Inside a Quaint Fishing Cottage in Northern Eire Turned Inventive Retreat

A famous beauty spot since the 19th century, the glacial fjord Carlingford Lough cutsdeep into the eastern coast of Ireland midway between Belfast and Dublin, marking the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. At its inner end is the village of Omeath. Here, overlooking the lough and the cloud-swept Mountains of Mourne, is what looks like a simple wood-planked fisherman’s shack. Step inside, though, and you enter an entirely different world. For this is the home away from home of Ciaran McGuigan, creative director of Irish furniture company Orior, and his American wife, Logann.

“I just love the space here,” McGuigan says, “the energy you get from walking out of the door, being right on the waterfront and seeing that amazing view.” It’s a view he grew up with in the town of Carlingford next door, where his parents still live. Brian and Rosemary McGuigan founded Orior in 1979, inspired by the Scandinavian design they’d seen in Denmark, where they moved after school to escape the Troubles (the three-decade conflict in Northern Ireland). In the 40 years since, Orior has become one of the most respected furniture companies in Ireland, both for its own designs and its contract work in Europe and the States for leading decorators and high-profile projects.

Born in 1989, Ciaran also left Ireland after school, though in his case it was to take up a soccer scholarship at the Savannah College of Art and Design—which is where he met his wife-to-be. He started working for the family firm in 2013 and took over the reins as creative director in 2019, opening Orior’s first rebranded U.S. showroom in Tribeca, refreshing many products with bright new colorways, and launching a rug collection with his sister, Katie Ann. Though Ciaran and Logann spend much of the year in Brooklyn, Ireland remains Orior’s center of production, necessitating regular trips home, so when a four-acre seafront plot in Omeath came up for sale in 2016, complete with an old fishing shack, Ciaran jumped at the chance to buy it and make a place of his own.

Then came the pandemic, when Ciaran found himself back in Ireland full-time, staying with his parents in Carlingford. “Suddenly it made sense to do something with the fish shed,” he says. Working with Logann, who had joined him from New York, he reconfigured the interior to create an airy kitchen-and-living area on the ground floor, with a bedroom and bathroom upstairs and a studio out back. “We didn’t make any major changes,” Ciaran adds, “not because we didn’t have the budget but because we wanted to keep as many of the original elements as we could.” Luckily the Orior workshops proved to be a mine of spare craftspeople and materials, so despite the various lockdowns, the house was ready to move into by November 2020. Filled with Orior furniture, from fringed Atlanta lounge chairs to a brass-trimmed Livia ottoman, it’s as much a showcase as a second home. It’s also intended to be a place where Ciaran’s colleagues can spend time exploring new projects and collaborations. But for now it’s just a great place to be. “My old man loves it,” Ciaran says. “He’s here every weekend. Logann makes him his porridge; then he’s off windsurfing for the rest of the day.” oriorfurniture.com — Christopher Stocks