In a second-floor studio on Bolshaya Pereyaslavskaya, dusty rose drapes hang with mathematical precision over deep-pile carpet of the same shade.


The sofa is sea-green chintz. Rustic braid skirts the woodwork. Chamber music plays softly from remote speakers.


It's a nice place, but it's not for sale. Outfitted as a showroom for Moscow's newest interior design company, the apartment near Rizhsky Vokzal is airy, aesthetic and fully outfitted, but it will never look lived-in.


Downstairs there are signs of life, as the support staff of Design Ireland International, or DII, answer the company's first calls and stack up strips of wallpaper and carpet samples.


DII's representatives are up front about their intention to corner the Moscow market for upscale interior design and furnishing, and the grand opening on March 26 will culminate a year of planning by Irish businessman Kevin Mullarkey, 35, who heads the Galway company Cotton Box Interiors.


It's been a busy year. DII has closed exclusive distribution deals with Irish manufacturers such as Waterford Crystal, Ulster Carpet and the curtain manufacturer Silent Gliss.


The company surveyed a cross-section of consumers in Moscow to plan an inventory to suit the tastes of its customers, who will be, as public relations manager Anne Griffin, 23, put it, "Western clientele and affluent Russians."


DII knows, for instance, that 79 percent of respondents preferred carpets in "nutmeg;" 60 percent like their wallpaper "embossed."


And most importantly, Mullarkey secured Irish government subsidies for transportation of raw materials, which will defray costs and, ultimately, prices. DII has its own vehicles for use inside the former Soviet Union, and a warehouse in Helsinki to store goods in. This special arrangement -- which allows DII to sell only products manufactured in Ireland and the United Kingdom -- will last through the venture's first year.


"With the freight subsidy, the clients see that they can purchase high-quality products" without paying the astronomical prices of most imported furnishings, Mullarkey said. On the strength of DII's exclusive deal with the Irish government, eight corporate projects requested quotations before the office opened officially. "We were surprised by the level of interest," Mullarkey said.


DII's specialty is -- in designer lingo -- "complete turnkey refurbishment," or floor-to-ceiling outfitting of office complexes or large-scale residence projects like hotels. DII would take over "after the builder was finished," supplying the structure with lighting fixtures, carpeting, furniture, draperies and whatever else the client requests.


This is the company's first venture outside Ireland, although it has exported furnishings to Switzerland and Italy, and Mullarkey hopes the office will become DII's "European headquarters." In the future, operations in much of Europe will be coordinated from Moscow.


"We're here to stay," said Brian Ricketts, 38, an English installation technician who will be overseeing DII's design work. Installation work will be done by Russian crews with foremen from Ireland, and Ricketts estimated that the entire staff would be roughly half Russian.


The company is fully operative starting this week, which is good news for Muscovites who want their apartments tiled with Bari Azur Rope Border, carpeted in Axminster Rust and papered with Gitanas in Antique Primrose. In fact, the only problem that DII's deputy director, Vladimir Khitry, anticipates, is that faced with catalogs full of wallpapers and carpet patterns, "some Russians might have trouble deciding."


"We are not used to having such a large range of choices," he added.





Design Ireland International is located at 52/55 Ulitsa Bolshaya Pereyaslavskaya. Hours: 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. Monday-Friday. For information, call 956-1790.


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