Residential

Island of calm in Drumcondra for €725,000

This redbrick Victorian three-bed has been stripped back for a rustic look

Bernice Harrison's face
Bernice Harrison
Thu Nov 6 2014 - 00:00

Several of the roads off Home Farm Road in Drumcondra, an area mostly developed around 100 years ago, are named after Irish islands.

They include Clare, Valentia, Bantry, Lambay and Aran. Some connect Home Farm with Griffith Avenue while others such as Achill Road are cul-de-sacs. In all, it’s a quiet residential area with a diversity of housing types close to the city centre.

The owners of 27 Achill Road bought 14 years ago and extended the Victorian redbrick at the rear by adding a Rationel conservatory that, with its underfloor heating, is in year-round use. The three-bedroom Strain-built house is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €725,000.

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The straightforward layout covering 128sq m (1,378sq ft ) has two interconnecting reception rooms with a kitchen at the rear and three bedrooms upstairs, the one in the return being the smallest.

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Exposed brick

The owners did work when they moved in, to get the look they wanted. So in the main bedroom – a large, bright room that runs the width of the house – they brought one wall back to the brick. There’s also exposed brick in the chimney breast in the good-sized eat-in kitchen which has been fitted with a woodburning stove.

Interested in architectural salvage, the owners found lovely period fireplaces for all bedrooms.

The fireplaces downstairs – white marble in the front room, black slate in the rear – are typical of the ones Strain fitted in his grander builds in nearby Iona.

The owners stripped and polished the pine floorboards and also stripped back some of the doors. But fashions change, and it’s likely that new owners will redecorate throughout, replacing the rich colours on the walls downstairs and the paint treatments in some of the rooms upstairs with brighter neutrals.

They may also replaster the wall in the main bedroom, even though the current owners went to considerable trouble having it repointed to achieve a rustic look.

The house is semi-detached and there’s a side entrance and a large shed in the paved back garden.