New homes are getting a whole new look. Property Editor Orna Mulcahy and Kate McMorrow get a sneak preview.
Belmayne, Malahide: from €420,000:Belmayne is currently hidden behind hoardings off the Malahide Road, beyond the Hilton Hotel. However, it's set to become a brand new neighbourhood with 2,650 new homes being built as well as a town square with shops and restaurants, a medical centre, library and a number of crèches.
To distinguish it from a lot of other run-of-the-mill schemes, developers, Stanley brothers, have spent a small fortune on show units, producing original designs and fit-outs that will have competing developers crawling all over the site looking for new ideas.
As interest rates creep up and housing supply comes close to matching demand, savvy builders are aware that the old product is not good enough anymore, and the builder's wife can no longer be relied on to do the decor.
A new generation of young builders - sons and daughters of the big name developers - are slowly but surely taking over and designing for their generation. Money, it seems, is no object when it comes to fitting out their new homes and they are more likely to get their inspiration from Barcelona and Milan than from depots on the Naas Road.
Inevitably some new schemes are going to fail because of oversupply, but the new players are determined that they won't be the fall guys.
Diarmuid Gavin and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, whose BBC makeover show Home Front was the original and best, have created a weird and wonderful four-bedroom house and garden at Belmayne complete with a moody blue and gold bedroom, an understairs loo with red walls decorated with classical buildings, and a garden filled with wrought iron orbs for climbing through.
The overall scheme by McCrossan O'Rourke Manning is cleverly conceived, with houses and apartments built around wide cul-de-sacs where the tarmac is sand coloured, rather than black, to lift the spirits.
Aimed at twentysomething buyers, the four showhouses, on which three other decorators worked - including the talented Arlene McIntyre of Ventura Design - are kitted out with extravagant flourishes, from tropical fish displays in the kitchen, to mirrored walls in the breakfastroom and brilliant achievable touches like Llewelyn-Bowen's gold leaf alcoves in bedrooms.
It all comes at a price of course. Hooke & MacDonald is handling sales of the first 100 homes, with terraced three-bedroom houses starting at €420,000 and double-fronted four-bedroom houses priced from €525,000.
And for those who fancy the gardens, the Stanleys are providing a book of Gavin's designs to get them started.
Browns Barn Wood, D22: from €650,000: Turn off the busy N7 at Kingswood, follow the old Naas Road towards City West and you come across Browns Barn, a semi-rural area with a village atmosphere and neat traditional housing estates.
Durkan Residential is today launching Browns Barn Wood, a group of 43 three-storey houses with an appealing Victorian look and an up-to-the-minute interior spec. Sherry FitzGerald New Homes will be taking bookings at showhouses, open for viewing from noon today and over the weekend. Prices start at €650,000 for the 174-178sq m (1,873-1,916sq ft) four-bed houses.
The terraced brick-fronted houses at Browns Barn Wood come with Neff kitchen appliances, Amana American style fridges, stone worktops, gas log-effect wall fires and chic bathrooms. Rooms are wired for surround sound, iPod docks and plasma screens.
A typical layout includes a wide entrance hall with downstairs toilet off. Facing front is a bay-windowed sittingroom with log-effect gas fire slotted into the wall. Double doors open to a sleek vanilla gloss kitchen/diningroom with an island unit, polished stone worktops and splashbacks. A utility room is fitted with a washing machine and dryer; French doors open at the dining end to a terrace and walled back garden.
Another house style has a corner kitchen with Zebrano wood units, an idea picked up in Milan according to Barry Durkan, who personally sourced many of the fittings at Browns Barn Wood. Upstairs, the big first floor landing has space for an armchair or occasional table. The double bedroom at the back has a full en suite bathroom and oak-lined wardrobes. Bathrooms throughout the house are cutting-edge.
Spanning the front is a bay-windowed drawingroom with fireplace, plasma wiring and - in some houses - a decked balcony. Axiom Design of Sandyford has arranged this space as a games room, with a card table and retro furniture. Upstairs again is the main sleeping area, where there are three bedrooms, one en suite, and another bathroom.
Gardens are walled and will come levelled and seeded, with a terrace and small railed front beds. A number of mature trees have been preserved on the three-acre site, which will have a green area and surface parking. Completions are from October to spring 2007.
