LA vibes with an Irish twist: Dubliner Grania Murray on designing a stylish home for YouTuber James Rallison

This often results in bemused Irish interior designers surveying their client’s Pinterest page and struggling to explain how the LA courtyard-and-infinity-pool-combo is never really going to work in Mullingar. And flat roofs are not designed for rain.

As an Irish interior designer who lives and works in LA, Grania Murray sees the issue from both sides. She’s recently designed a home for James Rallison, the multi-talented creative behind the YouTube channel TheOdd1sOut (19.6 million followers).

Rallison lives in Burbank, in a home built to a Californian scale and on a Californian budget. This is a far cry from the lived experience of most people on this island. And yet, there’s a lot to be learnt from the project.

“Many of the things I used on this job are not unobtainable,” Murray explains. “You may not be able to afford the coffee table, but look at what informs it — it’s a plank from a tree!” The wallcovering behind the taxidermy in the hall is by Rebel Walls (from €50 per metre), the acoustic wall panelling is widely available (the price depends on the level of sound insulation behind it), and the paint is Irish. Specifically, it’s taken from the Clements and Moore Collection by Kraftsmann Paints, a range designed for historic Irish homes.

Kraftsmann is the Irish manifestation of the Californian paint brand Dunn-Edwards. “They make the best paint in the States,” says Joe Meaney, who launched Kraftsmann in 2020. “I wanted to bring them to Europe.”

Irish people require a different approach to marketing than Americans. “All the Irish paint companies work from paint cards — they present a selection of colours that work well with each other. In America, they show you the full range of colours!”

If you go to one of Dunn Edwards’ American stockists , they will proudly show you all 2,000 colours from the brand. “That can be overwhelming for Irish people,” Meaney says. “All our colours come from their range but we’ve narrowed it down to make it more manageable.”

The Clements and Moore Collection is based on samples taken from Irish period homes by paint historian Nat Clements. It’s a very specific range, but this was the one Murray decided to use in her Burbank project.

“There was an element of coals-to-Newcastle about it,” Meaney admits. “There was no point in mixing up Californian paints and sending them back to California! We got in touch with a Dunn-Edwards supplier in LA and sent them the recipe.”

Since then it’s become a talking point for the owners. The colours have an exquisite quality and they’re excited to have Irish tones in their home

Murray chose Olive Daub for the family room and studio; Slane Yellow for the double interior front door; Deep Clay for the exterior front door; and Warm Off White for the tongue and groove ceiling. “Using the Clements and Moore Collection was a real close-to-home moment for me,” Murray says. “Since then it’s become a talking point for the owners. The colours have an exquisite quality and they’re excited to have Irish tones in their home.”

Originally from Dublin, and working on both sides of the Atlantic, Murray is a big fish in a big pond. She’s the recipient of multiple awards from Houzz and featured in a recent Luxe magazine as an Influential Woman in Design. But she still can’t quite believe how she got here. “There was no masterplan,” she says. “I just did it.”

The story began in 1996 when Murray, having trained in Advanced Computer Programming, was selling a home she’d renovated herself. “I loved changing my rooms around but the concept of working in interior design wasn’t something I’d even heard of.” Her home was photographed for Image magazine and Jane McDonald (then editor) picked up the phone and asked for Murray’s design credentials.

“I’m not a designer,” Murray said.

“Well, you should be,” McDonald replied. “You need to get one of those mobile phone thingeys and I’ll put your number at the end of the article.”

McDonald did as she promised and the phone started ringing. “I just said yes to everything,” Murray admits. “I felt like such a fraud but I rolled up my sleeves and got on with it. When I didn’t know how to do something, I asked someone.”

She made the definitive move to America in 2013, in the aftermath of the 2009 property crash. “It had got to the point where it wasn’t cool for people to be spending money on design when the country was in such an awful state. I decided to give LA a go.”

At the time, people told her she was brave but Murray has a different perspective. “My dad was killed in a traffic accident when I was 15 and ever since then I’ve thought: it’s just a life — go and live it!”

Even for a high-profile designer, James Rallison is a prestigious client. “I was extremely honoured,” Murray admits. “The design-cool of designers in LA is fiercely competitive!” She first went to the house to update a truly hideous fireplace (17-foot-high and made in fake stone) and realised the project offered a tremendous opportunity for change.

Designing for twenty-something clients, as she explains, is a fine balance of mixing sophistication with fun. The project includes classic elements like the living room wall, bookmarked with granite slabs so the grain in the stone forms a symmetrical pattern like a butterfly’s wing. The artwork in the centre of the wall, which looks like a high-end print, is a Samsung ‘The Frame’ TV, designed to display artwork when not in use as a telly (€1,149 for a 55-inch version from Harvey Norman).

The orange Camaleonda sofa in the kitchen and dining area, designed in 1970 by Mario Bellini and available in Ireland from Minima, was chosen to give character and comfort to a very large space with many doors and windows. When a similar sofa in grey featured on the HBO TV series Succession, Murray felt she had her finger on the pulse of the YouTube generation.

The next week, the pendant lamp chosen for the living room also turned up on Succession. Her reputation was secured! Elements of whimsy within the design include a Tiki bar, built in the property’s former stables, and decorated with glass fishing floats. “Tiki bars are kind of a thing here,” Murray says. “It’s a cool place for him to hang out with his friends.”

​graniamurray.com, kraftsmann.com, rebelwalls.com