Patrick Guinness, descendant of 18th-century brewing legend Arthur Guinness and one of the heirs to the Guinness fortune, has offered a rare glimpse into his stunning Georgian country home in Ireland. Guinness invited The Wall Street Journal to view the property, called Furness House, which is located just outside of Dublin in a village Guinness, 56, has called home for nearly two decades after acquiring the home in the early 1990s. Guiness' wife Louise, an interior designer by trade, spent several years restoring and furnishing the home after the couple moved in.
According to Guinness, who is a financial analyst by profession, the main block of the 1,400-square-meter home was built in 1730, while additional wings were added in 1782. The 1,400-square-meter Furness House boasts some 30 rooms, including 15 bedrooms and seven bathrooms, while the 13.5 hectare grounds include an obelisk, the ruins of an historic medieval church, an 800-year-old yew tree and a croquet lawn.
In his exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal, Guinness commented; "Heating is probably the most expensive item in the house. My favorite piece of furniture is in the drawing room—a long 1790s table fronted with Gothic-style fretwork. The top slab is a single piece of mahogany, three feet wide, which would be impossible to find today. It's not out of this world, just very well made. Another thing I love in this house: a tapestry made in Brussels in about 1620. A lot of decorative tapestries are of men on horseback chasing little furry animals; the one we've got has soldiers returning home from the wars. We just had it cleaned. These colors are earth colors, not artificial—they all come from nature. That blue more than likely came from lapis lazuli dug out of the Sinai. We put a new backing on it, made of proper linen, and at the top there's Velcro."
It's clear that estate living suits Guinness, who became accustomed to the particularities lived with his parents at a place called Leixlip Castle. "I remember thinking at the age of 5, "Why don't other people live in castles? They're nice." Growing up there certainly made it a lot easier living in this house: I'm used to everything being about three rooms away."
Source and photos courtesy The Wall Street Journal.
