Classic Shell

8 × 7.5 cm

The little shell that started it all!

Our Classic Shell holds a rather special place in the Katie Larmour collection, being the very first Christmas decoration I designed, back in 2019. At the time, I had absolutely no vision of creating what would eventually become a collection of over 300 different hanging ornaments!

Having spent years making luxury cushions from beautiful Irish Linen, I'd accumulated quite a mountain of fabric offcuts. These were far too lovely, and far too good in quality, to simply throw away. I wanted to find a creative way to give these precious little pieces a new lease of life, and so our first Shell decoration was born.

What began as a simple idea to make use of leftover fabric gradually blossomed into an entirely new chapter for Katie Larmour, with hundreds of designs inspired by everything from Irish heritage and nature to travel, nostalgia and the occasional rather unexpected curiosity!

And being an island, Ireland is blessed with miles upon miles of glorious coastline, from sweeping sandy beaches to little rocky coves, with beautiful shells scattered along its shores. There's something rather fitting about a humble seashell being the very first design in a collection rooted in Irish Linen.

Handmade from beautiful Irish Linen, with delicate hand-stitched metallic embellishments tracing the shell's graceful curves, our Classic Shell remains a timeless little celebration of the seaside.

Over the years, it's appeared in a lovely variety of Irish Linen colours, including small batches of vintage, antique and discontinued fabrics. Many of these fabrics are no longer available, making each little limited colourway rather special.

One particularly special colourway is our naturally avocado-dyed Irish Linen, a little experiment I undertook back in 2023. Using gently heated avocado stones, with a few skins thrown in for good measure, I created a wonderfully unusual (and rather peculiar-smelling!) natural dye bath that transformed the linen into the most beautiful soft blush pink. It was enormous fun, although goodness, was it labour-intensive!

I've held on to this little batch ever since, wanting to be absolutely sure that the delicate colour wouldn't fade and that the metallic embroidery wouldn't react or discolour over time. Three years later, I'm delighted to say I'm confident enough to finally release these little beauties into the world!

Our Classic Shell is soon to be phased out, making way for its rather dazzling successor, the Shimmer Shell! So if you've had your eye on one, now is the time to snap up a little piece of Katie Larmour history while you still can.

It also pairs beautifully with our Fish, Seahorse, Mermaid, Ship-in-a-Bottle, Lighthouse and Seal decorations, together creating a dreamy little collection of seaside treasures, and can be found adorning many a coastal tree all over the world.

A rather humble beginning for what became a very big adventure!

Our Irish Linen

Our luxury artisan decorations are handcrafted from beautiful Irish Linen, thoughtfully sourced from a mixture of vintage fabrics, local mill deadstock, repurposed antique tablecloths and offcuts from our own cushion making. We also work with a small number of wonderful Irish linen mills, including one of the last remaining linen mills still active in Ireland today, carefully selecting fabrics for their colour, texture and character.