47—MARYLEBONE JOURNAL
STYLE
people in Cape Town have, looking out over the sea, so for the next order we were able to bring over smaller pieces, which worked much better.” One of the pieces of furniture that
down to Mirabel for Christmas with his family and wanted the painting there,” says Jane. “It was during the really heavy snow, and we tried every single shipping company, but nobody was able to get it delivered in time.” The result? Jane’s young colleague Antonia, who manages the shop, hired a transit van and persuaded her boyfriend to join her on a slippery 12 hour drive to the French Alps. Providing happy endings to
potentially disastrous stories seems to be something of a speciality, thanks largely to the energy and enthusiasm transmitted by Jane, a woman who
arrived in London from Northern Ireland at the age of 17, “got off the bus at Victoria station, then walked around until I found a job”. The opening of Muralto was almost a disaster of epic proportions after the shipping containers carrying the stock from South Africa were damaged in transit, destroying all the furniture and setting the opening back by six months. But even this worked out well in the end. “We were able to take a step back and get to know the area,” says Jane. “One thing we quickly noticed is that especially around here, people don’t have the vast rooms that
will be making that same journey in the not too distant future will mark a new direction for the company – rather than being designed by Rene, it will have sprung from the imagination of a young British designer. Muralto recently launched a new award in conjunction with the Institute of Interior Design, aimed at nurturing young design talent in the UK. “Rene isn’t getting any younger,” laughs Jane, “so we thought it would be good to run a competition for young graduates to design a piece of furniture – a commercial piece, nothing too wacky. We’ll manufacture the winning piece and sell it here. It could be the start of something very exciting.” The launch of the competition
pitched Jane still deeper into the world of professional interior design – yet another rapid education in what has been a year of learning on her feet. “It’s terrifying. But what you put in dictates what you get out. We’re meeting lots of interior designers, and I’m really enjoying getting to know the trade.” “It’s whole new world for me,” she
says, with a big, wide-eyed laugh. “You don’t get air kissing in Ireland.”
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