In This Brooklyn Loft, the Stories Are as Good as the Design
When Ciaran McGuigan first visited his prospective Brooklyn apartment, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. “I banged my head on the way up,” he says, referring to the low ceilings in the building’s stairwell.
The unit was a fixer-upper for sure, but McGuigan, founder and CEO of coworking space the Malin and creative director of Northern Irish furniture brand Orior, wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge. A few toppled walls and torn-down ceilings later, the space now functions as an open, airy entertainment hub for McGuigan, his wife, Logann, and their visiting friends and family from the Emerald Isle.
When the couple purchased the apartment, which is located in a 1930s-era building, it was sectioned off into four or five small rooms. Naturally, that warrenlike floor plan didn’t last long. “We knew we wanted to have as much big, open space as possible,” adds McGuigan, who maximized the square footage with an open-plan dining room, living room, and kitchen, plus an adjoining skylit bedroom.
No surprise, McGuigan’s home borrows from the old-meets-new aesthetic he’s honed at Orior. The brand, which was founded by his parents, Brian and Rose McGuigan, in 1979, creates furnishings that manage to feel retro and familiar (think puffy, mustard yellow chairs and velvet blue sofas with fringe) without feeling too played out. The apartment—which was helmed by his college friend and Orior’s head of design, Jean Morana—also kick-started some of the brand’s big ideas. “The Wavy credenza, which is one of our go-to pieces at the moment, was originally designed for this space,” says McGuigan. “After living with it for a while, we thought we should just prototype it and launch it.” Marmar, a hefty stone table available in a minty green Irish marble—a brand signature—also originated as a one-off piece for the living room.
Living Room
Orior’s Wavy console, paired here with an Eames LCW chair, was first designed for McGuigan’s apartment before it went into production.
Living Room
A closer look at the Marmar table, which was first designed for McGuigan’s apartment. The floor lamp is by Arnout Visser from the Future Perfect.
Kitchen
McGuigan and Morana paired stone, brass, and oak—plus a set of pendants by designer Seungjin Yang.
Dining Room
In the dining area of the loft, the painting is by Lou Ros, the dining table is by Orior, and the chandelier is by Bocci.
The Designer
Ciaran McGuigan in the dining room of his Brooklyn loft.
Bathroom
The flush mount is vintage.
Bedroom
A skylight provides a bit of natural light. The painting is by Andrew Humke.
Living Room
The Riva console is by Orior.
When it came to selecting furniture and accessories outside of the Orior catalog, McGuigan pulled from a list of longtime design obsessions. First was Bocci, whose meandering glass chandelier adds an organic touch to the colorful living area. Next were pendant lamps by designer Seungjin Yang, which are made of resin-encased party balloons, incorporating a bit of whimsy into the kitchen’s otherwise brass, oak, and stone material palette. McGuigan’s art collection, meanwhile, includes works by Andrew Humke—another college buddy—and Lou Ros.
Installing everything, like the design itself, was a group effort. McGuigan recalls needing a “teleporter” (Irish-English for “forklift”) to transport some of the bulkier pieces from the street—a potentially painful, tedious process had it not been for the great craic from the many friends who helped. “We were lifting the marble for the kitchen counter, and one of the young lads just goes, ‘Jesus, this weighs more than my granny’s funeral casket,’” he recalls. “His grandmother was 92 when she passed, so it was a celebration of life, you know—and she was a big lady. We all just burst out laughing.”
Those anecdotes, as well as the many memories embedded in the first-batch Orior pieces, are key for McGuigan. “That’s part of the space,” he says. “I come in here and I see a lot of great conversations...and a lot of great stories.” It’s evident in the ways he speaks about his collaborators, like vintage dealer Killian McNulty, who has four or five warehouses in the middle of the Irish countryside, each housing an “unbelievable collection” that McGuigan pulled from.
Like Orior’s designs, the loft is a constant work in progress. There are a few pieces, like a glass sculpture, that have been moved “here, there, and everywhere” since moving in, and others, like an artwork from a friend in Ireland, that still need to be placed. “We’re still, as my wife says, nesting,” McGuigan adds. “It takes time.”
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