Clarion Hotel, Cork

O’Donnell Design Ltd completed the installation of contemporary oak finish bedroom casegoods at the 193-room Clarion Hotel, Cork.

Designed by architects Scott Tallon Walker and built by PJ Hegarty & Sons, The Clarion Cork is a strikingly modern, glass-fronted building overlooking the River Lee at Lapps Quay. Owned by Choice Hotels Europe, the Clarion brand is synonymous with luxury and style and this new hotel represents Clarion’s €40 million expansion plans in Ireland. The hotel is proudly described by General Manager Charlie Shiel as: “a landmark new-build right on Cork’s river frontage and the first purpose-built, 4-star hotel development in Cork’s City centre for years.”

While O’Donnells has an established international reputation in the hotel sector for supplying casegoods to some of the best-known designer hotels in Europe, the Clarion project was one that called for a particular style and finish in keeping with the workmanship of other Irish designers and craftsmen who supplied the hotel.

O’Donnells was given the responsibility of interpreting the product designs and manufacturing them to meet a demanding specification, schedule and budget. All the casegoods to fit out the 190+ bedrooms, which included 15 suites, 12 Single, 160 Double and 4 Family Rooms, feature clean simple lines combined with the warmth of a contemporary light oak quality veneer finish. The casegoods supplied by O’Donnells included headboards and bedside cabinets, wardrobes with full length mirrors, luggage racks, desks and chests of drawers. The headboards ranged in sizes from 1.6m to 3.6m to cater for combinations of 900, 1500 and 1800mm wide beds in all the rooms and suites.

O’Donnells’ high-class workmanship also featured some specific design refinements such as finishing the headboards, desks and chests of drawers with solid wood edges to improve product longevity.