Explore fashion designer turned painter Petria Lenehan’s Wicklow studio
Nestled in the Wicklow wilds, her studio provides ample inspiration for her landscape paintings.
It’s been almost two years since Petria Lenehan packed up her Hudson Valley home and returned to her native Ireland. It was a move she and her husband, photographer Rich Gilligan, had been planning for some time, but finding the right house in the right location fast-tracked everything.
“We knew exactly how we wanted to live,” she tells me, “in the countryside, but within striking distance of the city. That’s how we lived in Hudson, which is 90 minutes north of Manhattan, and it really worked for us.” When they found out that a converted railway building, on the edge of an old Wicklow estate, with its own workshop in the woods was coming up for sale, they acted quickly. “It was all a bit of a whirlwind,” she says, “but we knew the house was perfect for us so off we went.”
Arriving in the depths of a winter lockdown, with their two daughters, Robyn and Simone, they set about transforming the workshop into a studio almost immediately. “Rich insulated it and plastered it,” says Petria, “and we put the skylights in to bring in more light. Then we painted everything white, so we had a clean background from which to work on.”
Having renovated a number of houses, Petria’s design vision is simple: let the building and its surroundings dictate the aesthetic. “I choose colours that are easy to live in, and I almost always choose a natural palette. It’s important to me that anywhere I live has a relaxed and down-to-earth feel, so I don’t have good rooms or hide things away.”
The studio – and her home – are dotted with flea market finds and beautiful antiques, many of which were sourced in the US, and everything has a story. She thinks carefully before buying anything.
“I have to love it,” she says. “It has to be well made. I always ask myself, ‘Will I get tired of this?’, because I am in for the long haul. I have to enjoy looking at it and using it.”
Her style is constantly evolving: “I am really drawn to white but in recent years I’ve become more adventurous.” Her husband’s aesthetic always informs hers. “I think if it’s all you, it’s too much of one thing, and someone else’s style can give an interior a real edge. It’s a house, not a showroom.”
