Inside artist Laura de Búrca's Dublin studio

Dublin artist Laura de Búrca's work is mesmerising and evocative. I love her use of colour, her attention to detail and the way she can capture a precious moment of shifting light. Three of her pieces hang on my walls.

We attended the same school and recently bumped into each other in our local park, the War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge. The NCAD graduate warmly welcomed me to her Thomas Street studio recently, which was a real visual treat.

Laura is currently working on a book about her father's family's orchard in the countryside near Tuam, Co. Galway. Poring over newspaper archives to find details of its prize-winning country fair entries and studying the people and the place in black and white photographs, she has been inspired to create a series of beautiful illustrations for the book, from the ivy-clad frontage of her grandparents' home to detailed studies of fruit and foliage.

Like sunlight breaking through the trees, she breathes vibrancy and light into the still-life studies of the apples and other fruit grown on the orchard. Her research has also shed light on Irish varieties that have since been replaced on shop shelves by imported fruit.

On Laura's desk (formerly owned by an architect and picked up for a song on a recycling website), my eye was instantly drawn by a series of tropical birds. The inspired choice of canvas? Paint sample tiles rescued from a skip outside the nearby Farrow & Ball showroom on Cornmarket. The English paint company is renowned for its range of high quality heritage colours, and I love how Laura has found a new use for her find. Red tags from a vintage label maker proudly describes the rather unusual breeds of bird, such as Candy Plumed Sundove (below), that she has brought to life.

Photos relating to Laura's painstaking research of the orchard also hang on the walls.

In every corner of the studio, creativity blooms. Laura, who has worked as an artist facilitator and workshop devisor with The Ark, a children's cultural centre in Temple Bar, made the leafy paper garland for a friend's wedding from old paper. She can also turn her hand to lifelike flowers, as pictured on top of a table she recently volunteered to upcycle for Oxfamhome on Francis Street, the subject of a blog post I wrote for the Oxfam Ireland website.

See Laura’s work on http://fawnchorus.tumblr.com and www.flickr.com/photos/lauradeb. She also blogs about colours on http://coloursnames.blogspot.com

The blog post about the table she upcycled for Oxfamhome is 

http://www.oxfamireland.org/blog/2012/04/04/how-to-upcycle-second-hand-furniture-from-oxfamhome/

Before and after: Living room gets a new lease of life

They say that when you first move into a house you should do nothing but familiarise yourself with the space and consider its best use. It's very easy to rush into decisions and purchases that you might later regret. We failed to heed this advice and bought a sofa too big and bulky for our sitting room. I also had shelves put up. The shelves were perfect, but they were in the wrong place, diverting attention away from the antique fireplace we later installed in the gap where one once sat.

While Eoghan was away on a worktrip, I finally decorated the bedroom. It was also the week where I had a few jobs done on the living room too. With the help of Painter Dublin, I took down the shelves and repainted the floor and walls in the same colours we had painted ourselves a few years ago; Dulux Light and Space Moonlight White on the walls (turned out a little yellower than I had predicted when contrasted with the new Dulux Brilliant White on the ceiling and woodwork) and Farrow and Ball's Downpipe on the floorboards.

AFTER: The Eames rocker by Vitra (purchased at Arnotts) perches on the floor freshly painted in Farrow and Ball's Downpipe. The painting is from Decor, Camden Street, Dublin 8.

Another job was to have period-style cornicing reinstated. Our house was built in the 1860s but other than the lovely wide floorboards no period details remained in the living room when we moved in. We had previously put in a Victorian-style four panel door from Victorian Salvage (especially important as we didn't notice the lack of a door until we sat down in the room for first time) and an antique fireplace (a design common to the area) from the brilliant Sugan Antiques. I had plaster cornicing made by the excellent Dublin Mouldings on Parnell Street and it has made the room complete.

Other than wall shelves and book-ends from IKEA, I didn't buy anything else for the room. Instead I moved things and changed around artwork by bringing some pieces that were hanging elsewhere in the house into the living room.

AFTER: New storage comes in the form of four white Lack wall shelves from IKEA, featuring nerdy colour-coordinated books. The period-style door came from Victorian Salvage. The space to the right of the door originally featured my two Panoramic Dublin prints by Andy Mac Manus which have now moved to the right of the fireplace

AFTER: The Billy bookends are also from IKEA, while the Flower Blossom lampshade is by Orla Kiely while the brown glass lamp is from Hicken Lighting, Lower Bridge Street, Dublin 8.

AFTER: Soppy 'E' and 'S' letters from Urban Outfitters. The S keeps falling off the shelf and scraping the floor whenever I bang the door!

AFTER: These were made by the father of a very good friend mine, Aoife, who is a wood-turner extraordinaire

AFTER: This curvaceous retro-style sofa was bought in Belfast (in Dekko, which sadly is no longer operating) a few years ago. Eoghan still mourns after the bigger yet bulkier sofa we originally purchased, which we now visit in Conamara. The grey cushion is by Donna Wilson, a lovely gift last Christmas.

AFTER: The G-plan coffee table makes the room seem bigger and came from the treasure trove Table Lighting Chair, located on Pleasant's Place (behind Camden Street near Cake Café), Dublin 8.

AFTER: The red cushion is by Ben de Lisi for Debenham's is inspired by the designer's own French bulldog Ella (not sure if it's still in stock) and the Multi Stem square lampshade is by Orla Kiely.

AFTER: I got this little side table for a song in TK Maxx about two years ago. It matches the floor. The clear glass ball lamp is from Hicken Lighting, Lower Bridge Street, Dublin 8.

AFTER: A close-up of one of our two Panoramic Dublin prints by Andy Mac Manus, featuring views of O'Connell Bridge

BEFORE: Too much to distract the eye with the shelves on either side of the fireplace. We put the mirror in our bedroom where the ceiling is higher.

AFTER: The removal of the shelves and mirror results in the less visual clutter, allowing the eye to focus on fireplace.  The new plaster cornicing by Dublin Mouldings helps the room to look its age.

AFTER: The antique fireplace from Sugan Antiques is simply adorned with just a pair of candlestick holders, which were a present. Having a working fireplace reinstated back in the room is a real privilege, especially on the cold winter nights. I was delighted when a friend mentioned that her parents' house in nearby Inchicore has the same fireplace surround.

BEFORE: No plaster cornicing. Another job I would like to get done in the future is to have the window shutters reinstated as per the other houses in our terrace.

AFTER: The view from the sofa. Waffles the cat is at his television - he spends hours looking out the window.

AFTER: Waffles on guard cat duty. If you like the owl cushion resting on the Eames rocker, check out my previous post.