Celine Cummins – the Interior Designer Behind Sugar Culture
We’ve been lucky enough to have the incredible Celine Cummins design all our salons – the original Brown Sugar, Brown Sugar Blackrock, the newly designed Brown Sugar, Sugar Cubed, and Sugar Daddy.
With a meticulous eye for detail and impeccable taste, Céline’s designs are synonymous with the values and reputation of the Sugar Culture family.
Celine began her career at 16 in Brown Thomas, rising quickly to full responsibility for window displays in her early twenties. She moved onto retail design and exhibition work, building an impressive international career that continues to this day.
No matter where in the world she is – from Manhattan to Paris, Celine has kept a keen eye out for influences and design inspiration from international salons. Her strong connections with Sugar Culture have led her to create mood boards with photos she has taken in an array of places.
Celine and Mark have known each other for over 10 years, with a strong working relationship that goes beyond words. Together they have designed beautiful salons with unique personalities and atmospheres. We wanted to take a look back and find out from the woman herself what inspired each one.
Brown Sugar Blackrock
The second Brown Sugar salon opened in 2008, with Céline coming in to recreate the luxurious atmosphere of the original, with a unique take.
The inspiration behind Brown Sugar Blackrock was luxury – a place where clients would feel pampered in the safe hands of staff.
Show stopping Swarovski light fixtures decorate the salon, creating an implosion of light.
Marble floors throughout the salon with wood paneling on each station gives warmth to the salon. The darkened therapy room is a tranquil space, ideal for clients that want to immerse themselves and relax in the Sugar Culture experience.
Like all the Sugar Culture salons, Celine was inspired to create a space that reflects the incredible staff. She wanted to give them credit with an interior that encapsulates the above-and-beyond attitude of all stylists and staff.
When you step into a Sugar Culture salon, every sense is taken care of. From the handmade chocolates and delicious coffee, to the pure relaxation of a massage in the therapy room. Clients get more than just a service, they get an experience.
Celine Cummins
Sugar Cubed
Sugar Cubed opened in 2013 and offers an original concept in hair and beauty for a new generation of fashionably slick individuals. The interior design encompasses the best in urban street style, mixed with creative flair and design.
Located on Clarendon Street, in the heart of the city centre, the salon is mindful of the influences impacting the capital. Celine is a fan of incorporating stylistic elements from different places and times.
To get a sense of what the building would have been like in the past, Celine used a number of nostalgic elements like meat hooks for mirrors and leaded windows in the Therapy Room.
Younger generations are often drawn to the past, and generations who have come through recessions even more so. Celine chose to incorporate these elements in the design to engage with this.
Each station is a vintage school desk, complete with names carved into the woodwork and inkwells that find new use as curling tong holders. This mix of the old and the new are what makes Sugar Cubed so memorable.
One of the standout pieces in the salon is the state of the art shampoo basins with musical plugins, so clients can listen to their own music as they relax
Brown Sugar
It was only fitting for Céline to redesign the flagship Brown Sugar salon at No.50 South William Street for our 10th Birthday.
Her original Brown Sugar design was renowned for its sleek design, synonymous with the luxury Brown Sugar service.
Celine’s original design was widely praised, the beginning of an amazing working relationship.
The new redesign offers a cool, calm oasis in the midst of Dublin’s city centre. Opting for a palette of natural, bright colours, the design embraces the original architecture of the building.
In the early stages of planning, Celine put together a mood board as always with a mixture of ideas for the design. The inspiration behind it was the feeling of dying and going to heaven – something three clients have already said to Mark since the salon opened!
Again, Celine wanted a salon worthy of the angelic staff, a caring atmosphere reflective of the Sugar Culture experience. Shafts of heavenly light adorn the foyer and salon rooms, falling directly onto the client and stylist.
Each stylist has their own station, something important to Celine and Mark. This is just one of the many small touches that help staff go the extra mile each day. They’re able to stay attentive and focused on the service they are giving.
The new salon also has white garment bags for clients, meaning that they’re belongings are kept separate and safe.
The foyer is restored to its former glory with pure white natural tones giving a spacious, heavenly feel to the salon and therapy rooms. Natural wooden floors are used throughout to balance out the elegant feel of the interior.
One of Celine’s favourite aspects of the newly designed salon is the inclusion of a shower for clients. This means Brown Sugar can offer a complete transformative service. Clients going to an event from work can shower and change in the salon, with hair and make-up services on hand and a taxi waiting to drop their belongings home as they leave feeling refreshed and confident for the night.
Little things like this mean that Sugar Culture clients get a personal treatment no matter what service they come in for. Each station has it’s own charging facilities and a hospitality station with drawers of magazines ready and waiting.
Sugar Daddy
2015 marked a shift in Sugar Culture to include the men of Dublin in the experience. The new high-end barber offering means we can welcome a new range of clients, just in time for Christmas!
Sugar Daddy was created to offer trend-seeking Irish male consumers a high-quality barber. The Sugar Culture team felt that Dublin was lacking somewhere for male consumers with a comfortable, upmarket atmosphere. Offering a space exclusive to men allows them to feel like they belong.
Using this brief, Celine created a comfortable, upmarket space for men to come and relax. She opted for dark Herringbone Parquet flooring, elaborately carved oak stations and white Quartz counter tops to give an elegant but masculine finish to the space.
The overall feel is that of a gentlemen’s club with a classic colour palette of dark timbers and greens.
With these four incredible salon interiors already done, we’re looking forward to working with Celine again for future projects. It wouldn’t be a Sugar Culture salon without her expert design!
