The mews houses that line both sides of Garville Lane, a quiet cul de sac that runs roughly eastwest and is accessed from Rathgar Avenue, vary in age and style. The numbering sequence defies logic, but number 33 is about halfway along on the left, the first in a terrace of three three-beds built in 2000 at the rear of 54 Kenilworth Square.
There’s a distinct character to the house, starting with the sky-blue entrance, the murals of the owners’ cats on each gatepost, the yellow and red shed, and the pastel-coloured planters that line the fence and the granite garden wall. There is space to park a car on the paving stones but the owners, who have lived here since 2010 and are trading up nearby, have set it up as a seating area outside the front room.
Inside, the downstairs of the 117sq m (1,259sq ft) home is well lit by a glass hall door and floor-to-ceiling windows at the front and back. The livingroom has a gas fire and is divided from the kitchen/dining area by a peninsula unit that houses the sink, making washing up more sociable. The kitchen units are timber shaker style and all the tiles are white.
There is space for a dining table here but new owners might explore the possibility, subject to planning permission, of extending a little way into the garden; a good design would give the feeling of continuing the house rather than sacrificing the space. The garden is paved and gravelled, and a little weeping birch grows by the boundary.
The property has decent understairs storage and a small bathroom off the livingroom, and a door in the kitchen leads to a utility room with a window to the back garden. The Ber is B3.
One of the features of the house that makes it feel bigger is the treatment of the bathrooms: they are all tiled in the same way, with simple white squares on the walls and floors, and the flat surfaces picked out in small grey or blue squares. Similarly, walls and floors are all neutral but are livened up with colourful prints, paintings and furnishings.
Off the first-floor landing is the family bathroom and two double bedrooms with white built-in wardrobes; the larger room at the front has a shower en suite.
The attic room above is long and wide, with two large Velux windows pulling in northern light and plenty of storage in the wardrobes that extend way back into the eaves.
Garville Lane is between Rathgar, Rathmines and Harold’s Cross villages, with Sundrive Road and Terenure also handy for shops, schools and sports. It is well connected to bus and cycle routes, and the Luas is a 15-minute walk, so new owners could choose to keep that front garden for sitting, or playing, rather than parking.
Number 33 is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €700,000.
