Inside the glittering Dublin home of jewellery designer, Chupi Sweetman-Durney
Jewellery may be what she spends her days thinking about, but Chupi Sweetman-Durney has added her signature love of shine and decadence to her Dublin home.
photography Ruth Maria Murphy
“It wasn’t love at first sight,” says Chupi Sweetman-Durney of the first time she laid eyes on her home. “Everyone describes finding their house like love affairs, it’s like a proposal story where it was this perfect moment – a deer leaping across the lawn, a diamond sparkling at midnight. But because I loved our previous house so much, it was like leaving the perfect relationship and starting dating again. Nothing was good enough.”
As the CEO of her eponymous jewellery brand, which is celebrating ten years, Chupi has heard her fair share of engagement stories. Her and husband Brian were house hunting, despite how much they loved their first home, as during the pandemic Chupi’s mum, Rosita Sweetman, sold the family home in Wicklow. This, coupled with the arrival of their daughter Aya, made them realise they wanted somewhere they all could live, which led them to this Victorian home, where Rosita has the ground floor, and Chupi, Brian and Aya live upstairs.
Despite Chupi’s initial apprehension, it’s now a home that she has totally fallen in love with. “It’s wonderful,” she says. “It just suits us so well.” Having done extensive renovations on their first house, she explains that it was a great opportunity to learn from some of their mistakes, and they decided to work with designer Po McNamee to make sure everything was perfect. “I love designing, and Brian is the chief technology officer of Chupi so designs human-digital experiences. But what we found last time was we really both struggled to imagine space at scale. I’m good until about one inch, and then after that I’m a bit lost,” she laughs.
While in their previous home the kitchen was located in an extension at basement level, with the living space upstairs, here they wanted the spaces to be connected. “We throw lots of dinner parties, which I always caveat by saying quite frequently, Deliveroo does the catering,” Chupi laughs.
“It used to be 9pm dinners, and it’s now more likely to be 3pm lunches with the kiddos. But we’re real kitchen people, it’s where we love to hang out, and we can be chatting in there while the kids are turning the sitting room upside down. I never imagined buying a period house that we’d get open plan living – it just didn’t seem like an achievable goal. But this house is made for it.”
While in their last house they spent the most money on their bathrooms, this time around, it was the kitchen that became their focus. “It was wonderful having a bougie bathroom, but actually, you don’t spend much time in them,” Chupi says. As a jeweller, she is no stranger to shiny things, and they decided to go all-out with the brass kitchen, especially as it feels very much part of their living space.
The units were made from walnut veneer by Cosgrove Kitchens. As Chupi reasoned, “Our kitchen is only three metres, so we decided we’re going for decadence, it’s a work of art.” It was finished in brass by Elements of Action, creating a statement piece full of contradictions: metallic yet warm, lustrous yet low-key in its simplicity. “Installing a giant gold kitchen seems incredibly impractical, but we have this amazing gold mirror; it throws light across the whole room.” Things like the fridge-freezer and coffee machine are concealed in two freestanding cupboards on either side of the fireplace, and Chupi’s other love apart from gold – precious stone – is present too in the form of beautiful marble worktops from Miller Brothers. “I work with beautiful stones every day, but very tiny ones, so going to look at three-metre sheets of rose onyx and marble was heaven.”
The kitchen is the perfect example of how, as Chupi describes, “we were unapologetic in this house”. Decisions such as not having any spare bedrooms but ensuring both her and Brian had their own office, and the much-loved flourishes of gold throughout the house. “We want it to work for us, not what anyone else thinks we should have.”
Chupi’s passion for pre-loved pieces is also clear looking around the home, from a Bentwood chair she has had upcycled with sheepskin to small details like a vintage bread knife bought on eBay. She bemoans the loss of the Dublin Flea, and loves auctions at Herman & Wilkinson. “I feel like we have such a responsibility to think about the things we buy and the life they’re going to lead after us. At Chupi, we’re making pieces for the future. There are so few things in our lives that can be passed on through generations, but homes and jewellery are exceptions.”
Working on this house has also inspired aspects of the newly opened Chupi flagship in the Powerscourt Townhouse, another period space Chupi has poured her personality into. They share the same paint colours, and it too is filled with mirrors and reflective surfaces. Special details include a cabinet from Joy Thorpe Antiques with lettered drawers to store pieces waiting to be picked up. “It’s 150 years old, and hopefully it will be in our shop for the next 50 years.”
The jewellery she designs, Chupi explains, also shares a connection with these old buildings, both embodying an imperfect beauty. “I’ve always been drawn to grey diamonds, twig designs, the idea of your own North Star – it’s not about perfect, shiny finishes. It’s about honouring every part of a story. We didn’t replaster the walls of the house to perfection – it’s had many families before us, it’s seen many lives. We’re the custodians of this house for this generation. We’ll mind it and care for it. And ultimately, we’ll pass it on.”
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2023 issue of IMAGE Magazine.
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