Rosemary Jones’s move to the Cork coast brought romance, and a thriving business, along with her and her fiance’s dream home in the most idyllic location imaginable

It's certainly not usual for a Dublin girl to start a business in a country town, but that's exactly what Rosemary Jones did five years ago when she set up her interiors shop, Bellissima, in Bandon, Co Cork.

And with both local homeowners and many people from the Cork city area demonstrating a fondness for her fabulous furnishings, it's proved a success. Rosemary did, however, know the area well, as her mother originally hailed from Bandon, while family holidays were spent in nearby Courtmacsherry. Rosemary has now set up home there, in a genuine bijou residence where she lives with her fiance, Sean O'Farrell.

The Foxrock-ite hadn't gone south in search of love; a purely practical factor had driven the qualified interior designer out of the capital. Prices on the then-booming Dublin property market meant Rosemary was unable to afford to buy there after a stint overseas -- not that she regrets the move abroad.

After training as an interior designer, Rosemary had spent three years working for Irish companies in Dublin, and she then felt it would be beneficial to get experience on the continent. She landed a job with a furniture store in Holland.

"I had a house in Dublin, but sold it, and when I came back, after just shy of two years, I couldn't afford to buy again. That was eight years ago," she says.

"When I came back, I had the opportunity to be the agent for several Dutch companies in Ireland and I thought I'd go to West Cork. But I found the shops weren't right for the Dutch products. I also freelanced doing interior design, but I couldn't find the right stuff for my clients' houses," she recalls.

"So, I said: 'Do you know what, I'll take a chance and open my own shop.' That was five years ago and it's been great."

It may have seemed an impetuous decision, but in the intervening three years Rosemary had researched the market and knew that if good quality furniture were available, the customers would be there. She had also learned an enormous amount during her time in Holland. "They do everything so well: they design so well, everything is well made, and the customer service is superb. They allow you to take home pieces to see if they work in your house," Rosemary comments.

It's obvious from a visit to her store that Rosemary has put the same values at the top of her agenda. Bellissima is a large, light-filled store, furnished with quirky designer pieces as well as top-quality contemporary ranges. Nothing is cheap, but there is a huge variety of prices and everything is classy. All the ranges are European, with much of Rosemary's stock from Denmark, Holland and France. Highlights include the offbeat chairs and chaises longues of London-based Cork designer Aiveen Daly, the range of vibrant Missoni rugs and the Flexform range of sofas, "the creme de la creme of sofas," according to Rosemary.

"They're all made with either a solid-wood or a steel frame with loose covers, and I've had Germans coming in looking for loose covers for Flexform sofas they've had, say, for 13 years -- still in perfect condition apart from the covers," she says. This isn't just sales speak -- a Flexform sofa is the centrepiece of the living room of Rosemary and Sean's charming, coastal, cottage-style home.

There's a nice story behind the purchase of the cottage. Sean, who runs the RNLI in Courtmacsherry, and Rosemary were looking for either a house, or a site to build on. With Sean on duty 24 hours a day, and having to be at all times within a three-mile radius of his base, the couple were limited in where they could buy. This meant they couldn't look at surrounding areas such as Dunworley, where sites were plentiful and cheaper. With so little available within their price range in Courtmac, as it's called locally, they were frantic.

Then, a Cork couple who have a holiday home in the village and who Rosemary knew well, came into her shop. "They said they wanted to buy a couch for their new house. I said: 'Are you selling the old one?'" she says. "They were, and I said we might be interested. I arrived up at their house the next morning and before I even set foot inside, I said: 'This is it,'" the serene businesswoman recalls.

It's easy to see why. Perched at the top of a country lane and surrounded by fields, the house overlooks the sea and has spectacular views over the bay, Broadstrand and the Old Head of Kinsale. And it's only seconds from the beach. Inside is also a delight. The house has been completely renovated to take maximum advantage of the views -- though when Rosemary and Sean first bought it, they had no idea just how much work would follow.

"When the workmen started, they found the second storey wasn't attached. I just got a call saying: 'Did you know the upstairs was just plonked on top?'" Rosemary recalls. Even the previous owners had no clue.

"It had to go, so one day I arrived up, and the top floor was gone, there was no roof and the whole back was open. We thought: 'What have we just spent our money on?' but we said: 'Look, we'll just keep going,'" she says.

Fortunately, Rosemary's dad, Nigel Jones, is an architect and he was to able to help them through the renovation -- although it took 10 months instead of the envisioned four. However, the result is stunning.

The ground floor is made up of an entrance hall, bathroom, study and an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room which has glass on all sides to maximise the views, and to fill the area with light. Light is a priority everywhere, so instead of banisters the stairs have glass panels, and upstairs, instead of dormer windows there are Veluxes. The Velux in the master bedroom is special, as it opens out to form a small balcony .

And as if they couldn't get enough of the great outdoors through the windows, the deck outside is like an extra room, and is furnished with the luxurious Gloucester range of outdoor furniture. Rosemary stocks it in the shop, but even for her it was a treat, one she sorely needed: in the middle of the renovations in 2004 she discovered she was suffering from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"I knew I wasn't well: the shop was only up and running a year, and I was bullying the doctors, saying: 'I'm not right': then, I found a big lump on my neck," Rosemary recalls.

It was a desperate shock. As she says herself, she'd just got engaged and she and Sean were "full of dreams and they didn't include cancer", but Rosemary found her own way of handling it.

"At the beginning, I'd look it up on the internet and find myself getting upset. So I didn't do a huge amount of research because every case is different. For me, exercise and positive thinking work," she says. The lymphoma has recurred twice since, but Rosemary is upbeat. "I have to learn to live with it. I'm learning to accept it," she says, calmly.

Living in paradise helps.

Bellissima Furniture, Bypass Road, Bandon, Co Cork, tel: (023) 885-4740, or see www.bellissima.ie, or email bellissima@eircom.net

- Mary O'Sullivan