In Her Shoes: Suzie McAdam’s daily routine from early starts to chocolate before bed

At the moment, I tend to wake up at around 5.30am or 6am. It’s not really to my liking because I love my sleep, but I think just that is life with a one-year-old, so I do a very early start.

I find in the wintertime it’s quite challenging because you’re indoors. In the summertime, sometimes I might go for a stroll and get a coffee or something and then come back and get ready for work – I’m definitely more of a summer person. 

I do go to the gym two or three times in that window too and I also like to get out for a sea swim once a week.

I’m just such a heavy coffee drinker, because it’s quite early. I don’t like to eat like a big breakfast at that stage, but I could have three cups of coffee – I love my little SMEG espresso maker, which is my best friend and who I love dearly.

In my morning routine I don’t use a huge amount of products, I use a gentle foam cleanser and rich moisturiser – I don’t do crazy make-up but I do like the ritual of putting on make-up, even if it is just five minutes, something to look a bit more alive.

I do like those two hours in a way because if I end up working late it’s kind of nice to have had a little bit of time with the boys in the morning. I do a handover then and I tend to get into the office around 9am… or 9.30am probably my team would say!

The studio

Because what we do is very tactical – we work physically with carpet, flooring and marble and all these different materials – I just find I actually need to be in the office. Sometimes if I have a technical day of emails and things, I’ll work from home. But I do really like to get in, in the morning, to meet the team. During Covid we renovated our studio so it is a pretty, calm kind of space so I enjoy being in there and working in there.

We work solely on residential large scale renovation projects in Ireland and also we do some work in the UK. Some days you would be walking around a site in the cold for maybe three hours, we are doing a country house in Wicklow. You could go from that to meeting a client or a supplier, where you need to be more presentable.

‘I love my food’

I love my food, I eat a lot of food. It’s funny, because I think what I do requires so much energy. I was even talking to my husband about it over Christmas because normally people put on weight over Christmas, but I think I’m more relaxed, so I actually just don’t need as much fuel (at that time).

In the morning I’d have eggs or yoghurt or a smoothie – I make smoothies for the kids. At lunchtime, I usually have a pretty big lunch like salmon or chicken or pasta salad, whatever can keep me full for the day. I also love, when I get into work, having a cappuccino and I’m a bit of a chocolate addict so I like to have a chocolate croissant if I’m feeling bold.

I tend to be home at 5.30pm to get my kids but often once I get the kids to bed, I tap into anything I didn’t get through earlier at around eight or so. I don’t mind doing an hour or two in the evening – particularly if I’d a day where I had lots of meetings and I didn’t get an opportunity to really read something, an important document or schedule a mood board or something that needs feedback. I like to revisit it just to get it over the line. As a business owner there is always going to be something that needs your attention. I do try to switch off a little bit more at the weekends just to get that more quality time.

Evening viewing

I love YouTube so I’m big into watching, just because I’m obsessed with design, a really obscure documentary on a collection that’s coming up for sale in Christie’s or something like that, or maybe a lady in New York who has an interesting apartment full of collectibles. The last TV series I watched was Emily in Paris, which I watched over Christmas.

My nighttime routine is such a challenge for me because pre-kids I was such a night owl, my downtime would have been around 12am and then I’d have started into a movie – I do miss that. Now I do have to get to bed at 10 -10.30pm or else the next day I’m just a zombie. My inner talk is telling me to stay up later, watch a movie but it’s just something I’ve had to change.

In the wintertime I tend to get really cold on sites so I have a really hot shower before I get into bed just to warm me up. I’ll do a face scrub and use a mist and a bit of moisturiser.

I love quite natural products – I’m big into fragrances, I find I’m more into the fragrance of a product than its function which probably isn’t good! I do love a herbal tea as well, I’d have a cinnamon or chai tea or something and more chocolate, because I just can’t resist a little chocolate before bed.