DesignSolutions: Architect Barry Sheehan created a complete kitchen in a cupboard. Eoin Lyons finds out how

Problem: Architect and designer Barry Sheehan owns what is a quintessential Ringsend house - lovely, but very very small. An artisan dwelling in a redbrick terrace built around 1900 on a quiet pretty street in the shadow of the old gasometer, it's in an area that's newly gentrified but still retains the atmosphere of an old Dublin neighbourhood. Cute local shops are at hand and the city centre is a 15-minute stroll away.

All of which is wonderful . . . but like every other house on the street, Sheehan's is very small. When he bought it in 1997 it was relatively untouched structurally and had not been extended in any way; the back yard had not been developed, as most others on this particular street had been.

"The obvious thing to do would have been to extend into the yard to make more space, but I wanted to keep an outside area," says Sheehan. "At the same time I wanted a new kitchen but didn't want to sacrifice one of the two rooms downstairs to do so.

"Because the house is small, I didn't like the idea of giving over one of these rooms solely to the function of kitchen because I didn't want to end up sitting in the kitchen all the time".

Solution: He created furniture that would conceal the kitchen. At the back of the house, doors open to the yard and on either side of this room are two units that, when their doors are folded closed, hide everything that is usually on show. Made from American walnut, the unit on the right houses a fridge, dishwasher and microwave oven behind panelled doors on its bottom half. On the upper part of the unit, doors pull back to reveal a granite counter top into which a sink and a two-ring hob are set. There is storage here too and the splashback is stainless steel. Because only Sheehan and his girlfriend lived there at the time, appliances were chosen to suit their lifestyle. "People living in an urban environment can get away with having a small kitchen. We put in two hobs and a microwave and oven combination cooker because when you live in the city you tend to eat out often. And because of the size of the house, we weren't going to do a lot of entertaining at home anyway. A barbecue went outside so that in the summer the whole place could be opened up and become much larger."

Portuguese limestone runs from inside the house to outside, keeping a sense of continuity from one area to the other. On the opposite wall to the appliance/cooking station, is a matching unit. This has storage presses and most cleverly, a table on wheels that pulls out from a crevice into which sits flush to the unit. The table is used in the centre of the room at meal times and diners perch on stools stored under the stairs.

"The hard part of design in Ireland is finding people to make something really well; people who know and understand a material, can produce a high standard of finish and have a real feeling for the design," says Sheehan, who got Paul Fitzpatrick of Fitzpatrick & Henry to make both units and the table. With

Sheehan, he was commended in the Irish joinery awards three years ago for this kitchen.

Sheehan and his girlfriend Amy recently moved to Bagenalstown, Co Kilkenny and have let this property for now.

• Barry Sheehan, tel 087 2592546  www.sheehan.ie
Paul Fitzpatrick, Fitzpatrick & Henry Ltd
Tel 01 8555866