CO WEXFORD - €595,000:Helen Brudenell is leaving Killinick and heading to Dubai, writes Eivlín Roden.

A MANY GABLED, modern detached house on an acre in Co Wexford is for sale by private treaty through Kehoe Associates for €595,000.

Located near the village of Killinick and close to several fine beaches, the house, called Chantry, is just eight years old, though its comfortable interior feels a good deal more established. It's the home of designer Helen Brudenell, who specialisese in doing up houses and apartments for investors. She bought it four years ago, intending to retire there, and totally refitted the house with antique fittings, and modern country style accessories sourced in the UK and France.

Now, she has itchy feet, and plans to move to the Middle East where, she says, there is plenty of work in the interior design business, fitting out show apartments and lavish villas in Abu Dhabi and Ras-al-Khaimai. "There are tremendous opportunities out there and I need to keep going! When I first went to Ras-al-Khaimai in the early 1990s you had to camp and travel on camels. Now there's a direct flight from Dublin."

The four-bedroom house is a short distance from the N25 to Rosslare. It's approached through plain white cast-iron electric gates. A white hall door leads into this beautifully proportioned house.

Its traditional layout of a square hall with a room off either side and a large kitchen area at the back has been decorated in pleasing natural materials, such as solid wood floors, Bath limestone fireplaces, Duresta sofas and armchairs, and some lovely antique pieces (such as a Dutch inlay cabinet and unusual gleaming side tables).

Soft white and cream paint throughout are suffused by filtered light through colonial blinds. Great attention has been paid to lighting fixtures.

The sittingroom is a square room with windows in two walls and the main focus a simple Bath limestone 19th century fireplace with inset black Stanley wood-burning stove and round mirror above. A copper-lined alcove for logs is inset into an alcove and red sofas and chairs complement the polished floorboards.

The kitchen is a large and lovely room with cream units around a mahogany dining table and four chairs covered in smart blue check. Another old limestone fireplace with Stanley stove centres the room and there are windows and French doors along one wall.

A second kitchen leading off one end continues the hand-painted wooden units and contains the dishwashing and laundry elements. A sunroom opens off the other end through glazed double doors. This high vaulted space with pale rafters and wooden floor is decorated with antique birdcage light fitting and small iron love birds attached to the beam.

Upstairs, there are three double bedrooms, the main en suite. Each is decorated differently, but all have the same simplicity, with good storage and feature windows. The fourth bedroom is downstairs with en suite and is used as a study. The main bathroom and shower rooms are decorated in a streamlined country style with white sanitary ware.

Outside, there is a large gravelled space in front with ample car-parking and pretty planting against the base of the house. A trellis connects a separate studio with its own cloakroom. The back garden is bordered by banks planted with trees and shrubs to emulate the wild hedgerows in the surrounding area.