Ballyfin Hotel in County Laois, Ireland, has won Hotel Suite Award in the International Hotel & Property Awards 2014. The project, submitted by Architectural Practice Purcell.
Ireland’s finest Neo-classical house, Ballyfin, was transformed through conservation and repair into an exquisite and comfortable country house hotel. Purcell retained almost all of the original material with repairs and replacement of any material done in the manner and form of the original work.
The house features fine dining, wine cellars, a lively bar and a large and comfortable library with books on Irish art, architecture and history, carefully repaired and adapted. Purcell remodelled a modern, four-storey dormitory extension to provide an additional wing, with bedrooms, ballroom, swimming pool and spa.
As part of the restoration, the interiors at Ballyfin have been sympathetically restored and reinvigorated. The brief was to create the impression of an Irish country house from which the family had just departed, leaving behind all that previous generations had accumulated over the years, including souvenirs from the Grand Tour and design inspirations acquired when travelling abroad: Ballyfin should be comfortable, stylish, discreet and Irish, with layers of history to be unravelled and enjoyed.
Each of the 14 bedrooms is individually and sensitively decorated to respect the eclectic nature of the Irish country interior. The ground floor reception rooms were given the same care and textiles that were typical of the Empire or Regency period were researched and recreated. This can be seen in various details, including the wallpapers of several bedrooms and reception rooms which are old Mauny designs, recreated from documents. Six ground floor reception rooms connect, with impressive collections of Irish art and antiques collected from around the world. The house’s painted marble columns, decorative wood floors, mahogany doors and entrance hall Roman mosaic were refurbished and restored.