Designing the dream
Broadcaster and influencer Vogue Williams tells Marie Kelly how she created her dream home in a Howth hideaway, formerly owned by her best friend.
A single scroll through Vogue Williams’ Instagram account immediately explains why she needed her new Howth home to be a private and restful retreat. Her feed is a furiously energetic cocktail of outfit try-ons, fake tan tutorials, podcast promotions, and that’s before factoring in her very hands-on role as mum to three children under the age of seven.
Life in London is “a bit mad”, she says, but holidays in their coastal Howth home give Williams the opportunity to “literally just breathe out”. Situated on a hill, close to the cliff walk and with sea views, the property, which Williams describes as “my dream house”, originally belonged to a close friend. “The first time I walked into it, I said to myself, ‘I’m going to own this house one day’.”
Hidden among trees and secluded by lush foliage, the house’s private setting was one of the biggest draws for Williams. “It’s also super bright and very spacious, so great for the kids. If I could dig up this house and move it to London, I would,” she admits.
Williams worked with Limerick-based interior designer Geri O’Toole on creating a space that was muted and relaxing but still reflected her lively personality. “I just love Geri’s aesthetic and I adore her home, but I have my own style and she understood that. She also understands a budget. I wanted to stick to my budget as much as I could and she always kept that in mind.”
For O’Toole, Williams was a dream client. “Vogue is very open, creative and trusting, but she also knows what she likes. She’d done a lot of research and she had a whole bunch of images of things she thought would be suitable.” It was a relief for Williams to be able to “throw all that at [Geri] to figure out”. “Geri’s just really easy to work with and super, super talented. I’ll definitely be working with her again in the future.”
Although the house is ultra modern, Williams didn’t want it to be a clinical white box. “There’s so many fun paint colours you can use. The hallway looks white, but it’s actually pink,” Williams explains. Geri says this is probably how the idea for a pink kitchen came about. “We had lots of pinks coming through in the space and Vogue loved it, so we picked a dusky pink from Dulux and repainted the existing kitchen, replacing the worktops with Taj Mahal quartzite, which has a lovely warmth to it.” Only the island is new, custom-made by Con Brouder Interiors in Limerick, and the stools, which were sourced from Bryan O’Sullivan Studio in London.
Williams reveals the kitchen turned out to be more of a statement than she first thought. “I never considered it strange and wasn’t nervous at all, but people walk in and say, ‘Oh my God, you’ve got a pink kitchen!’.” Her husband Spencer Matthews, an entrepreneur and former reality TV star, loves the unexpected shade. “Spencer is quite fun with colour,” she says, “He wanted an orange floor in our house in London, but I said no. Often, he’s the one who has to be reined in when it comes to colour.”
The pink theme extends into her daughter’s bedroom. “Gigi always wanted a pink bedroom,” Williams says, but the 39-year-old avoided the usual candy-coloured shades you find in a little girl’s room and instead opted for a more mature palette of salmon pink. “I want the kids to grow into these rooms,” says Williams. “I want to future-proof the house because I won’t always want to be doing something with it. Although eventually I’ll colour-drench Gigi’s room and cover the ceiling in pink.”
For the boys’ bedroom, Williams and O’Toole worked the scheme around a set of bunk beds the family already owned. “Vogue had an idea for a blue colour scheme with pops of red,” says O’Toole. “I found a beautiful wallpaper by Annika Reed online; up close you can see it’s populated with tiny red dots, and we had the rug custom-made by Matt Britton to incorporate the solid red trim.”
Her three children, Theodore (7), Gigi (5) and Otto (2) were a huge influence on the interior arrangement of the house. “There’s a cinema and playroom downstairs, which they’ll get much more use out of as they get older. At the moment they just want to be in the same room as us,” says Williams, “but eventually they’ll want privacy and their own places to go to.” Bright spearmint stripes bring a playfulness to the cinema room perfect for a space designed to make the kids feel like it’s their very own corner of the family home. “The light fitting is really fun too,” explains O’Toole. “Vogue had found and kept a picture of a colourful light fitting and we asked Mullan Lighting to create a unique version of it. It’s just one example of the way Vogue’s creativity poured through every decision,” adds O’Toole.
The children’s reaction was everything Vogue could have hoped for. “They really love their bedrooms and they spend a lot of time playing in them.” Her own master was inspired by Kim Kardashian’s Axel Vervoordt-designed bedroom in the American entrepreneur’s California home. O’Toole describes it as a “super-zen space”. The room is anchored by an extra-large, loop-piled rug. “It’s really luxurious and so soft underfoot,” she explains. There’s also a wall of custom-made wardrobes by Con Brouder Interiors featuring a centre glazed panel with backlighting. “We wanted to break up the joinery,” explains O’Toole. “The panel has shelving so it functions as a really nice display cabinet for some of Vogue’s handbags and shoes.”
The meditative feel of the room is reinforced with organic shapes, such as a bespoke curved desk and a rounded headboard, and tactile textures including brass reading lights and a lime wash paint effect with a velvet-looking finish. It’s one of the few spaces that isn’t punctuated by colourful artworks. “All of the art is from Vogue’s own collection,” says O’Toole. “She just asked me to help her place and hang it.”
Williams has been collecting art since she was 18 or 19 and Irish artists represented in the Howth hideaway include Helen Steele, Chloe Early, Conor Harrington, Leah Hewson and Peter Doyle. “I used to go out with an artist and I think I learned a lot from him and my auntie was my art teacher – she’s amazing,” reveals Williams. “I’d rather spend money on a piece of art than a really expensive handbag. That’s where my priority lies.”
The family spends two to three weeks in Howth over the summer, ten days at Christmas and mid-terms and Easter. “We want to spend more and more time over here. I love it and the kids love it too,” she says. So it really is the forever home you were looking for, I ask. “Yes,” confirms Williams, “although I’d sell anything for the right price,” she adds with a playful laugh.
This article was originally published in The Sunday Times Ireland, September 2025