Howth Road home with artistic flourish and idyllic garden for €1.3m

At first glance number 272 Howth Road looks like it has been in situ for decades. However, the four-bedroom, Dutch-gabled, detached house was built on the site of an artisan cottage just 21 years ago. It was designed by architect Martin Meehan of Meehan Associates and features many artistic flourishes. These include a floating steel and glass staircase with leather-covered treads and an impressive, Mondrian-inspired double-height window in its entrance hall, which features hand-made waterwave glass.

The house is unfurnished but the photos taken when it was furnished show that its sizeable living room is big enough to accommodate three three-seater sofas. It also housed a baby grand piano.

A curved corridor takes you past a small sitting room, guest toilet and plant room, and into the large, open-plan kitchen, living room and diner, which extends to 83sq m (900sq ft), the size of a decent two-bedroom apartment. It has alder wood units, designed by Arena Kitchens.

Set on a site that extends to almost a quarter of an acre and backs on to the Dart line below, it is a home with a blissfully private garden. The dining area opens out to a sandstone patio where there is a built-in barbecue that can cater for up to 100 people.

The outdoor space is extensively landscaped in a mature way that demonstrates the benefit of investing in such good design. While it’s an outlay that can take years to really show its full personality, the transcontinental planting in the garden has matured to the point where there is colour throughout the year. It features a wide selection of specimen trees including a Snakebark maple and an American dogwood. There is also a mature cooking apple tree that is more than 100 years old and gives good shade. Its fruit makes the best apple tarts, according to the owners. There are brick-edged paths leading down to raised vegetable beds and a screen of mature trees along the embankment that shield it from the noise of any passing Dart trains. At the foot of the garden is a brick-built home office and storage unit that extends to 600sq ft.

There are four generous double bedrooms upstairs. All have en-suite bathrooms. The main bedroom has a large, walk-in wardrobe and its en suite has a separate jacuzzi bath and shower.

The property boasts underfloor heating across its two solid-concrete floors as well as emergency lighting,a high-spec alarm and smoke-detection systems. The property even has its own generator should the grid go down.

The C3 BER-rated property, which extends to 299sq m (3,218sq ft) is seeking €1.3 million through agents Gallagher Quigley. The residence is less than a 10-minute walk to Killester Dart station and about the same to St Paul’s College and the wilderness that is St Anne’s Park, which takes you down to the seafront in Clontarf.