One of the first things architect Perter Twamley would say to anyone planning a total revamp of their home is: "Make a flexible plan for how you want the rooms to be and then before you even consider how the house will look in the end, get the basics right. In old houses, that means the structure, closely followed by damp proofing and insulation." His terraced period house at 4 St Kevin's Road, in Dublin 8, has two bedrooms and has been extensively refurbished by the architect, who bought it in 1984. He gutted the house and started from scratch, redesigning it to make a comfortable family home with the emphasis on a particularly sociable living space.
The entire ground floor has an airy open-plan feel, and is broken into three nearly equal-sized areas - a living area, which opens into a kitchen/dining area, which in turn opens into a conservatory. He took out the original hall, replacing it with a small lobby, and incorporated the stairs into the design of the livingroom. This opens into the dining area through stripped pine double doors, which were originally single bedroom doors upstairs. Usually, houses of this period have two reception rooms and a small kitchen off the hall at the back. Peter Twamley did away entirely with this plan, putting the kitchen into what would have been a large back reception room. All the units are against one wall and are made up of standard-sized below counter presses with a single sweep of presses at eye level that are fronted by a mixture of glazed doors, solid doors and open shelves. They stop short of being wall to wall. "Having them stop just short of the wall gives the impression of space," he says, "and also helps them appear like a piece of furniture, which is important in a room that is as much a livingroom as it is a kitchen." The units are made of an interesting mix of wood - rich coloured teak frames with plywood inserts, which look great against the solid maple flooring. Two sets of tall French windows lead into the aluminium-framed conservatory with its nearly double-height, sloping, glazed roof. "As well as being a very useful extra room, the conservatory has a practical purpose as well. "It's south facing," says Mr Twamley. "We've calculated that the heat-gain from it saves us at least two months worth of heating bills." A nice contrast in the conservatory is the way its modern shape and aluminium frame is complemented by its floor, which is covered in classy black and white chequer-board tiles. This looks out on to a landscaped, walled town garden.
Upstairs, there are two bedrooms but getting back to Mr Twamley's idea of a flexible plan, there could easily be three. The very large main bedroom runs the width of the house but was designed so that it could be quickly partitioned. As well as having two windows, it has two radiators; two doors set into a large door frame open into the main bedroom, making it easy to divide the room into two.
THE second bedroom is a large double and there is also a good-sized bathroom at this level. An interesting detail is the long rectangular window in the roof which not only lets in light to the landing, but lights up the stairway thanks to a square-shaped, raised opening over part of the staircase.
Sherry FitzGerald is handling the sale of the property, which goes to auction on February 18th with a guide of £215,000.
