography by Derek Robinson.
Above: The table and stools are the Elegrande Traditional Terrazzo Set from Cadix UK. The chairs are Philippe Starck's Louis Ghost Chairs for Kartell.
Setting out to remodel her house, Wall Morris was well prepared. The founder of Wall Morris Interior Design has overseen complex projects all over the world.
Above: The outdoor room takes decoration well; grass in a rectangular planter lends a modern touch.
An addition that Wall Morris introduced to the cottage is clad in bricks salvaged after the interior walls were demolished. The faded yellow bricks are a typical Irish building material of the last century; it was important to Wall Morris to preserve the cottage's original character.
Wall Morris wanted to reconfigure her small home's original layout to open it up to light and to make it feel as spacious as possible. She reversed the floor plan and added a U-shaped extension.
Above: All interior rooms including the kitchen open onto the courtyard.
Above: Wall Morris designed a ledge to visually extend the white kitchen floor around the deck. The ledge holds planters and accessories, including the trio of clipped box plants shown here, and conceals a light strip that makes it appear to float at night. Both the ledge and deck are Iroko wood, painted and stained.
Curious about the other finalists in our Best Outdoor Room category? See the photos here.