Victorian terrace gets stylish turnaround

A terraced Victorian house a short walk from Google HQ and Grand Canal Dock Dart station has been given a complete makeover in the year since it was bought by G&V Developments.

It had never had heating, was riddled with damp, and required new foundations. Some original period features could be retained but, elsewhere, were replaced with faithful reproductions, like new double glazed sash windows. There are also a lot of innovative new features in the house. The property now has a BER rating of B2 because it has been insulated everywhere, says G&V's Vanessa Hamilton.

Number 30 Grand Canal Street Upper was extended to house a super-modern kitchen/ breakfastroom, floored, like the front hall, with smart Villeroy & Boch porcelain tiles digitally printed to give them a grey/brown marble effect.

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Renovation cost

The house was bought for more than €500,000, renovation cost about €300,000 and the 195sq m (2,100sq ft) four- bedroom house is now on sale for €1.2 million through Turley Property Advisers.

G&V Developments is a company set up by engineer Gerry Walsh and Vanessa Hamilton, an interior designer who ran her own home staging company in the boom years. Now G&V "looks out for residential wrecks in Dublin 2, 4 and 6" to redevelop as high-end homes. Niamh McHenry of Ready for Sale has staged number 30, a knockout house that is ready to move into. Interconnecting reception rooms open off the entrance hall on the left. The hall has original period cornicing, the reception rooms, deep coving.

The walls have been newly panelled below the chair rail, and both have limestone fireplaces. Walls are painted a fashionable shade of grey. The double-glazed sash window in the front shuts off noise of traffic on busy Grand Canal Road very effectively, says Hamilton.

A few steps at the end of the hall lead past a downstairs bathroom to the Kube kitchen/ breakfastroom, a large open- plan space with French doors opening into the back garden. It is very sleek, with a long Silestone-topped island unit, two huge Velux skylights over the kitchen space, all integrated units and a utility room off it. One of the clever features in the kitchen is a retracting extractor fan concealed behind the induction hob in the island unit: press a button, and it slides up.

The staircase, with new banister and spindles, leads to the main bedroom on the return: it has a good-sized tiled en suite and, like the three first floor double bedrooms, smart Kube sliding door wardrobes.

Sky tube

There’s a family bathroom on the first floor which has another innovation – a sky tube: made by Velux, it’s a mirrored tube that feeds up to the roof, letting in daylight. There is also one on the landing. Upstairs, at the top of the house, there’s another small bathroom.

Outside, there’s a small well landscaped city garden – a wide granite patio with a gravelled space for two cars, with an electronic gate opening on to Emerald Cottages, a lane at the back. There is also residents’ permit parking at the front.