Maria McManus featuring the Hemlock console

My husband and two daughters. We have a tiny beach house in Montauk for the summer and an apartment in TriBeCa.

I was born in Dublin but in the countryside, so right next door was what would now be known as a regenerative farm but back then was just a farm. They rotated the fields every year and we would go and pick our vegetables next door. Very bucolic. And there was a stud farm across the lane, my bedroom view was a horse farm, which was quite beautiful. I guess it was a little bit of a story book Irish upbringing.

We have so much Irish crystal – we’ve got Waterford, we’ve got Tipperary. You name it and we probably own it. We do use it all the time. We are big hosts and are always entertaining so we’ll break out. We use things. We don’t keep things precious.

I would have to say Charlotte Perriand. She had a great perspective on design -- she was about utility as much as form. As a clothing designer I really respect that because that’s how we feel about constructing each garment. Yes, you want to create something beautiful and unique, but it is so much about how the woman is going to wear the garment. Is she comfortable? Is it well made? Does it fit her well? Does the fabric drape?

I feel like Tokyo is the city that has probably had the most impact on me. I studied Japanese in university so i lived there for a year when I was 19 and it was just such an incredible experience. This was in the ‘90s, it was coming to the end of its heyday. But it was this exceptionally modern place with crazy modern skyscrapers, but right next door you’d have a little wooden ramen-ya, a noodle store. The juxtaposition of old and new there is so incredible and they have a deep respect for their own culture whether it is a tea ceremony or ikebana. Because it was so insular for so long it’s got a very unique, well preserved culture.

I feel like probably it is mostly around creating garments. The fitting, the choosing of the fabrics, the going to the factories and working with the owners and sewers in NYC, all of that is very time consuming.

What we see from a garment making perspective is a lot of art and craftsmanship is being lost. There are people in New York City who know how to construct a garment, but it can be hard to find strong pattern makers. I think that we have to be careful that as we modernize society we don’t lose that element of craftsmanship and the specialness you achieve by making something from hand.

I wish I had more time for gardening. I like gardening when I am in Montauk. I compost in the city and bring all our kitchen compost all out to the compost in Montauk and now we have so much compost soil, it is amazing.

For me I love the inclusion of the marble bull nose and casters. I think that is what draws me to Orior generally, the integration of these really unusual marble colors in the pieces. It is very unique.

So many. The Easca coffee table, it’s Irish crystal and that green Connemara marble. My mum is from Connemara. Also, that Corca table with the Irish crystal and, I think, bronze. [Orior does] such an incredible job of integrating Irishness into creative modern design, where usually things coming form Ireland can feel quite twee.

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It has changed locations. At first it was in our foyer area, but now it is in the living room because I felt like you could see the piece better. Where it was previously you didn’t get a full view of it, and I felt people would miss the casters. So now it is in a very focal place in the living room.

A Serge Mouille single desk lamp. I feel like there is something very elegant and distinct about it – it’s very good, unique design. It is decorative but it is useful.