Look inside the chic home of interior architect Tullio Orlandi

But back to beauty moving in curves.

I discovered in the home of Limerick-based interior designer Tullio Orlandi, an arc of block glass wall separating his kitchen from the atrium and it being equally about beauty as functionality.

Inspired by a trip with his family to Palm Springs, where similar glass walls filter the warm California sunshine, it adds a sparkling aspect to Tullio’s two-bedroomed apartment — its shape echoed in the bespoke round dining table and curved backs of newly reupholstered dining chairs.

One of the leading lights of the Irish interiors scene, Tullio’s career began with a two-year stint in residential interior design in New York. On his return home to Limerick, his dad asked him to redo the family restaurant.

“It was referral after referral after that,” he says. “Limerick has been very good to me.”

Ten years later, Tullio Orlandi Design is responsible for the interiors of some of Limerick’s hospitality hotspots — including La Cucina and The Savoy Hotel’s bar and library — but he’s also found time to turn his design eye to his own needs.

“I found this apartment in a quiet, gated community with just 12 apartments. It was perfectly liveable, but everything was cream. Floors, kitchen, walls, and I’m not a cream person.”

Like any self-respecting interior designer, he gutted the apartment — installing new floors, a new electric plan, and replacing the kitchen.

“I didn’t put in any overhead kitchen cabinets,” he says. “It’s all clean lines.”

And he’s not missing the extra storage, thanks to exacting space planning and understanding his real needs.

“You don’t need 20 plates,” he says. “I have six of everything; everything has a home. It’s scaled down to suit me.”

Focusing on a blend of style and comfort, the eye is drawn to his living room wall unit housing decorative objects and a striking artwork by Lola Donoghue hanging where the TV would be in most homes.

The unit’s darker paint shade absorbs the TV’s black screen by day, giving it invisibility, a deliberate choice by Tullio who sees the space as having a social function.

“Don’t centre the room around the TV,” he says. “Centre it around conversation.”

Furniture placement plays to this with two occasional chairs and a sofa, the latter continuing the curve theme with soft corners reupholstered in Italian brand Dedar’s bouclé on the back, with the front a linen blend from English company Romo.

But in the midst of a carefully planned and executed design and colour theme, there’s a rogue yellow element.

“I don’t like yellow, but it crept in,” Tullio says, referencing an occasional chair a client originally wanted but thought was too expensive.

“Then the store was doing a clearout and I got it for a fraction of the price.”

A second occasional chair, squishy and inviting in stone white, was gifted.

But Tullio also loves things with nostalgia, referencing his credenza with its mix

of cupboards and curvy open shelving.

“Everything I have has a story,” he says.

“I love scouting. Every city I go to, I bring something back. The credenza came out of my mother’s garage.

“The sofa was left behind when I moved in, so I had it reupholstered.”

The master bedroom is a stylish cocoon in Farrow & Ball Blue Black, while the second bedroom functions as an office and lounge — with a handy daybed — and gets the Farrow & Ball treatment in Green Smoke.

It’s an immaculate home and Tullio keeps it that way intentionally.

“People ask me: ‘Does it always look like this?’, and the answer is ‘yes’. I love things being perfect.

“The apartment is a curation of my whole life. Everything in it gives me a bit of joy.”

And the same goes for location. “I love being in Limerick city,” he says. “Walking into town on Saturday morning for a coffee, going to the farmer’s market.”

Tullio shares this experience and his home with his partner who has moved in and — luckily — is not an interiors type with potentially conflicting views. “He’s an engineer, and I have him trained now,” Tullio jokes.

• Instagram.com/tullioorlandi/