Interior Motives

The bould Sandra

t is, to say the very least, overwhelming, as you hit dizzying display after dizzying display of textiles, forms, drapes, papers, patterns, sanctuary dreams and seductive colour schemes.

Yep, stepping through the door of Select Interiors on Hillside Road is akin to stepping through that magical wardrobe that leads you into Narnia.

There are a thousand different worlds on offer here, designs for all kinds of living, from the classical to the post-modern, from the high life to the low maintenance, from the sedate to the should-be-sedated.

Miraculously, the lady of the house, Sandra, has been making Greystones a braver, bolder and more beautiful place to live for 40 years now. And, if anything, her enthusiasm for mixing new sensations with timeless beauty when it comes to interior design seems to have only gotten bigger, stronger, faster, sexier…

Imagine Marianne Faithfull, on Twix.

There’s that devilish glint in the eye that all true artists possess, a mischievous drive that thrives on one simple mantra – dare to be different. Dare to indulge in wallpapers from the likes of Casamance, Casadeco and Casalio, or fabrics from Olivia Bard, Fabricut and Sanderson, not to mention Christian Fischbacher, Jab, and the granddaddy of them all, Morris & Co.

Spending four decades of transforming a thousand and one Greystones rooms into hideaways, retreats, secret gardens and escape rooms that you never want to leave has given Sandra Carroll the killer instinct when it comes to matching people’s interior world with the right interior design.

You don’t win Greystones’ Paddy’s Day Window Display every frickin’ year otherwise. And you certainly don’t get to deck out the George Bernard Shaw Birthplace Museum without ruffling the right kind of feathers, and just so.

But, hey, don’t take our word for it. You can make a free appointment with Sandra and find out for yourself what a difference some new colour in your life can make. Simply call 0872414136 or email here, and Sandra will put her leopard-skin, pill-box kettle on.

In the meantime, we thought we could discover the wonders on offer in Select Interiors with a simple five-minute video tour.

After 28 minutes, we realised that we hadn’t seen the half of it…

You can find out more about Select Interiors on their website here, and Facebook here. Please note, this little gem of a shop closes for June until the first week of August. Because Sandra knows the value of a good life. And a well-placed cushion.