Douglas Wallace styles cutting-edge salon

The Peter Mark Style Club, targeted at a younger, more trend-concerned audience, is the latest venture from the Republic of Ireland’s most prominent chain of hair salons, which has 71 branches across the country.

The first Peter Mark Style Club opens in central Dublin today, as part of the Peter Mark hair college.

There are plans to open the next in Swords, north Dublin, but no two salons will be the same.

Douglas Wallace was appointed to the six-figure project three years ago, having worked with Peter Mark for more than 15 years, according to lead designer on the project Garry Cohn.

The brief from Peter Mark chief executive Barry Dempsey and founding director Mark Keaveney was to create an ‘innovative and creative’ hair salon that would ‘push the boundaries of design’.

The finished space features a disparate array of styles, furnishings, and clashing colours and patterns, taking influence from punk, Japanimation, New Wave, Memphis and classical design, according to Cohn.

‘It’s not a case of less is more, it’s a case of more is more,’ he says.

Key features across styling stations, shampoo area, reception space and coffee bar include 3D lenticulars, bright white traditional mouldings, a wall of convex mirrors and a pink giraffe-skin printed ceiling.

A tiled ‘runner’ spans the length of the salon intended to create a catwalk effect, while a ‘grass box’ bathroom, complete with a green toilet, is overlooked by a cow peering through a graphic window.

Despite the humour and playfulness, beneath the decor is a considered site-specific layout, constructed to maximise efficiency, says Cohn.

A retail display at the front of the salon, with less hectic decor, gives way to the reception area, allowing customers time to browse and experience the atmosphere.

‘Each styling station is zoned so that stylists have the right amount of space, and the lighting is properly diffused, with spot overheads, it’s all been set up mathematically,’ says Cohn.