My favourite room: Fusing beauty and sustainability is at the heart of Amanda Pratt’s approach to both business and decorating her 1830s home

Amanda Pratt’s new business venture focuses on the sustainable and the surprising. And her period home in south county Dublin, which she shares with her husband and two dogs, is in a similar vein

Amo & Pax owner Amanda Pratt with her Tibetan terrier Tenzing - she also has a bichon frise, Yumiko - in the kitchen of her 19th century home in south county Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin

Mary O'Sullivan

It’s hard to imagine what Nick Cave, the singer and co-founder of alternative rock band The Bad Seeds (the forerunner of which, The Birthday Party, was dubbed “the most violent band in the world”), could possibly have in common with fashion and homewares designer, retail expert and generally sunny, life-loving Amanda Pratt.

However, apparently they both love ceramics in the shape of Staffordshire flatback china dogs. Cave, it seems, is doing a range of pottery based on the flatback while Pratt has a host of them scattered around her lovely home in south Co Dublin. “My grandmother was an antique dealer and she collected Staffordshire; it was a big trend at one time,” Pratt explains.