A ‘beach-housey’ Dalkey cottage for just under €1m

When it comes to doing up and extending a charming but small cottage, it helps if your sister is an interior designer. Tanya McGouran bought Mayflower House on Dalkey’s Tubbermore Road a little over 10 years ago, having fallen in love with its location and aspect, the off-street parking, and the fact that the property is detached. While the cottage was tiny, it had a large garden to the rear, and undaunted by the challenge, and with the help of sister Bronwen, she got stuck in.

Now the house, extending to 138sq m (1,485sq ft) has three bedrooms, a pretty study/den, and a large, open-plan area that includes the kitchen, diningroom and lounge, opening up to what is still a very spacious garden done in lawns and decking. This faces southwest and is quite idyllic on a sunny spring evening. There’s also a little inner courtyard, so the house is bright and airy throughout.

How do two sisters manage to get on and work together on a project like this? “Tanya is very easy to work with as she has very good taste to begin with,” says Bronwen. Oh but there must have been some disagreement. . . “No comment,” says Tanya, and the sisters burst into laughter.

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Mayflower House on Tubbermore Road in Dalkey has a large, open-plan area that includes the kitchen, diningroom and lounge.

Beach-house taste

“Tanya’s taste is very beach-housey,” says Bronwen, showing me the Vintage Driftwood engineered flooring, the wooden panels on some feature walls and the tongue-and-groove ceilings. The walls are painted a restful pale grey, while the kitchen and shower have lovely iridescent glass tiles from TileStyle. “They glow in the sunlight,” says Bronwen.

Her favourite room is the bathroom, “I’m sure people would look at me strangely for saying that but I really love it.” It does have a serene feel, a place where you could while away happy hours reading in the bath and imagining a parallel life in the Hamptons.

Being detached, there’s also great privacy, and Tanya and Bronwen reminisce about some of the parties that have taken place within these walls. We joke about changing it’s name to the Mayflower Club, before getting serious again about the potential of the place.

Space to extend

While it’s a lovely house, and it would suit anyone downsizing very well, it’s worth noting that there’s also space at the side, and to the rear, that might offer potential to extend further. Another option, subject to the necessary planning permission, might be to add another storey.

It's for sale with Sherry FitzGerald for €998,000. Nearby, on the same road, Lansdowne Partnership is seeking €795,000 for number 27, a smaller, 103sq m (1,106sq ft) three-bed. It too is a very nice house, with the key differences that it is not detached and does not have off-street parking.